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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
This book, with its bland title and generic looking cover art, totally exceeded my expectations. 4.7 rounded up to a 5. It didn’t totally stick the landing, but it was a great ride.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s a 3.5, but I can’t give 3.5 stars, so I’ll round up to 4, because it is better than 3 (to me). I enjoyed it. It delivers some fantastically creepy visuals and squirm moments. There’s a bit of the cosmic, elder gods-y, here before you and long after. Clayton, while unlikeable, I do get at some level from a fixed focus, smartest guy in the room perspective. I’ve known some people like Clayton. They are difficult. They are frustrating. Wholly unlikeable. But also, brilliant and having to admit that frustrates & angers in ways that you hate yourself for. But mostly, yeah, they earn every ounce of shade tossed their way. It’s a story, so the complaints of animal cruelty don’t bother in an “I can’t read any more.” It bothers the way it should, as in establishing the character has no issue inflicting pain and suffering all in the name of understanding. They will do anything if the outcome is more knowledge, more understanding. That’s what (mad?) scientists do. And when placed against the weight of the “Gets” you can see the “do what it takes” mentality winning over at some point, especially with the loss of time and other forces getting factored in. My issue though is fully with the “Gets”. It’s such an interesting affliction, and what hooked me to read this in the first place. It gets back burnered and really only acts as staging to get us to where we need to gets ;) After that, the “Gets” doesn’t get much else. Some pacing & plot issues, but not horribly so. Enjoyed, but I think there’s a story in here with the “Gets” and the cosmic that I might have enjoyed more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is an extremely solid piece of horror. Though I read “The Saturday Night Ghost Club” last year, this was my first Nick Cutter book, and while it wasn’t what I was expecting, I was not disappointed. There is so much horror done so right in here, that it makes up for some parts I didn’t love. This book manages to be about a novel pandemic, and the unknown horrors that exist in the un-explorable depths of the ocean. While there is much that is genuinely unnerving about the ocean in here, the most disturbingly creepy part of this was told in a flashback where our main character is playing with his child in a park. That bit has stayed with me, and successfully disturbed this jaded horror fan. I don’t always love reviewers that compare books to other books, but to say this has shades of the isolated, mysterious horror that books like “The Shining” and films like “The Thing,” is as true as it is impressive.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a good reads 5 but rly a 4.5 rounded up
reading the book from start to literally the last 30 pages, i was so enamored with this world. i love cutter’s writing, his sounds, his descriptions - “a slick and gooey sound like a Vaseline-smeared ball of yarn squished in a fist” - literally you cannot ask for a more sensory experience while reading. the smell descriptors, the violence, the gore, the body horror. i literally loved this so so so much all the way up until the VERY END. the second half of part 5 and all of part6 were honestly such letdowns for me -the lost wandering & divide of real/imagined over and over again was too much for me, it just stretched on past the point of fun & was repetitive. the conclusion was unsatisfying but the build up of every other piece of this novel was miraculous.
reading the book from start to literally the last 30 pages, i was so enamored with this world. i love cutter’s writing, his sounds, his descriptions - “a slick and gooey sound like a Vaseline-smeared ball of yarn squished in a fist” - literally you cannot ask for a more sensory experience while reading. the smell descriptors, the violence, the gore, the body horror. i literally loved this so so so much all the way up until the VERY END. the second half of part 5 and all of part6 were honestly such letdowns for me -the lost wandering & divide of real/imagined over and over again was too much for me, it just stretched on past the point of fun & was repetitive. the conclusion was unsatisfying but the build up of every other piece of this novel was miraculous.
I can't, this seems like it has no plot so much as just throwing every horror trope at the wall to see if it sticks. Once they introduced the clown childhood toy I was sooooo over it. This is also probably the most fatphobic I have ever read and considered dnfing then and honestly should have. It's not remotely scary for me especially as one of the first horror elements introduced is "a kind of person exists and I don't want them to", I just can't take that seriously and actively hate it. Anyways whenever I find myself wanting to do anything but read it's closing time and that's a wrap on this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated