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briannanorris 's review for:
The Troop
by Nick Cutter
3 stars
This book starts out in a very interesting way, with the introduction of the impending doom. I liked the initial setup of the story. Simultaneous to this is the arrival of Scoutmaster Riggs and his scouts to a local island for their annual camping trip. The action undulates, with segments that move quickly, and other portions that drag. Perhaps that was intentional to give the story an aura of confusion and uncertainty. The character development is the most interesting component for me; some characters seemed wholesome, but were actually quite evil, while other characters appeared to be mean, but were actually damaged from previous trauma.
The body horror itself was intriguing, but did not do it for me. The scenes involving animals were horrendous, but when it was time for Cutter to describe the body horrors pertaining to the human characters, it was lackluster for me. I wanted more description of the slow decline into a horrendous end, but what I got was a few graphic scenes that were more about the human psyche than about the introduced horror entity. I like studies of the corruption of the human mind, but I feel that it could have been combined with more body horror to make the story more balanced.
Overall, if you like the setup of Carrie (newspaper articles, interviews, case studies), then you will like the way that this story is presented. If you want full-on body horror that leaves you squirming, then there are scenes for you here.
This book starts out in a very interesting way, with the introduction of the impending doom. I liked the initial setup of the story. Simultaneous to this is the arrival of Scoutmaster Riggs and his scouts to a local island for their annual camping trip. The action undulates, with segments that move quickly, and other portions that drag. Perhaps that was intentional to give the story an aura of confusion and uncertainty. The character development is the most interesting component for me; some characters seemed wholesome, but were actually quite evil, while other characters appeared to be mean, but were actually damaged from previous trauma.
The body horror itself was intriguing, but did not do it for me. The scenes involving animals were horrendous, but when it was time for Cutter to describe the body horrors pertaining to the human characters, it was lackluster for me. I wanted more description of the slow decline into a horrendous end, but what I got was a few graphic scenes that were more about the human psyche than about the introduced horror entity. I like studies of the corruption of the human mind, but I feel that it could have been combined with more body horror to make the story more balanced.
Overall, if you like the setup of Carrie (newspaper articles, interviews, case studies), then you will like the way that this story is presented. If you want full-on body horror that leaves you squirming, then there are scenes for you here.