Reviews with content warning for Blood - Into the Drowning Deep

Im just gonna start this with saying, I love the novels prequel, and I highly recommend it as your appetizer before reading Into the Drowning Deep, HOWEVER it does have a note on mermaids that is a bit of a spoiler to the novel. This slight (and I do mean slight) spoiler did NOT affect my enjoyment of the book, BUT if you want to be as 'in the dark' as to what happend to the Atargatis (the boat from the novella, who the Museuline [the boat in this novel] is attempting to research what happened to) as the characters in the novel, not reading the novella would mimic their lack of deep knowledge about the events of the novella, and about mermaids.

This is... I can't think of words that fully encompass how amazing this book is, so im gonna break it down.

Characters: each character is unique, no one feels same-y, nor do any of them feel flat, yes some of them are quite 'cartoony' or 'exaggerated' but it is a novel about killer mermaids for crying out loud, I think its allowed some loud personalities.

Relationships: the character dynamics and the relationships between all of the characters are explored with some amount of depth for nearly all of the characters who interact with one another (aided in part by the use of many points of view, ranging from a whole host of characters as well as a few instances of mermaid POV!!!) You root for all of the characters, even the ones that you don't like, and that in my opinion is what makes a good book great.

Writing style: I love how this book (as well as the novella prequel) is written, the entire book feels like a conversation between me the reader, and the book. (complete with parenthetical side statements about the wider picture and cosmic comedy of the situation at hand)

The horror: I get most of my guts and gore content from whatever executives thought they could get away with putting on tv (aka, criminal minds, bones, supernatural, and my fave the x files <3), so jumping into this amazing book with BLOOD!!! and GUTS!!!! I love it, I LOVE it!!!! i love the tense suspense, i love the pacing of the more intense scenes, LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

overall: seriously, read this book, head the content warnings, but read it... its amazing. I LOVE it!!.

Content Warnings

emilyready's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

eraschka's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

madison_mls's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was okay. I do feel that it was paced oddly especially for its length. It kinda seemed to drag on at some points and then had neck breaking pace at others. The end was kinda underwhelming and seemed to be wrapped up way too fast with the two day time jump that didn’t show anything. A lot of convenient conclusions about the creature’s habits and hierarchy and dumb luck scenarios that found the characters being able to survive in times where they probably should have died. Also I don’t mind switching to different POVs but the dolphin POV just wasn’t it for me. Also insinuating the dolphins basically signed a contract and were consenting to their role in the mission made me roll my eyes.

Content Warnings

nightstitch96's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A super gripping novel, the premise is so fascinating and I loved all the different characters and their jobs/perspectives in academia.

Content Warnings

sonygaystation's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

melliedm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy shit. Holy shit holy shit holy shit. Look, if you like Alien and think the ocean is messed up, this is going to slap for you. Just read it already.

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