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yafi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
would be 5 stars if not for all the animal abuse? Maybe read the content warningsโฆ
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
midnightcomets's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I truly love reading fucked up horror books. This would have been even better if there weren't random "written by a man" comments and casual fatphobia, as well as if the plague aspect was explored a bit more, but it still creeped me out multiple times and I found the way the plot twisted and progressed very cleverly built. I predicted a few things but some others came as a total surprise.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Torture, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Bullying, Sexual content, and Suicide
caityporter's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Dementia, Kidnapping, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Child death
larry1138's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I'm opening with this disclaimer: for those of you who are into detailed gore scenes, depressing character backstories, and psychological horror, then this book might actually be good for you. For me, this was self induced torture to read because I went into it thinking it would be a horror experience that I could enjoy. I was very wrong and I'm genuinely glad to be done with the book, which has in fact taught me to set proper boundaries on books: if a book is actually causing a negative physiological or psychological reaction in me, I should definitely stop reading it fully.
This book made me feel nauseated physically and sad mentally, and in the end I didn't even get a modicum of a satisfying ending. Perhaps I should have read some reviews first before I purchased the book but just going by the description, it seemed like this would be right up my ally. I actually typically hate horror, but there is a subgenre that I absolutely LOVE: science fiction horror where a group of people is trapped on a spaceship or space station and something is hunting them. I have no idea why that's really the only horror I can tolerate, but I just know I like it. Underwater research bases are similar to space stations in terms of aesthetic so I enjoy those stories too. I've had great fun reading books in this same genre and playing videogames and watching movies and TV in related genres. There are little throwbacks to some of these very media pieces in this book in fact. And yet, this book was a horrible experience for me for one very important reason: it's not what was advertised.
I thought this story was going to be something akin to the movie Underwater mixed with a little Event Horizon/Pandorum/Dead Space for the psychological parts. What I got was a story that bounced around every possible phobia in the grossest possible ways with the cruelest possible ending. The "trapped in a station with something hunting them" was really just superficial set dressing for what seemed to be Nick Cutter's bread and butter: gore and trauma.
I have a sensitive stomach, so too much goo/blood/vomit/slime/pus/ichor/filth or any other descriptor you want to use makes me sick. I did not, in any way, expect there to be SO MANY disgusting scenes of things bursting out of things, things being squashed, and sound effects of oozing and dripping and squirming. It was ridiculous. I will never see the appeal to gorefests and I will never understand people who like them. Hell, videogames with blood and guts are fine because the gore in those is either realistic (which I can handle) or ridiculous and over the top (which allows me to distance myself from any nauseous feeling). Cutter describes things in horrible detail, and since I have an active imagination, things got very intense. If you have a sensitive stomach, you should not read this book.
The other specialty seems to be emotional trauma. Half of this book isn't even spent inside the Trieste (the name of the underwater research lab). It's spent in the main character's flashbacks. We get to experience the incredibly traumatized life of Luke. These trauma's could have been interesting chances for character and story development if tackled in a sensitive way with a character and story that had the potential for a redemption arc. But this is not that story. The traumas are dumped on Luke incessantly. Hell, even if you wanted to write a book where trauma does actually tragically consume someone, you could've done it WAY better than this. And that's just the mental and emotional flashback trauma. There's plenty of physical trauma to be had whenever we are present with Luke in the station. Bodies are crushed, infested, warped, perverted, violated, and broken.
And perhaps most unforgivable in this book is animal cruelty and animal trauma. Humans can be evil and die off (that's basically the entire focus of modern horror) but nobody except for sociopaths and psychopaths wants to experience animals suffer and die. If you're sensitive to this in particular, stay away from this book. I was able to just blow through these scenes, I didn't want to add too much to my already depressed and saddened mental state from all the other traumas present.
So there I was, approaching the end of the book, actively suffering nausea and having a heavy chest due to sadness. How will Luke and the others survive? How will the aforementioned 'Gets disease be cured? How will these very traumatized characters avoid being consumed by the station? I needed a break of some sort and I sort of got it. There were two moments where Luke seemed to confront a horror in the station but had the mental fortitude and growth to deal with it. "Here we are!" I probably said to myself. The story and characters are finally... protagonizing, and any minute now we'll get a great resolution to a really horrifying story. My suffering will all be worth it.
Spoilers Ahead:
The ending of this book is confusing and incredibly unsatisfying. Not only do we not get a solution to the problem of the Gets disease, we get an out-of-nowhere cosmic horror resolution that results in all the characters dying and likely the eventual destruction of humanity on Earth. We also discover that the incredibly traumatizing life Luke and his brother Clayton had led was the result of this cosmic horror toying with humanity. But is Luke, when presented with this new information, stiffened in resolve to destroy the source of his life's pain? No. He gives into it and let's his past traumas consume him. Perhaps not by choice, he has just gone through an experience that seems to destroy human minds. But then humanity is doomed. The end.
So I just suffered through nausea and sadness to experience bleakness? What an incredibly awful use of my time. I had a somewhat similar reaction to the ending of the horror movie Life, but at least Life had an interesting and likeable cast of characters, used a monster that was plausible in-universe, and didn't make me want to vomit and/or call my therapist. I was so emotionally and physically traumatized I needed my friend to hug me for a bit (thank you, Victoria). After recovering, I looked at further reviews on Goodreads and things started to make a little more sense.
From what I've seen, this book has very mixed reviews. This was my first Nick Cutter book, so while The Troop intrigued me with its description, same as The Deep, I don't think I'll delve into it if there are similar gore scenes in it. Apparently though, to fans of Nick Cutter, this book is actually rather disappointing. Characters are unlikable, the story is nonsense, and even the horror elements are copy-pasted or extremely derivative.
After some reflection, I do realize that Cutter threw EVERYTHING into this book. Most conceivable traumas and phobias are here: thalassaphobia (fear of the ocean), claustrophobia, fear of gore, fear of the loss of a family member, fear of an abuser, fear of animal abuse, fear of insects, body horror (things growing inside you, your body not listening to your brain, body parts changing to other things), fear of being hunted, fear of the dark, etc. You name it, it's probably here. And while empathetic little me seemed to be emotionally affected and manipulated by some of these, it was for no purpose and no greater message. It's like Cutter threw an amalgamation of horror tropes and traumas into an underwater station just to see what would happen without considering how to effectively use those traumas and tropes to tell an interesting story.
Film critics might be familiar with this in certain bad movies: you can write all the cool action scenes you want, but if you don't have a coherent story to tie them together, then there's very little point to the movie. Writers have to cut cool stuff all the time to maintain a consistent theme or tempo or aesthetic. Nothing in The Deep was consistent, it was jarring gorefest to jarring trauma flashback to jarring station horror over and over and over again.
There was no real ending payoff. Luke went through his entire traumatizing life just to give up and doom humanity to extinction? What's the message here, Cutter, to people with actual trauma who may have gone through some of the same experiences as Luke? Don't give in to your trauma or you'll hurt other people and worst case doom the Earth? Or, since Luke's trauma was influenced by cosmic beings, your trauma is not your fault, just don't go down to the bottom of the ocean? Was there any theme or greater purpose to this book or did you just want a playground of horror ideas because you like writing gore and trauma scenes?
This book is advertised on the back cover as a story about a brave team that goes down to an ocean floor research station to potentially find a cure to a disease that's ravaging Earth's population but they find an evil down there. The quotes on the back and front promise: "unflinching bleakness... all-out horror...unshakable haunting...[and making] you question your sanity." Nothing in the advertising mentioned anything about gore in particular. I was basically promised Event Horizon but perhaps scarier and in the ocean. What I got was worse in every conceivable way.
A huge not recommend (really a stay away) for... basically most people. If you are someone who likes gore porn or torture porn, then fine, go ahead. As I mentioned earlier, I never understood people who liked gore a lot, or who were fans of the Saw series for example. Perhaps I'm too empathetic, and my stomach is too weak, to engage with this horror. I will continue, however, to be on the lookout for excellent sci fi horror books like Dead Silence, Salvation Day, Devolution, and Annihilation.
This book made me feel nauseated physically and sad mentally, and in the end I didn't even get a modicum of a satisfying ending. Perhaps I should have read some reviews first before I purchased the book but just going by the description, it seemed like this would be right up my ally. I actually typically hate horror, but there is a subgenre that I absolutely LOVE: science fiction horror where a group of people is trapped on a spaceship or space station and something is hunting them. I have no idea why that's really the only horror I can tolerate, but I just know I like it. Underwater research bases are similar to space stations in terms of aesthetic so I enjoy those stories too. I've had great fun reading books in this same genre and playing videogames and watching movies and TV in related genres. There are little throwbacks to some of these very media pieces in this book in fact. And yet, this book was a horrible experience for me for one very important reason: it's not what was advertised.
I thought this story was going to be something akin to the movie Underwater mixed with a little Event Horizon/Pandorum/Dead Space for the psychological parts. What I got was a story that bounced around every possible phobia in the grossest possible ways with the cruelest possible ending. The "trapped in a station with something hunting them" was really just superficial set dressing for what seemed to be Nick Cutter's bread and butter: gore and trauma.
I have a sensitive stomach, so too much goo/blood/vomit/slime/pus/ichor/filth or any other descriptor you want to use makes me sick. I did not, in any way, expect there to be SO MANY disgusting scenes of things bursting out of things, things being squashed, and sound effects of oozing and dripping and squirming. It was ridiculous. I will never see the appeal to gorefests and I will never understand people who like them. Hell, videogames with blood and guts are fine because the gore in those is either realistic (which I can handle) or ridiculous and over the top (which allows me to distance myself from any nauseous feeling). Cutter describes things in horrible detail, and since I have an active imagination, things got very intense. If you have a sensitive stomach, you should not read this book.
The other specialty seems to be emotional trauma. Half of this book isn't even spent inside the Trieste (the name of the underwater research lab). It's spent in the main character's flashbacks. We get to experience the incredibly traumatized life of Luke. These trauma's could have been interesting chances for character and story development if tackled in a sensitive way with a character and story that had the potential for a redemption arc. But this is not that story. The traumas are dumped on Luke incessantly. Hell, even if you wanted to write a book where trauma does actually tragically consume someone, you could've done it WAY better than this. And that's just the mental and emotional flashback trauma. There's plenty of physical trauma to be had whenever we are present with Luke in the station. Bodies are crushed, infested, warped, perverted, violated, and broken.
And perhaps most unforgivable in this book is animal cruelty and animal trauma. Humans can be evil and die off (that's basically the entire focus of modern horror) but nobody except for sociopaths and psychopaths wants to experience animals suffer and die. If you're sensitive to this in particular, stay away from this book. I was able to just blow through these scenes, I didn't want to add too much to my already depressed and saddened mental state from all the other traumas present.
So there I was, approaching the end of the book, actively suffering nausea and having a heavy chest due to sadness. How will Luke and the others survive? How will the aforementioned 'Gets disease be cured? How will these very traumatized characters avoid being consumed by the station? I needed a break of some sort and I sort of got it. There were two moments where Luke seemed to confront a horror in the station but had the mental fortitude and growth to deal with it. "Here we are!" I probably said to myself. The story and characters are finally... protagonizing, and any minute now we'll get a great resolution to a really horrifying story. My suffering will all be worth it.
Spoilers Ahead:
The ending of this book is confusing and incredibly unsatisfying. Not only do we not get a solution to the problem of the Gets disease, we get an out-of-nowhere cosmic horror resolution that results in all the characters dying and likely the eventual destruction of humanity on Earth. We also discover that the incredibly traumatizing life Luke and his brother Clayton had led was the result of this cosmic horror toying with humanity. But is Luke, when presented with this new information, stiffened in resolve to destroy the source of his life's pain? No. He gives into it and let's his past traumas consume him. Perhaps not by choice, he has just gone through an experience that seems to destroy human minds. But then humanity is doomed. The end.
So I just suffered through nausea and sadness to experience bleakness? What an incredibly awful use of my time. I had a somewhat similar reaction to the ending of the horror movie Life, but at least Life had an interesting and likeable cast of characters, used a monster that was plausible in-universe, and didn't make me want to vomit and/or call my therapist. I was so emotionally and physically traumatized I needed my friend to hug me for a bit (thank you, Victoria). After recovering, I looked at further reviews on Goodreads and things started to make a little more sense.
From what I've seen, this book has very mixed reviews. This was my first Nick Cutter book, so while The Troop intrigued me with its description, same as The Deep, I don't think I'll delve into it if there are similar gore scenes in it. Apparently though, to fans of Nick Cutter, this book is actually rather disappointing. Characters are unlikable, the story is nonsense, and even the horror elements are copy-pasted or extremely derivative.
After some reflection, I do realize that Cutter threw EVERYTHING into this book. Most conceivable traumas and phobias are here: thalassaphobia (fear of the ocean), claustrophobia, fear of gore, fear of the loss of a family member, fear of an abuser, fear of animal abuse, fear of insects, body horror (things growing inside you, your body not listening to your brain, body parts changing to other things), fear of being hunted, fear of the dark, etc. You name it, it's probably here. And while empathetic little me seemed to be emotionally affected and manipulated by some of these, it was for no purpose and no greater message. It's like Cutter threw an amalgamation of horror tropes and traumas into an underwater station just to see what would happen without considering how to effectively use those traumas and tropes to tell an interesting story.
Film critics might be familiar with this in certain bad movies: you can write all the cool action scenes you want, but if you don't have a coherent story to tie them together, then there's very little point to the movie. Writers have to cut cool stuff all the time to maintain a consistent theme or tempo or aesthetic. Nothing in The Deep was consistent, it was jarring gorefest to jarring trauma flashback to jarring station horror over and over and over again.
There was no real ending payoff. Luke went through his entire traumatizing life just to give up and doom humanity to extinction? What's the message here, Cutter, to people with actual trauma who may have gone through some of the same experiences as Luke? Don't give in to your trauma or you'll hurt other people and worst case doom the Earth? Or, since Luke's trauma was influenced by cosmic beings, your trauma is not your fault, just don't go down to the bottom of the ocean? Was there any theme or greater purpose to this book or did you just want a playground of horror ideas because you like writing gore and trauma scenes?
This book is advertised on the back cover as a story about a brave team that goes down to an ocean floor research station to potentially find a cure to a disease that's ravaging Earth's population but they find an evil down there. The quotes on the back and front promise: "unflinching bleakness... all-out horror...unshakable haunting...[and making] you question your sanity." Nothing in the advertising mentioned anything about gore in particular. I was basically promised Event Horizon but perhaps scarier and in the ocean. What I got was worse in every conceivable way.
A huge not recommend (really a stay away) for... basically most people. If you are someone who likes gore porn or torture porn, then fine, go ahead. As I mentioned earlier, I never understood people who liked gore a lot, or who were fans of the Saw series for example. Perhaps I'm too empathetic, and my stomach is too weak, to engage with this horror. I will continue, however, to be on the lookout for excellent sci fi horror books like Dead Silence, Salvation Day, Devolution, and Annihilation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death and Child abuse
Nothing on the advertising on the book itself indicates this will be a book with lots of trauma and gore, be aware of this if you decide to pick it upvyralvyris's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Cutter has such a captivating writing style, but the story feels disjointed and tacked together in a rush, especially at the end. With such a fascinating concept, I can't believe I was bored through the first 7 hours of the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Stalking
keiraonyxraven's review against another edition
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 canโt 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:
๐ Mentioned in passing and/or not overly upsetting
๐ Suffering/death described with more detail, somewhat upsetting
๐งก Detailed description of suffering/death, overtly upsetting
โค๏ธ Extremely detailed description with very upsetting and disturbing content
Page 31-34 ๐งก
Mouse experimentation, suffering & death
Detailed & upsetting
Page 44-46 ๐
Mouse experimentation & minor suffering
Page 127 ๐
Insect death
Page 145
Bee death ๐
Lizard death ๐
Page 168-172 ๐งก
Guinea pig experimentation
Guinea pig suffering & harm
Page 179-181 ๐งก
Guinea pig experimentation, suffering & death
Page 223 ๐
Raccoon suffering & death
Page 243 ๐
Squirrel corpse description
Page 248-249 & 251 ๐
Mention of bee deaths
Page 254 ๐
Bee killed
Page 260-261 ๐
Bee deaths
Page 262-264 & 266 ๐งก
Bee suffering & death
Page 315-316 ๐งก
Dog injury & cruelty
Page 322 ๐งก
Guinea pig cruelty & death
Page 336 ๐
Detailed description of using maggots as fishing bait
Page 341-350 โค๏ธ
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 YOUโRE AN ANIMAL LOVER: this destroyed me.
Page 353 & 356 ๐
Bee death
Page 375 ๐งก
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 isnโt 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 wouldnโt entirely steer others away from giving The Deep a chance, especially if you are an avid horror fan and love creepy and claustrophobic settings.
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 canโt 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:
๐ Mentioned in passing and/or not overly upsetting
๐ Suffering/death described with more detail, somewhat upsetting
๐งก Detailed description of suffering/death, overtly upsetting
โค๏ธ Extremely detailed description with very upsetting and disturbing content
Page 31-34 ๐งก
Mouse experimentation, suffering & death
Detailed & upsetting
Page 44-46 ๐
Mouse experimentation & minor suffering
Page 127 ๐
Insect death
Page 145
Bee death ๐
Lizard death ๐
Page 168-172 ๐งก
Guinea pig experimentation
Guinea pig suffering & harm
Page 179-181 ๐งก
Guinea pig experimentation, suffering & death
Page 223 ๐
Raccoon suffering & death
Page 243 ๐
Squirrel corpse description
Page 248-249 & 251 ๐
Mention of bee deaths
Page 254 ๐
Bee killed
Page 260-261 ๐
Bee deaths
Page 262-264 & 266 ๐งก
Bee suffering & death
Page 315-316 ๐งก
Dog injury & cruelty
Page 322 ๐งก
Guinea pig cruelty & death
Page 336 ๐
Detailed description of using maggots as fishing bait
Page 341-350 โค๏ธ
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 YOUโRE AN ANIMAL LOVER: this destroyed me.
Page 353 & 356 ๐
Bee death
Page 375 ๐งก
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 isnโt 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 wouldnโt entirely steer others away from giving The Deep a chance, especially if you are an avid horror fan and love creepy and claustrophobic settings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
cosmicpanda's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, Excrement, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
c_h_arl_ie's review against another edition
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting
goldenluck's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I feel... cold. And disturbed.
I will say this book is deeply disturbing, akin to A24's Midsommar. It is profoundly chilling, which is exactly what you want from a horror novel. The descriptions are graphic and take a distinct turn to the otherworldly and mystical -- do not expect hard science here.
Do not read if you are in a poor mental state. Please take the content warnings seriously.
I will say this book is deeply disturbing, akin to A24's Midsommar. It is profoundly chilling, which is exactly what you want from a horror novel. The descriptions are graphic and take a distinct turn to the otherworldly and mystical -- do not expect hard science here.
Do not read if you are in a poor mental state. Please take the content warnings seriously.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pandemic/Epidemic
queerreaderchaos's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Domestic abuse