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A review by akallabeth
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
2.75 or something, rounded up. i'm moved to generosity by the occasion, and the occasion is that i'm finally throwing in the towel re: mira grant/seanan mcguire. what my heart refused to accept over the span of 5 120ish page novellas, it finally fully comprehended after one 440 page novel.
(this is c/p from goodreads. on storygraph i am less generous, i guess.)
the mermaids themselves? great. strange, unsettling, but plausible enough to accept. the scenes that were most purely suspense/horror and dealt with the mermaids most directly were honestly very enjoyable.
unfortunately.
so so SO much of this decently chunky book is characters talking to each other and pondering their feelings. sometimes they are talking about those feelings, sometimes they are talking about science. this isn't a problem inherently, and i am not a hater of slow-paced character pieces. the issue is that truly every single one of these characters is a big old nothing.
i didn't care about any of them. it's a decently big cast, and almost uniformly one-note and uninteresting and prone to this like.. late-era joss whendom qupping. you know when it wasn't funny anymore, just kind of stale and corny? even the characters that were clearly written just to be hated (shitty toxic ex! big game hunter right out of disney's tarzan!) were too uninteresting to get worked up about. the most distinct character was dr toth, and alas i didn't like her at all.
(objectively unimportant tangent, but speaking of joss whedon and dr toth: why did dr toth read like a marvel style scientist with skills-as-the-plot requires? you don't even find out her actual degree is in biology until well over halfway into the book. i also never felt that was got a decent explanation for WHY she was so sure mermaids were real the whole time. okay, there's similar myths about them in many cultures across the world. and?? that is NOT sufficient! or a biology-based argument, at that. it truly felt like the fact that we started the book already knowing for a fact mermaids were real, with video evidence and all, allowed grant to never have to explain the basis for dr toth's actual theories.)
i was also hoping grant's adult writing would be less didactic regarding social issues etc than her ya, and it is but honestly only just barely.
the dialogue style, didactic approach and (to varying extents, depending on the story) frustrating characterisation are all things i've repeatedly struggled with when reading this author, but she's always had just enough interesting elements in her work that i've kept reading her stuff hoping that maybe it was just that one book. it's not. all her books are like that. i've reached acceptance. so long, seanan mcguire.
no one important even fucking DIED, man, come on.
(this is c/p from goodreads. on storygraph i am less generous, i guess.)
the mermaids themselves? great. strange, unsettling, but plausible enough to accept. the scenes that were most purely suspense/horror and dealt with the mermaids most directly were honestly very enjoyable.
unfortunately.
so so SO much of this decently chunky book is characters talking to each other and pondering their feelings. sometimes they are talking about those feelings, sometimes they are talking about science. this isn't a problem inherently, and i am not a hater of slow-paced character pieces. the issue is that truly every single one of these characters is a big old nothing.
i didn't care about any of them. it's a decently big cast, and almost uniformly one-note and uninteresting and prone to this like.. late-era joss whendom qupping. you know when it wasn't funny anymore, just kind of stale and corny? even the characters that were clearly written just to be hated (shitty toxic ex! big game hunter right out of disney's tarzan!) were too uninteresting to get worked up about. the most distinct character was dr toth, and alas i didn't like her at all.
(objectively unimportant tangent, but speaking of joss whedon and dr toth: why did dr toth read like a marvel style scientist with skills-as-the-plot requires? you don't even find out her actual degree is in biology until well over halfway into the book. i also never felt that was got a decent explanation for WHY she was so sure mermaids were real the whole time. okay, there's similar myths about them in many cultures across the world. and?? that is NOT sufficient! or a biology-based argument, at that. it truly felt like the fact that we started the book already knowing for a fact mermaids were real, with video evidence and all, allowed grant to never have to explain the basis for dr toth's actual theories.)
i was also hoping grant's adult writing would be less didactic regarding social issues etc than her ya, and it is but honestly only just barely.
the dialogue style, didactic approach and (to varying extents, depending on the story) frustrating characterisation are all things i've repeatedly struggled with when reading this author, but she's always had just enough interesting elements in her work that i've kept reading her stuff hoping that maybe it was just that one book. it's not. all her books are like that. i've reached acceptance. so long, seanan mcguire.