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A review by joreadsbooks
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content warnings: vomiting, gore, body horror, dismemberment, loss of a family member, gun violence, drowning
The Atargatis was a ship that, five years prior, went to go discover mermaid, until contact with the crew is lost and all that remains is a gory video. Five years later, in 2022, a new crew on the Melusine, goes to explore exactly what went wrong, expecting to see mermaids, but not adequately preparing for the nightmare that unfolds.
To start with some positives: this book is a fun deep dive (heh) into cryptozoology with characters who have advanced degrees in everything related to animals, the ocean, and oceanic animals. When the mermaids are on page, they are deadly and terrifying, more animal than human. Some of the humans on board are a nightmare as well, which adds for more tension.
The pacing is a bit of a mess, which isn't enough to ruin my enjoyment of a book. There is a lot of explaining about the proposed theories of mermaid sociology and biology that take much longer than the tension suggests there is space for.
What really soured the experience for me is the attempt at representation. There are Deaf twin characters and there is an autistic character. Both feel like they are used as gimmicks for the plot, with the Deaf twin characters not having much characterization outside of needing to establish that the mermaids use sign language or outside of how others perceive them. It feels very written for someone like me who is neither a twin nor Deaf, focusing more on the uniqueness of that lived experience rather than something that is totally normal for those characters. An attempt is made. It's fine, but somewhat uncomfortable, enough that I cannot recommend this book on my blog in good faith. It's a very strange approach to rep, in a way that still calls to fiction advice that "everything needs to somehow point back to the plot."
Overall, fun, definitely going to pick up following volumes if they come out.
The Atargatis was a ship that, five years prior, went to go discover mermaid, until contact with the crew is lost and all that remains is a gory video. Five years later, in 2022, a new crew on the Melusine, goes to explore exactly what went wrong, expecting to see mermaids, but not adequately preparing for the nightmare that unfolds.
To start with some positives: this book is a fun deep dive (heh) into cryptozoology with characters who have advanced degrees in everything related to animals, the ocean, and oceanic animals. When the mermaids are on page, they are deadly and terrifying, more animal than human. Some of the humans on board are a nightmare as well, which adds for more tension.
The pacing is a bit of a mess, which isn't enough to ruin my enjoyment of a book. There is a lot of explaining about the proposed theories of mermaid sociology and biology that take much longer than the tension suggests there is space for.
What really soured the experience for me is the attempt at representation. There are Deaf twin characters and there is an autistic character. Both feel like they are used as gimmicks for the plot, with the Deaf twin characters not having much characterization outside of needing to establish that the mermaids use sign language or outside of how others perceive them. It feels very written for someone like me who is neither a twin nor Deaf, focusing more on the uniqueness of that lived experience rather than something that is totally normal for those characters. An attempt is made. It's fine, but somewhat uncomfortable, enough that I cannot recommend this book on my blog in good faith. It's a very strange approach to rep, in a way that still calls to fiction advice that "everything needs to somehow point back to the plot."
Overall, fun, definitely going to pick up following volumes if they come out.