The Deep by Nick Cutter -- a review by Elleanore Vance

Some readers may find the following situations found in the text of the book disturbing: claustrophobia,  cloulrophobia, loss of a child, nyctophobia, mental and emotional abuse of a child by a parent, sexual assault of a minor by a parent, body horror, helminthphobia, animal cruelty/danger, loss of a child.
Please bear this in mind should you visit your local library for a copy

I would say that Spooky Season starts early in my household,  but the truth is, its always Spooky Season. "House on Haunted Hill," the Vincent Price version, lulls me to sleep throughout the year. This is just who I am as a person.

So when my hubby was reccommended this new author by Stephen King himself (not a personal recomendation, or anything), he jumped at it. When it came time to choose a new book, this one promised to be a Lovecraftian delight.

We experience the story from the perspective of a veterinarian  whose brother is in a lab at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, trying to cure a plague characterized by memory loss. Said veterinarian finds himself going to the bottom of the ocean to investigate, and dealing with all his past traumas on the journey. This story does not end well for anyone.

As a reader, I had so many problems with this book, the chief among them being that there is just too much going on. Just. Too. Much. The publisher's summation is misleading, but having read the entire I cant come up with a better one.

It is reminiscent of The Shining, and there are some bits I did enjoy, or thought very clever. But.  It is extremely graphic, horrible,  and just plain cruel.  Several scenes serve no other purpose than to be jarring.

It reads like punches thrown in the dark. It isn't cohesive. It feels like we really have five or six stories that were badly blended together, and that was done blind, too. It is a hot mess of a book. Even the ending is lackluster, to be kind about it.

Our Author has spent so much time jerking us around between past and present that he failed to give us an ending that was in any way satisfying. We get no conclusion,  and so much of the trauma and pain we witness serves no purpose in the narrative.

I was so disappointed. I really wanted to like it. I wanted it to be good. It just wasn't.

⭐⭐2/5