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reaperreads 's review for:
The Deep
by Alma Katsu
I don't have much to say about this one. I'm learning that I am very picky when it comes to historical horror, and the setting of the Titanic is, I guess, not my thing. What I can say is I wasn't anticipating gay and bi representation, so that was a nice surprise. I think those relationships were what kept me invested in the novel, but the narrative was largely heteronormative, which I suppose can be at least somewhat chocked up to its setting in terms of place and time.
(I'm usually able to swallow heteronormativity and cisnormativity in the absence of anything "else," but as soon as flavors of the rainbow make it into a novel, I start expecting more challenges to "traditional" gender roles and values. I'm nonbinary and bi-ace--I'm only human.)
I'm not sure whether a rating of 3 stars is fair because the writing was well done. It was as descriptive as it needed to be, and the tonal shifts depending on different characters' perspectives were present, especially with the added bonus of an audiobook narrator who would switch accents depending on a given character's nation of origin. I think what is holding me back from going higher was my expectation that this novel would incorporate more of the horrors and folklore that it drops hints about throughout the narrative and only truly elucidates at the very end. It also seemed that there were a few too many perspective characters who didn't end up making a big impact on the plot and who didn't directly experience the central haunt. I feel like any single set of directly connected characters (Annie and Mark, Les and Dai, etc.) would have been enough to experience the story through, which would have maybe trimmed the book down to a more palatable length as well. I haven't minded sprawling narratives in the past, but this one was stretched a bit too far, I think.
Regardless, I'm still excited to read The Hunger and The Fervor! I'm hopeful about those novels since they appear to be shorter than this one, which bodes well since Katsu is clearly a skilled author.
For fans of: Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes, Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
(I'm usually able to swallow heteronormativity and cisnormativity in the absence of anything "else," but as soon as flavors of the rainbow make it into a novel, I start expecting more challenges to "traditional" gender roles and values. I'm nonbinary and bi-ace--I'm only human.)
I'm not sure whether a rating of 3 stars is fair because the writing was well done. It was as descriptive as it needed to be, and the tonal shifts depending on different characters' perspectives were present, especially with the added bonus of an audiobook narrator who would switch accents depending on a given character's nation of origin. I think what is holding me back from going higher was my expectation that this novel would incorporate more of the horrors and folklore that it drops hints about throughout the narrative and only truly elucidates at the very end. It also seemed that there were a few too many perspective characters who didn't end up making a big impact on the plot and who didn't directly experience the central haunt. I feel like any single set of directly connected characters (Annie and Mark, Les and Dai, etc.) would have been enough to experience the story through, which would have maybe trimmed the book down to a more palatable length as well. I haven't minded sprawling narratives in the past, but this one was stretched a bit too far, I think.
Regardless, I'm still excited to read The Hunger and The Fervor! I'm hopeful about those novels since they appear to be shorter than this one, which bodes well since Katsu is clearly a skilled author.
For fans of: Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes, Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant