Nick Cutter cites Stephen King’s Carrie as an influence, but this book felt closer to King’s Thinner mixed with The Lord of the Flies.
The story centers on five 14-year-old scouts and their scoutmaster on a camping trip on a small island off Canada’s Atlantic coast. Their excursion is interrupted by the sudden arrival of an emaciated and insatiably ravenous man who turns out to be an escaped test subject from some extremely unethical human trials. Hilarity ensues.
This book is one of the most intense horror novels I’ve read in years. Characters are well rendered, few in number, and their situation desperate. It has some of the most squirm-inducing descriptions of violence and self-mutilation since the 80s Splatterpunk movement. This novel is not for the squeamish, but I found it to be an incredibly compelling page-turner.
This probably isn’t suitable for casual horror fans—people who stick with King and Koontz and think gross-out horror is a crutch for authors who can’t create an atmosphere of terror—but if you’re comfortable with the deeper end of the pool this book is a hell of a ride.
The blurb plugs this book as “The Abyss meets The Shining,” which isn’t a lie, but there’s a lot of John Carpenter’s The Thing in here and a big Clive Barker streak as well.
This book has a simple but immediately appealing premise. The world is being swept by an Alzheimer’s-like disease, and a potential cure has been located at the bottom of the ocean. Top scientists begin researching a mysterious cure-all substance dubbed “ambrosia” at a hastily-assembled research station at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Initial results are promising, but after a cryptic message from below, communications between the station and its tender ship are disrupted. Hoping to reopen the lines of communication with Clayton, one of the genius scientists below, his younger brother Luke is flown in and ferried down to the station by Alice, an experienced Naval officer. Horror inevitably ensues.
While I found the premise extremely engaging, the first half of the book was more than a little frustrating. There are regular flashbacks and dream sequences that take the reader back to Luke’s past, including his abusive childhood and the traumatic disappearance of Luke’s young son. The length and frequency of these flashbacks irked me, as the undersea setting was so creepy and atmospheric. It seemed like every time something interesting happened down below, the reader gets dragged up to the surface and into the past. Happily, everything pays off at the very end.
This book is pretty gory and nasty (a perk for me, but not for all readers), but it makes excellent use of a fascinating setting. Highly recommended to horror fans, especially those fascinated by the deep sea.