A review by zachzakku
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book would've been four stars for me if it were 100 pages shorter. The sirens are terrifying, and I found the science in the book consistently intriguing, but there's a level of repetition in the book that made me start to skim sections of it. For example, two hunters are invited to join the expedition, and they're pretty universally feared/disliked by the scientists because they're basically just killers. In most of their scenes, we get a little bit of their backstory--how they met, fell for each other because they're both hunters, and how no one else understands them quite like they understand each other. The problem is, it felt like the same details over and over again, and I didn't understand why they needed to be in there more than once.

Another example, with light spoilers:
Same deal with the doctors figuring out that "mermaid" may not be the best name for the sirens because they don't know anything about the sirens' sex or gender. Dr. Toth says this at some point early on, and then many chapters later, they're dissecting a siren, and Dr. Toth says again that they shouldn't call them mermaids. The main character can't figure out why, but then it dawns on her that, actually, the siren may not be a "maid." The moment was written in a way that I think was supposed to imply surprise, like this should be a revelation to the reader, but it... wasn't. Because Toth had already said the same thing in a previous chapter.


The other thing that bothered me was that I found the deaths predictable (
before any given character dies, we'd get an absolute info-dump of background info on them, to make readers empathize with them before killing them
).

Otherwise, I enjoyed the mermaid history/science and found their languages fascinating--really enjoyed the ASL rep; it's too bad there isn't a second book, because what I'd really love to read next is more of the scientists and sirens learning each others' sign languages!
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