Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Deep

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Deep by Nick Cutter

70 reviews

shawcrit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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yearofthesnk's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Masterfully brutal and revolting. He describes violence, body horror, and psychological collapse in incredibly compelling and vivid ways — which made this hard to endure. I took a year-long break partway through after

the dog's torture

.

I gave it a high rating because it delivers exceptionally well on what it promises. I have no doubt I'll still think about parts of this years from now.

That being said, the flashbacks can get tedious. I also didn't feel the ending entirely lived up to the harrowing journey through rest of the novel.

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zeroschatz's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Very well written, but terribly hard to get through some parts.

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keiraonyxraven's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

TW: Extreme animal cruelty, suffering and death
TW: Child abuse

The Deep really had promise. I enjoyed the general concept along with the claustrophobic atmosphere and unnerving events. I loved the eeriness of the setting and I can’t think of many other books that have had such a unique narrative. I found myself rooting for certain characters and despising others, so I also cannot fault Cutter for his ability to write complex and interesting characters. Unfortunately, there were just a few, not so small, aspects of The Deep that significantly lowered my overall enjoyment of the book.

Firstly, I found myself extremely disappointed with the ending. The suspense, build up and the first three quarters of the book had such promise, I was enthralled by the story and was desperate to find out how it concluded. However, I personally felt the ending bordered on laughable. Without including spoilers, I cannot fully explain my reasoning, however, the explanations given for certain events really fell flat for me.

However, the primary reason for my reduced star rating and what mostly quashed my enjoyment of The Deep was the unnecessarily graphic and incessant animal cruelty and suffering. I am painfully aware that The Deep is not alone in this graphic use of animals for nothing more than an easy shock factor, however, Cutter in-particular takes this to a distressing level, and not in a good way. This theme occurred so often that I took it upon myself to create a list of page numbers to avoid for readers who, like myself, are particularly sensitive to this sort of content but are still interested in reading this novel.

Please see below but beware of minor spoilers:

Key:
💚 Mentioned in passing and/or not overly upsetting
💛 Suffering/death described with more detail, somewhat upsetting
🧡 Detailed description of suffering/death, overtly upsetting
❤️ Extremely detailed description with very upsetting and disturbing content

Page 31-34 🧡
Mouse experimentation, suffering & death
Detailed & upsetting

Page 44-46 💛
Mouse experimentation & minor suffering

Page 127 💚
Insect death

Page 145
Bee death 💛
Lizard death 💚

Page 168-172 🧡
Guinea pig experimentation
Guinea pig suffering & harm

Page 179-181 🧡
Guinea pig experimentation, suffering & death

Page 223 💛
Raccoon suffering & death

Page 243 💛
Squirrel corpse description

Page 248-249 & 251 💚
Mention of bee deaths

Page 254 💛
Bee killed

Page 260-261 💛
Bee deaths

Page 262-264 & 266 🧡
Bee suffering & death

Page 315-316 🧡
Dog injury & cruelty

Page 322 🧡
Guinea pig cruelty & death

Page 336 💛
Detailed description of using maggots as fishing bait

Page 341-350 ❤️
Dog cruelty & experimentation
Dog on dog injury & suffering
Detailed description of the pain and sadness of euthanising stray dogs
Long and detailed description of a very upsetting and graphic dog death with suffering and extremely emotional descriptions
DO NOT READ IF YOU’RE AN ANIMAL LOVER: this destroyed me.

Page 353 & 356 💛
Bee death

Page 375 🧡
Description of dead dog & suffering

In conclusion, The Deep was by no means a bad read, and there were many things that I really liked about the story and the writing, but it certainly isn’t without its pitfalls. I advise proceeding with caution if animal cruelty/suffering and themes of child abuse are particularly triggering for you, but I also wouldn’t entirely steer others away from giving The Deep a chance, especially if you are an avid horror fan and love creepy and claustrophobic settings.

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dale1997's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. I really like the concept (we need more under water horror books!) but I don’t think it was executed very well. Perhaps I’m simply a hater to my core, but it was a let down at the reveal.

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