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A review by cryptidenthusiast
The Troop by Nick Cutter
medium-paced
1.0
I went into this with high hopes, only to get a quarter of the way through and wonder why I was bothering. This book isn’t scary, it’s just…gross. Probably just a personal preference, but I’m looking for a horror book with dread and terror, not just body horror and animal mutilation.
The worms as a concept could have been interesting, but they’re either a threat, or they aren’t.Shelly ends up letting hundreds of them loose into the ocean at one point and we’re supposed to believe a chemical dump caught EVERY worm or fish that ate them?
The cast is a dull mismatch of stereotypes. Meat headed mean jock, ill tempered delinquent, the follower, the cruel “psycho”, and the fat kid (which the author will remind you, REPEATEDLY of. You will not forget that Newton is fat). All I got from this book is apparently young boys are two steps away from losing their minds and turning to cruelty? Very lord of the flies I guess.
Shelley was absolutely not needed. This felt like a tacked on extra threat because the worms themselves weren’t “scary” enough, so there needed to be some unhinged…mastermind, apparently? He was a very methodical psycho for being what, 14? Managing to play every adult and other kid like a fiddle. There’s multiple instances of animal mutilation, but thegraphic six(ish) page interlude of Shelley’s recollection of killing a kitten and getting aroused over it wasn’t needed. At all.
And, if you’re curious, there’s over 20 mentions of “piss” or bladders or peeing in this book. Not sure why the author felt we needed that, but it was frequent enough that it was kinda distracting lol.
The worms as a concept could have been interesting, but they’re either a threat, or they aren’t.
The cast is a dull mismatch of stereotypes. Meat headed mean jock, ill tempered delinquent, the follower, the cruel “psycho”, and the fat kid (which the author will remind you, REPEATEDLY of. You will not forget that Newton is fat). All I got from this book is apparently young boys are two steps away from losing their minds and turning to cruelty? Very lord of the flies I guess.
Shelley was absolutely not needed. This felt like a tacked on extra threat because the worms themselves weren’t “scary” enough, so there needed to be some unhinged…mastermind, apparently? He was a very methodical psycho for being what, 14? Managing to play every adult and other kid like a fiddle. There’s multiple instances of animal mutilation, but the
And, if you’re curious, there’s over 20 mentions of “piss” or bladders or peeing in this book. Not sure why the author felt we needed that, but it was frequent enough that it was kinda distracting lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Child death, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia and Fire/Fire injury