villyidol's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
It was hard to settle on a rating. As a creature feature this wasn't bad, even quite good for the most part, but there are some serious issues with this book.
The story is quite simple. A band of smugglers (three couples) accidentally sink their yacht and the book starts with them adrift in a lifeboat and in search for a place to land. The six of them come across an oil rig that seems to be deserted at first, but, as we learn later, isn't. They go about exploring the rig and what they find is that it is a secret research facility. They also find something, well, not very nice. So far, so good.
The monster is a little gross, a little creepy. It worked well for me. Although, I think it didn't have enough tricks up its sleeve to be interesting all the way through. The ending is quite some nonsense anyway. The bogus-science explanations on the other hand were alright for this kind of story.
The book might still have gotten three stars from me. But the characters are a total disaster. It's okay that they are dumb, unlikable and not particularly well-developed. That's all just fine when they're part of a creature feature, which usually means they are effectively monster snacks.
But with one particularly obnoxious, misogynistic dick of a character the authors were going too far for my liking. I felt so much second hand embarrassment reading about this idiot. He could have died horribly on page one, as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately he doesn't, which means that the readers are in for many pages of absolutely atrocious behavior towards women. It was uncomfortable to read.
There are other, more minor, issues. Like characters pointlessly withholding information in the beginning to make the whole situation more mysterious, or the ridiculous ending. But ultimately this one character ruined it for me. And the rest of the book wasn't strong enough to make up for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
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