I really try not to be a snob about my interests, but sometimes it’s really hard. I love all types of horror, and there is a special place in my heart for B-movie schlock. I rarely ever feel time is wasted when I encounter it because it can be fun to just revel in someone’s art like that. What I can’t really abide by, though, is being recommended a horror book by several folks then discovering that it just doesn’t live up to expectations. That’s where this next spooky book, Nick Cutter’s The Deep, comes in.
Several years ago, Luke’s son went missing. His wife became estranged, and his brother, Clayton, was wrapped up in his science. Out of the blue, he’s whisked away to the Pacific Ocean where his brother is doing research on the disease known as the “Gets.” The pandemic is causing a slow rolling amnesia across the planet, and deep in the Mariana trench exists Ambrosia, a possible cure to the plague. But why Luke? He’s just a veterinarian whose life has spun out of control. Apparently, Clayton has been asking for him, and no one knows why. With nothing to lose, Luke takes a submersible down into the abyss to find out why.
I want to start off with the fact that I had been given the option between The Troop and The Deep as my jumping-off point into Cutter’s work, and I went with the underwater shit. I have a fascination with thalassophobia and experience it myself, but something always draws me to the water. I figured giving the author a leg up would help me submerge myself in the tale. And for the first third of the book, I was in.
Cutter really nailed the feeling of diving down into the deep and the claustrophobia that comes with it. I could feel the darkness, the building pressure, and the utter desolation of the abyss. Even the anticipation of it, was well set up and pulled me in. I just wanted to get down into the trench and hear the straining of the metal as scientists raced to find a cure. Cutter isn’t exactly fanciful in his writing, but he really puts the reader into Luke’s shoes, a normal guy going to the deepest part of the ocean. This is especially the case in the first third of the book, as Luke can not stop thinking about the position he is in. I just wish this feeling was thick throughout the rest of the book as well. Casual reminders or changing up the things Luke notices would have gone a long way to carrying this part of the horror through to the end of the book.
However, beyond that, the book loses me. There aren’t any real characters in the book, just a set of descriptions and a single past event that informs all their neuroses. Luke is defined by the fact that he lost his son playing hide and seek at the park. He never found him, and it caused his wife to pull away. Clayton is just a science guy who asked for his brother, Luke, to join him. Alice is just a woman. Toy, another scientist on the Trieste, also just feels like a guy, I just finished the book, and I can’t even remember his deal.
So when the other horror elements start to make themselves known, they just feel like things that are happening. I don’t really care about the character they are happening to and so the weight of them just dissipates. And they all just feel like a collection of things that some people might be afraid of. It feels like Cutter was afraid his starting premise wasn’t good enough and just started throwing horror-themed spaghetti against the wall. We have scary basements, missing children, clowns, scary childhood memorabilia, animal cruelty, journals descending into madness, child abuse in many different forms, scary parents, etc. I could go into how each just sort of fails on their own merits, but it really isn’t worth it. I think these all have the potential for something but they don’t really have any connection to the wider story. They’re just flashbacks of “scary things.” Every single trope is on display and it is sort of maddening that they’re just there.
I don’t think you could get a full book out of each of these ideas; that would be insane. But it feels like the main idea took a backseat to Cutter just spinning the horror wheel and picking out what happens next. They don’t even circle around to a good ending, either. For flashbacks to carry any sort of narrative weight in my book, they have to touch upon what is going on in the present. They aren’t really connected here. They don’t explain how the characters approach the ambrosia or the psychotic tendencies they accrue within the Trieste. I would have even just accepted if they were harbingers of their eventual death, providing some foreshadowing, but no. Everyone just sort of dies in weird, disconnected ways. The worst offender is the death of Alice, an androgynous career navy woman being turned into a mother of sorts when zero of her backstory suggests she had any doubts or inclinations in that direction. She wasn’t even connected in any fashion with the bees being tested. It just felt lazy for some really cool dark imagery for her death and the chance for Luke to make some snide commentary.
And I think this was the underlying problem with the book: tone management. It’s a ludicrous premise that is initially taken seriously, the root of the kind of horror I like. I don’t have to buy into every decision as long as the premise is approached with sincerity. And I don’t think The Deep is or wants to be sincere. Anytime the book tries to approach any level of seriousness or sincerity, Luke has to make some offhand comment or thought that is supposed to be funny or normal, the kind you would make to relieve the pressure or tension of a scene. Instead, these quips feel deflated and detract from the already disconnected events that are taking place. It comes off as a lot of cool and existentially terrifying imagery with no weight or consequence. No one looks good, except Alice, and that feels off, and she has the fucking worst death.
I may be overanalyzing here, caught up in my 31 movies for 31 days of October horror marathon. But this book was fun and verging on spooky for the first third before losing me completely. I want to like the fun and weird aspects of it, but so much of the background and buildup was so needlessly long with little to no payoff. And the ending, woof. I hated it; it gave me nothing, and I thought the reveal at the end of Underwater was a good time (for those in the know). Maybe I’m jaded and want more from my deep sea forays, but I’d skip it unless you’re in for the cool and disturbing imagery.
Rating: The Deep a puddle to splash around in
-Alex
