Scan barcode
A review by sonygaystation
The Troop by Nick Cutter
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
This was fine! It was more unsettling in a gory, graphic, body horror way than scary, although books don't often scare me at all so YMMV. People have been calling it scary and disturbing, which I don't really feel was my experience at all. I think the beginning held a lot of promise that I felt the rest of the book didn't live up to. There is a LOT of graphic animal/creature torture and violence that just isn't for me (I skipped the audiobook ahead 10 secs until I passed those sections lol). If you're squeamish, you've been warned.
It's very much if Lord of the Flies were Canadian boy scouts infected by parasites (re: genetically engineered tapeworms), and it reads similarly masculine. It just felt quite cookie cutter, formulaic, and predictable, and every single one of the boys fits into a particular stereotype (ie. the fat one, the alpha jock/bully, the creep, etc.) where I knew from the get go who was going to survive. I don't feel it added anything new to the genre and while not every book has to do that, I do at least want to have fun while reading it. This book unfortunately just sort of happened and left no real imprint on me at all, outside of now remembering the scene with that poor turtle for all of eternity. While I don't mind body horror and gore at all (in fact I enjoy reading books that are likely to revolt me and make me uncomfortable within reason), this book just felt like shock value and "look how disgusting I can make things sound".
I appreciated the attempt at Epidemiology but felt that the jumps between perspectives of the boys vs. scientists were abrupt and disjointed without adding much additional context. I find Mira Grant's Parasite to be a more effective version of the "science genetically engineering things without concern for nature's consequences" bit. I want to read The Deep, also by Cutter, and then from there will make my decision on if he's an author I enjoy but so far we're batting zeroes.
It's very much if Lord of the Flies were Canadian boy scouts infected by parasites (re: genetically engineered tapeworms), and it reads similarly masculine. It just felt quite cookie cutter, formulaic, and predictable, and every single one of the boys fits into a particular stereotype (ie. the fat one, the alpha jock/bully, the creep, etc.) where I knew from the get go who was going to survive. I don't feel it added anything new to the genre and while not every book has to do that, I do at least want to have fun while reading it. This book unfortunately just sort of happened and left no real imprint on me at all, outside of now remembering the scene with that poor turtle for all of eternity. While I don't mind body horror and gore at all (in fact I enjoy reading books that are likely to revolt me and make me uncomfortable within reason), this book just felt like shock value and "look how disgusting I can make things sound".
I appreciated the attempt at Epidemiology but felt that the jumps between perspectives of the boys vs. scientists were abrupt and disjointed without adding much additional context. I find Mira Grant's Parasite to be a more effective version of the "science genetically engineering things without concern for nature's consequences" bit. I want to read The Deep, also by Cutter, and then from there will make my decision on if he's an author I enjoy but so far we're batting zeroes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Blood, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, and Alcohol