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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
As a little teaser prequel to Into the Drowning Deep, it’s cute! A bit short, but it definitely works to draw you in, and set up the masterpiece that it connects to. But good luck getting a physical copy literally anywhere, this was apparently a limited run!
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Enjoyable novella positing mermaids are real, mostly male, and absolutely vicious.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Rolling in the Deep is, essentially, a found-footage horror movie committed to print. The Imagine Network, best-known for its chintzy monster movies and sci-fi programming, is taking a hit in the ratings. Faster than you can say Sharknado, they decide to break into the "hyper-reality" game with a documentary that's every bit as fictional as it is factual. Loaded up with a team of scientists, interns, and a mermaid performance troupe, the Atargatis cruises to the Mariana Trench to debunk or confirm the world's most enduring sea tale - are mermaid's real?
The story is broken down into five sections, each prefaced with a transcript from a documentary about the Atargatis and its missing crew, warning viewers about the footage they are about see...err, read. Whatever. Roughly the first three-quarters of the book are devoted to the various passengers, mostly the ship's captain, the documentary film crew, and the scientists. This is a quick, breezy read, paced well enough to hit the approximate run-time of a longer found-footage flick.
The downside to this, though, is that readers are not given much time to really get to know the people aboard the Atargatis or to really get into anybody's head. Thanks to the rules of found footage stories and the various documentarian notes coming up at regular intermissions, we know perfectly well that the fate of these men and women are sealed. Unfortunately, we're not given an opportunity to really get attached to any of these people, despite the slow burn toward the big finish. But that finish itself? Oh boy, does it ever get going; the mayhem really kicks things up a notch.
Besides the violent, frenetic climax, the thing I most appreciated about Rolling in the Deep was Mira Grant's focus on the science. She's an author who can take mythological premises like mermaids, or horror staples like zombies in her Newsflesh series, and give them enough scientific credibility to make it plausible. Here, we get plenty of discussion of how mermaids would be evolutionarily credible in light of things we already know about deep sea life (the use of bioluminescence and symbiosis in attracting prey, for instance). Personally, I love Grant's knack for taking what might otherwise be little more than a riff on B-movie horror tropes and elevating them with scientific rigor, grounding all that face-ripping, throat-tearing goodness in a measured bit of reality. By the time the monsters make their grand entrance, we're all but primed to accept their existence and welcome them into the world with arms spread wide.
The story is broken down into five sections, each prefaced with a transcript from a documentary about the Atargatis and its missing crew, warning viewers about the footage they are about see...err, read. Whatever. Roughly the first three-quarters of the book are devoted to the various passengers, mostly the ship's captain, the documentary film crew, and the scientists. This is a quick, breezy read, paced well enough to hit the approximate run-time of a longer found-footage flick.
The downside to this, though, is that readers are not given much time to really get to know the people aboard the Atargatis or to really get into anybody's head. Thanks to the rules of found footage stories and the various documentarian notes coming up at regular intermissions, we know perfectly well that the fate of these men and women are sealed. Unfortunately, we're not given an opportunity to really get attached to any of these people, despite the slow burn toward the big finish. But that finish itself? Oh boy, does it ever get going; the mayhem really kicks things up a notch.
Besides the violent, frenetic climax, the thing I most appreciated about Rolling in the Deep was Mira Grant's focus on the science. She's an author who can take mythological premises like mermaids, or horror staples like zombies in her Newsflesh series, and give them enough scientific credibility to make it plausible. Here, we get plenty of discussion of how mermaids would be evolutionarily credible in light of things we already know about deep sea life (the use of bioluminescence and symbiosis in attracting prey, for instance). Personally, I love Grant's knack for taking what might otherwise be little more than a riff on B-movie horror tropes and elevating them with scientific rigor, grounding all that face-ripping, throat-tearing goodness in a measured bit of reality. By the time the monsters make their grand entrance, we're all but primed to accept their existence and welcome them into the world with arms spread wide.
I absolutely loved Into the Drowning Deep so I also wanted to read this little prequel. I enjoyed being back in the same world for a bit but it’s definitely not a very necessary need, just a little something extra and a little bit of background on the original mission, although I feel that we pick up on most of that from the main book anyway. I’m glad I read Into the Drowning Deep first because there were elements to the mermaids that were a surprise to me in that book and in this prequel they could feel a bit rushed if you hadn’t encountered them before. Mainly I just want to reread the main book now.
3.8* (yes, I’m being picky)
I haven’t read much from Mira Grant/Sean McGuire, mainly the excellent Wayward Children novella series and [b:Final Girls|32994321|Final Girls|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480952088s/32994321.jpg|53633366]. Horror is not my most favourite genre but I do dip in those waters from time to time, especially when a story sounds too good to miss. [b:Into the Drowning Deep|34523174|Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489176444s/34523174.jpg|55657440] featuring predatorial mermaids is one of those but before jumping straight into that one, I thought I had better start with the prequel.
From the very beginning, the author reveals the fate of all aboard the Atargatis. However the narration takes its time, giving the reader all the events that brought this disparate ‘crew’ together. I didn’t mind this - on the contrary - discovering each character, their circumstances, some being more intriguing that others (the captain and David for instance). Grant is brilliant at this and I would have loved for her to carry on in this vein. More even. However, once the threat becomes more apparent, it all degenerates way too fast! I wanted MORE!
Don’t get me wrong. I really liked this, a lot!, but I would have loved it if Grant had taken her time all the way through. [b:Final Girls|32994321|Final Girls|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480952088s/32994321.jpg|53633366] was better in that respect, full of horror and fast-paced scenes, but not to the detriment of the whole story arc. Still, there is plenty here and I cannot wait to get to the novel.
I haven’t read much from Mira Grant/Sean McGuire, mainly the excellent Wayward Children novella series and [b:Final Girls|32994321|Final Girls|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480952088s/32994321.jpg|53633366]. Horror is not my most favourite genre but I do dip in those waters from time to time, especially when a story sounds too good to miss. [b:Into the Drowning Deep|34523174|Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489176444s/34523174.jpg|55657440] featuring predatorial mermaids is one of those but before jumping straight into that one, I thought I had better start with the prequel.
From the very beginning, the author reveals the fate of all aboard the Atargatis. However the narration takes its time, giving the reader all the events that brought this disparate ‘crew’ together. I didn’t mind this - on the contrary - discovering each character, their circumstances, some being more intriguing that others (the captain and David for instance). Grant is brilliant at this and I would have loved for her to carry on in this vein. More even. However, once the threat becomes more apparent, it all degenerates way too fast! I wanted MORE!
Don’t get me wrong. I really liked this, a lot!, but I would have loved it if Grant had taken her time all the way through. [b:Final Girls|32994321|Final Girls|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480952088s/32994321.jpg|53633366] was better in that respect, full of horror and fast-paced scenes, but not to the detriment of the whole story arc. Still, there is plenty here and I cannot wait to get to the novel.