The Deep

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The second one is the prize-nominated book titled Cataract City. The story features two childhood friends turned foes, whose quest for survival amid social problems drives a wedge between their long-lasting close friendship. The Hesperus has received a transmission from Clayton asking for Luke to come home. An animal doctor who is estranged from his gifted brother, Luke's presence on the Hesperus is nevertheless seen as critical. His escort is Lt. Commander Alice Sykes, a jocular servicewoman who asks Luke to call her "Al". Before they submerge, Luke is briefed on an unsettling development. One of the three scientists in the Trieste, or what's left of him, has surfaced. Madness and a high tolerance for pain are the only explanations for what might have happened, along with a message written in the submersible in blood. Fat Bastard: Luke and Clayton's mother, who lets her weight balloon out of control after retiring from her job as a youth prison guard. She's also an arrogant Control Freak who terrorizes her sons ( and worse). You know, I think I’m going to take Casey and Nicole’s advice (added to yours) and pass on this one. I kept wanting to read this because the hardcover art is so pretty, but after this review and their warnings, I think it’s going to be a hard pass. I’ll be curious how you respond to Cutter’s other work, though, see if anything else catches my interest (besides cover art).

Writers should no longer be allowed to say that someone "was shaking and it had nothing to do with the cold." Enough said. This one had quite a bit more. If you are like me and sensitive at all to that type of content, tread with caution.

In The Troop, Cutter managed to get us invested in the fate of the boys trapped on that island. They were kind, smart, scrappy, selfish, brave and even evil in one case. When horrible things happened to them, we cared and felt terrible for them. In that way, The Troop was very Stephen King-like for me. I think the body horror was really well described. The maggot scene in the tube, for example, or the bee hives on skin. There was typically this feeling of grotesque uneasiness in each description, even when describing events outside of the Trieste, such as in Luke's memory of his mother's body. As with any good horror story, the book touched a nerve. It made me think of when my babysitter swam me out to the middle of our pond and dropped me off. This was pre-kindergarten and I only knew how to swim in theory. Her boyfriend saved me. It was sketchy. Way down there in the deep, a new substance, called ambrosia has been discovered. Early observations inspire hope amongst the researchers that this ambrosia may well hold the answer to curing The Gets. But this substance is alive and all of its properties have not yet been fully vetted. Some disquieting concerns have already materialized. A scientist who escaped the Trieste is found to have attempted suicide by cutting. Since he's infected with the ambrosia, he heals almost instantly, and his body is left a mass of scars. At least he stopped when rapid ascent turned his bones into jelly.

I'll start by saying that while Cutter's first book, The Troop, wasn't a perfect book, it was at least a decent one that left me curious to see what the author would come up with next. Let's just say I'm in no way curious about Cutter's third book. Frankly, you couldn't pay me to read it after slogging through The Deep.There's a great balance of discovery and awe and undersea danger and especially a long-term hope when it comes to the possible cure for the 'gets. (For'gets. A plague on the surface.) It goes ooooh so nice with his nightmares and the way he tries to hold on to a version of reality as something really deep and sinister rises up out of the deep in the actual ocean and his subconscious, too. I kept in step with the characters all the way. There is something wrong going on with the people of earth. They are losing their memories. His older brother, who is a genius, is working on trying to help solve the problem. Enter his brother, veterinarian and all-around Nice Guy Luke Nelson. Luke is recruited to go down to Clayton's lab, the Trieste, and persuade him to return with his research. Accompanied by tough, kindhearted Navy sub pilot Alice "Al" Skyes, Luke descends into a cold, sunless world under the water... and it isn't long before he discovers that the horrors of the 'Gets are nothing compared to what lies waiting in the deep. I was so worried about the dog in this story, literally the WHOLE TIME, that it made it impossible for me to enjoy it. Eldritch Abomination: The creatures that call themselves The Fig Men. Described as two sexless, lumpy, deformed beings with translucent skin, growing out of a wall of undulating, living flesh.