Merrin finished reading The Deep by Nick Cutter
A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes …
Content warning p much the whole thing
There's a really intriguing setup here and some great body horror imagery. In particular there's a sub-plot with mutant bees that is wonderfully gross.
However, the story fails to capitalize on these things.
By the end of Act 1 it became obvious that the characters were not going to be able to escape their situation using conventional means - the basic descriptions of the villains' capabilities made it clear that everything they did would fail. So I kept waiting for something new to happen, but instead what unfolds is basically a video game plot. Go to this part of the station to talk to a scientist. Uh oh, power's out, go to this part of the station to restore power. Now go over here to get a generator to power up the escape vessel you know isn't going to work.
By halfway through you also get a pretty good idea of what's behind everything. There are entities that have been manipulating the main character his whole life and have tricked people into coming down here for nefarious, sadistic ends. The end of the book is a (very well executed!) reveal of essentially this same information.
The whole book felt like a series of funhouse scares which, even when well-executed, obviously weren't going to lead anywhere. I kept waiting for something new to happen but nothing did.
It didn't help that I didn't connect with the character. Every scary thing Luke encounters reminds him of some anecdote from his past, and while I get the narrative and thematic reasons for that, I got kind of sick of hearing about his abusive mom and mad scientist brother, and the Stephen King-esque idiosyncratic names for things he derived from these memories.
Idk, it was engaging enough and had some very good spooky imagery but it should've been either edited down or taken some other turns. Normally in a story like this there would be a bit where the main character escapes the situation but then is forced to return for one reason or another, with the added fear of now knowing what's waiting for them there. Something like that would've been a good addition.
Oh, and play SOMA.