A review by nobeliumreads
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

I completely did not expect the impact this book would have on me, but I absolutely loved it! Definitely a new favourite. I fully expected to go in skimming the science heavy sections, or to have this book be a chore to read (because I admit that it looked pretty intimidating for me) but I breezed through this fairly easily (it might have helped that my library loan was due). 

The premise, though interesting, seemed pretty vague to me and all I really knew about it was that it was about mermaids and there were sapphics in it, so of course I was down. I did not expect to not care as much about the wlw couple as I did - by which I mean, I loved pretty much every single character in this book so much that Olivia and Tory didn’t stand out to me, which I totally expected them to (considering I go into almost every book wanting and waiting for the gays to show up). Dr. Jillian Toth was my absolute favourite, but I did enjoy Jacques and Michi a lot. Their perspectives were like a breath of fresh air

by which I mean they wanted to kill the mermaids instead of studying them like pretty much every other character in the book, so it was such a cool contrast. They made me laugh quite a bit because of how horny they were (it felt like every scene of theirs in the first half of the book ended in them having sex (not graphic, just mentioned)) but though I did expect that they’d die, it was still a gut punch. Especially seeing how Jacques was acting over Michi at the end, how adamant he was that they had to kill the sirens before she woke up or she’d want to join in despite being injured.

And I have to admit that I was super interested in the mermaids themselves - we got a few snippets from their perspective and even from dolphins, which I was not expecting but didn’t feel as jarring or weird as you’d expect.

The writing, in my opinion, was moderately easy to read. It wasn’t as hard or dense as I was expecting, and it was really cinematic. With most books, I have to concentrate if I want to really picture what’s happening and take it all in, but the scenes flowed well and I found myself wishing I was into filmmaking so that I could direct a movie adaptation that played out what I was seeing in my head. 

The science itself was super interesting! Whilst I obviously didn’t understand the entirety of it, it was explained well enough that I felt like I did. Honestly, you could probably convince me mermaids are real with this book alone, especially since I’ve already gained an interest in the deep sea because of this book lmao. What I’d give to be able to watch one of Dr. Jillian’s lectures. 

My only real gripe with this book is the ending and maybe the beginning. I felt like the ending was a little rushed, and that a second book or novella even would be a nice addition to expand upon how it ended,

especially with Jim Alway (he gives me a bad feeling which is why I think it’d be cool to get another book) and the mermaids (like the female siren? The fact that Hallie managed to start communicating with them? I am begging for more).

As for the beginning, I thought it was only a tiny bit slow - but maybe it was just because I was super impatient to get onto the actual ship and just wanted the action to start.

Overall, a new favourite and one I absolutely enjoyed.