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nhazen69's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
burningupasun's review against another edition
Yeah, that's a nope from me. I don't read books by male authors very often, but I recently read a good one and then saw this recommended on a list of horror books and decided to give it a try. I regret it. The overall premise could have had promise but I just could not handle the rest of it.
My main issue began early on, with flashbacks to the main characters mother. She is portrayed as abusive and aggressive and horrifying. But the author seemed to think her behavior wasn't enough to make clear how disgusting she was, so of course he decided to make her fat. There are frequent depictions of how fat she is, how much she eats, how her body looked, all written very descriptively, making it clear how disgusting all these things are. The fat phobia was genuinely just ridiculous. She was a horrible woman on her own. The fat phobia wasn't needed.
On top of that there's some weird sexual stuff and other vaguely uncomfortable scenes. The MC looks down a female characters shirt while they are stuck together in a tiny submarine (that she is piloting down to dangerous depths, and they almost die a few times) and she "looks back at him as if to say 'like what you see?'" Yes I'm sure that is what she was thinking at that moment and not "why is this man looking down my shirt while I'm trying to keep us alive" but okay. There's also a dream scene where he remembers getting a BJ from his wife and being uncomfortable with how skilled she is at it. (Wondering how she got so skilled etc, blech.)
I DNFed when a zombie hamster bit off another hamsters privates. Weirdly, this is the 2nd horror book this year I've DNFed after a scene where a monster goes for the groin. Just gross and not for me. Counting it towards my read count for my suffering but not rating bc I only got to like 45%. (I'd give it maybe 2 stars at best currently.)
My main issue began early on, with flashbacks to the main characters mother. She is portrayed as abusive and aggressive and horrifying. But the author seemed to think her behavior wasn't enough to make clear how disgusting she was, so of course he decided to make her fat. There are frequent depictions of how fat she is, how much she eats, how her body looked, all written very descriptively, making it clear how disgusting all these things are. The fat phobia was genuinely just ridiculous. She was a horrible woman on her own. The fat phobia wasn't needed.
On top of that there's some weird sexual stuff and other vaguely uncomfortable scenes. The MC looks down a female characters shirt while they are stuck together in a tiny submarine (that she is piloting down to dangerous depths, and they almost die a few times) and she "looks back at him as if to say 'like what you see?'" Yes I'm sure that is what she was thinking at that moment and not "why is this man looking down my shirt while I'm trying to keep us alive" but okay. There's also a dream scene where he remembers getting a BJ from his wife and being uncomfortable with how skilled she is at it. (Wondering how she got so skilled etc, blech.)
I DNFed when a zombie hamster bit off another hamsters privates. Weirdly, this is the 2nd horror book this year I've DNFed after a scene where a monster goes for the groin. Just gross and not for me. Counting it towards my read count for my suffering but not rating bc I only got to like 45%. (I'd give it maybe 2 stars at best currently.)
whitegore's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
momaddictedtobooks1's review against another edition
3.5
I was expecting more but it was still kinda creepy. The audiobook was pretty good!
bookworm143's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This book was absolutely chilling, terrifying, and overall amazing!! If you guys enjoy Hellraiser and The Abyss, then I would 1000000000% recommend this one! 🤘
Nick Cutter definitely did not disappoint with this book. He definitely added alien vibes, claustrophobic, and body horror into this piece, so my advice is definitely do not read this book if you are in a negative space mentally and beware of the death of animals and other body horror. This book personally took me a little bit to finish because of the feeling of claustrophobic, but other than that, the amount of visual content that this author put in definitely made me feel as though I was the main character stuck 8 miles deep in the ocean. 😬
I can talk forever about this book but I'm not going to put spoilers out there and all I am going to say is if you dare, definitely pick up this book to find out what happens. 😏
Nick Cutter definitely did not disappoint with this book. He definitely added alien vibes, claustrophobic, and body horror into this piece, so my advice is definitely do not read this book if you are in a negative space mentally and beware of the death of animals and other body horror. This book personally took me a little bit to finish because of the feeling of claustrophobic, but other than that, the amount of visual content that this author put in definitely made me feel as though I was the main character stuck 8 miles deep in the ocean. 😬
I can talk forever about this book but I'm not going to put spoilers out there and all I am going to say is if you dare, definitely pick up this book to find out what happens. 😏
howevernot's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.75
Tense and exciting. If you're looking for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat, look no further. As usual, Nick Cutter's endless hatred for fat people come through in this book and makes it challenging to read. I found the beginning of the book much more exciting. Once reality started to break down completely, I became less interested. It's trying to do Solaris and only partially succeeding. Overall a fun read.
reading_that's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. This has to be the best horror book I’ve read.
bertolino's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
This book was very spooky and I had a physical reaction to the way the author wrote about being 8 miles deep under water and I applaud any author that can incite a physical reaction. That being said it was written in that way that only men write.. with like weird sexual tension.
likeyessureokayfine's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
2.5