Writers should no longer be allowed to say that someone "was shaking and it had nothing to do with the cold." Enough said. Holy crap was this book creepy. I’m talking nightmare fuel. Unleaded. A mounting sense of dread permeates every sentence. The setting couldn’t possibly be any more claustrophobic. It literally takes place in a laboratory 8 miles down at the bottom of the ocean, full of punishingly tight crawl spaces, segmented corridors with dead ends, extremely dim lighting, and something incredibly sinister that likes to play head games. There are some images in this book that I’m pretty sure will be permanently burned into my brain.

Scientists are at the bottom of the ocean looking for a cure to a disease called the 'Gets (short for Forgets). Don't worry about knowing anymore since the Gets since it doesn't really matter and is never explained. The scientists are looking for a miracle substance called Ambrosia that can cure pretty much anything except boredom for the reader. What is Ambrosia exactly? Where does it come from? Don't ask because you won't find out except some vague allusions toward the end. 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.Unfortunately, The Deep barely has characters much less ones I cared about when the horrible things happened to them. In fact, the book only has one character that we ever really get to know -- Luke -- and he isn't terribly interesting or memorable or clever. As with The Troop, the story begins with a clear-cut plotline: There is a horrible new disease called “The ‘Gets” wiping out the population at an alarming rate and a possible cure (code name “ambrosia” or “the nectar of the gods”) has been discovered at the bottom of the ocean. Luke’s genius (and potentially mad) scientist brother is one of three who are researching this new substance from a station on the ocean floor, and he has asked the government to summon Luke to come help him. Many reviewers post warnings for any potential “triggers” that certain readers may want to avoid. If you suffer from any of the following, you might want to skip this one: That aside, there were a few things that kept this book from the coveted full 5 stars. First off, the concept of The ‘Gets (a disease that causes its victims to gradually forget everything they know, including vital everyday functions like eating food and breathing) was not explored nearly enough. It serves as a catalyst, but doesn’t really play a big role in the plot overall. This is a shame, really. It feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

I love horror, and can stomach pretty much everything that authors throw at me, other than the drawn-out, nightmarish treatment of animals (especially dogs). Do that to a human, and I’m fine — what that says about me, I don’t know and don’t want to know, thanks!!!!!! — but I knew that a furry character in The Deep was not long for this world (especially given what happens to a certain creature in The Troop) and simply didn’t want to deal with visualizing all of that. Nope. Nada. Non. Not happening. The beginning was alright and the ending was stupid. That's really all you need to know, but I'll keep going.

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

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. A strange plague called the ‘Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget—small things at first, like where they left their keys, then the not-so-small things, like how to drive or the letters of the alphabet. Their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. There is no cure. Part of what made this book nice and scary for me was the bizarre world it brought me to. I had no idea what to expect, which is something I’ve come to appreciate in every book I’ve read by Cutter. It’s got some very interesting characters too. The scientists are without exception a trip to behold. I'm almost at a loss as to how to describe this book. It's a claustrophobic nightmare of one man's sanity unraveling when confronted with an alien horror eight miles below the ocean's surface. It took me forever to get through because I could only handle so much at a time. It reminds me of John Carpenter's The Thing and James Cameron's The Abyss, with some Stephen King thrown in.

I've been a lifelong fan of horror and the older I get, it seems to me the harder it's getting to scare me and to get my hands on the good stuff. One positive thing about this sad development is that it's forced me to venture out into other genres and try new things and find new loves. My first love however -- my one true love -- will always remain horror. It's in my DNA (literally probably because my parents were huge fans of things going bump in the night). I was weaned on the stuff, and on the stuff I shall die.

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

They all of them, harbour their own fears and insecurities. Add enough paranormal elements to further exploit this emotional turmoil and the results are: Davidson isn't done borrowing from other material, some of it beneath a writer of his talent. The setting has what could be called "Camp Crystal Lake Echo", where a character finds themselves alone in a remote setting and feels the urge to call out to a friend, thereby alerting the killer exactly where they are. I lost count how many times Luke called out, and this is a character who's seen horror movies like Alien. That annoyed me.