Reviews with content warning for Death - Rolling in the Deep

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant

43 reviews

laurareads87's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Rolling in the Deep follows a crew of scientists, camerapeople, sailors, and professional mermaids on an expedition to the Mariana Trench to film a 'documentary' about mermaids for a television network. Needless to say, the expedition does not go as planned.

What worked for me here: the concept is fun, the writing of the scariest scenes was well done, the slow build worked for me (some reviews criticize this but I prefer slower and suspenseful and thought it worked here), and the interspersing of statements from the network afterward were effective in giving the book itself the feel of a documentary. What didn't work for me: with this many characters and a page count this short, no characters stood out or felt multi-dimensional; I felt like the captain and first mate were most interesting but there just wasn't room in the story to let their relationship really unfold on the page. Even though I found this novella just okay, I do think I'll end up reading the novel that follows it in hopes that with a longer work, Grant can give the characters more depth.

Content warnings: blood, gore, violence, murder, injury detail, body horror, death

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nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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hendrixpants's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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ilaxaria's review against another edition

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2.75

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roksyreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is the story of the Atargatis, lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax – others a maritime tragedy – but the truth can only be found below the bathypelagic zone in the Mariana Trench, and those dark depths are very good at keeping secrets.

Rolling in the Deep is a prequel to the excellent horror novel Into the Drowning Deep, which I have now read twice. After finishing this novella, I had to dive straight into that one (just like I dove straight into that pun - sorry!).

Although I could anticipate what was going to happen in this story, having read Into the Drowning Deep first, the knowledge I had didn’t diminish my enjoyment. I actually appreciated further insight into the fate of the Atargatis and the crew from their perspective, and I enjoyed re-reading Into the Drowning Deep even more as a result. Whilst I don’t believe in the existence of mermaids and the like, this whole story-line has still reinforced my feelings about cruises and being stuck over deep water in general; I am a land mammal, and I am quite happy to stay on solid ground as much as possible, thank you very much.

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suneaters's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Fun, cute little horror story about mermaids. I'd already read her other book, so the ending wasn't a surprise, but it was a fun ride. Some characters are pretty cartoonish and only exist to get #pwned by other characters which felt a bit cheap, but hey we're here to see some murder, not for good character writing. And it's a good thing we aren't because that will not be found. Aside from maybe the professional mermaids talking to Anne's cameraman Nick, there's no real character moments. Or characters. But, that's not really the point of the story. The anglerfish-based mermaid are great as always and I liked the detail that they sign to one another.

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booksthatburn'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
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ROLLING THE DEEP is the story of the cruise ship Atargatis, sent to find mermaids or fake it well enough to make an entertaining documentary that played fast and loose with the truth. Originally published before its better-known full-length follow-up, INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, ROLLING IN THE DEEP is a bloody horror story of curiosity and corporate greed driving a whole ship of people into a bloodbath at the hands of "mermaids" which evolved to be our predators.

It doesn't seem like it's specifically trying to leave something for later. Even knowing that a sequel eventually was made, this is a complete story that can be enjoyed on its own. The cast is pretty large for a novella but stays focused on a subset of named characters to make it manageable.

I like it, I just wish I'd been able to get a hold of it before reading INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, but this is harder to find copies of.

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