Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Deep by Nick Cutter

8 reviews

jn0016's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Confinement, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Dementia, Incest, Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence

kier__'s review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, Confinement, Child death, Gore, Cursing, Murder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Body horror, Drug use, Chronic illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Dementia, Excrement, and Medical content

cosmicpanda's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Body shaming, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Body horror, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Excrement, Grief, Pedophilia, and Incest

papercrowns's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed The Troop—I gave it five stars—and I remember picking that one up because of the praise it received and how many of my fave booktubers said it was super disturbing. 

Well, I don't remember too many specifics about The Troop (my memory's fault, not the book's), but I do recall thinking it was awesome and gross, but not super disturbing per se. Well, The Deep was certainly disturbing. But, I understand why The Troop is the Nick Cutter book people talk about most, because while The Deep does what it says on the tin in terms of the horror, it's got its problems. 

• An overuse of onomatopoeia to the point of distraction.
• The story touches on a lot of serious, uncomfortable topics, and they certainly gave me the ick but for the most part, these serve the story and felt intentional. However, there was some fatphobia that didn't quite feel necessary or serve the story that I could have done without. It was very like
  "Ooh, she got fat, gross! We know she's gonna be a baddie!"
• The general dialogue was fine, but when it came to banter, it felt a bit forced and unintentionally cringe, particularly between the main character and his brother. 
• The 'Gets, the worldwide pandemic that instigates the whole narrative, was super interesting but is largely forgotten once we get to the underwater lab in the Challenger Deep. It was such an interesting concept that it would have been great to see it have more impact to the story rather than being a throwaway plot device. 

These things brought it down to a 4-star read for me, but none of them derailed the story. It's a real wild ride and intensely unsettling; exactly what I want from a horror book. Nick Cutter excels in describing horrifying, uncomfortable, and balls-to-the-wall cuckoo-bananas situations. 

His descriptions of the characters' psychological trauma as they grapple with desperate situations are so intense and unnerving; I often found myself wanting to put the book down to give myself a break but also being absolutely unable to tear my eyes from the page. There was one claustrophobic sequence in particular where Cutter describes

the main characters crawling through an access tunnel that gets narrower and narrower with no guarantee that they'll be able to get out at the other end

. Ooof, my skin was crawling, my heart was racing, and I almost threw the book across the room in vicarious panic. 

And frankly, that's some chef's-kiss horror writing if you ask me. 

I can't wait to read more Nick Cutter, cuz I know it'll be a grand creep-fest that does exactly what it says on the tin. However, I will say that I'd love to see a bit more character diversity, particularly more women.

Worth checking the trigger warnings before reading if you have triggers. Definitely do not read if bad things happening to animals in your reading is a dealbreaker. 😬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Eating disorder

Minor: Death of parent and Sexual assault

graveyardreads's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Rape

finleyfrogreads's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Confinement, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Murder, Sexual assault, and Vomit

reaja's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book was brutally slow paced for the tension it was trying to build. Copious overlapping and unnecessary plots threads that never really paid off. It spends a good half of the pages in childhood flashbacks. The main character isn't particularly sympathetic despite the massive number of pages dedicated to his trauma. He's just sorta... there. The only sympathetic character in the whole novel is the dog. It still gets a full two stars because the way this author writes in-the-moment horror scenes is really, honestly, scary. I feel like this book needed a really talented editor who wasn't afraid to tell this guy to seriously pare down his manuscript. It should have been a short story or he should have leaned WAY harder into character development on the station. Alice and Clayton were especially flat when they both could have been great characters. Alas, very disappointing, but suitably spooky if you're willing to dump a ton of hours in for a few golden glimmers of damn good horror writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Self harm, Violence, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Animal death, and Grief

Minor: Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Incest, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

amberinbookland's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, Death, Violence, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Gore, Excrement, Dementia, Cursing, Confinement, Body horror, and Blood