Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1) in Do Better: SFF without Sexual Violence

Feb 10, 2018 Cobwebs-Iced-Across-SpaceTime rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018_february_weird-fiction, 2018_new-weird, 2018_reads, 2018_sf-vs-f-_bingo_challenge, 2018_bookish_resolutions, 2018_let-s-read-indie_challenge, 2018_the_sci-fi_experiment, armchair-pacific, cold_marathon, 2018_4-seasons_ha

Review: INTO THE DROWNING DEEP by Mira Grant

I've often noted in reviews that I am an aficionado of marine horror, also marine science fiction and marine exploration. I am as fascinated by the Earth' s oceans as I am by space, and the Poles. All this is to say that I leaped headfirst into INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, found it non stop reading, and loved it immensely. This novel has it all: exploration, lots and lots of science (yes, I love that too), human interaction, horror, strong human spirit, hum ...more

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Jun 25, 2022 ♥Xeni♥ rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult, thriller, horror, mermaid, fantasy, 2022-books-read, disability, ebook, lgbtq, urban-fantasy

I found this book incredibly difficult to read. I not a big fan of horror / thriller books, and this one scared me a LOT. I ended up reading out loud most of it to my partner who is not scared of horror at all. But I finished it! I loved some parts of it, but was seriously irked a few others.

There might be minor spoilers ahead.

First off, the entire premise is really cool: lets go find mermaids in 2022! This felt like The Terror at times - an expedition staffed with completely unprepared people I found this book incredibly difficult to read. I not a big fan of horror / thriller books, and this one scared me a LOT. I ended up reading out loud most of it to my partner who is not scared of horror at all. But I finished it! I loved some parts of it, but was seriously irked a few others.

There might be minor spoilers ahead.

First off, the entire premise is really cool: lets go find mermaids in 2022! This felt like The Terror at times - an expedition staffed with completely unprepared people finding something they were definitely not thinking to encounter. And other times it felt very 2022.

One of my main gripes came early: our main character Tory works part time on whale watching ships and goes on a rant about how these majestic creatures only wish to live free and not be captives, how intelligent they are, how humans need to leave them alone, etc. It causes tourists to be upset so she loses her job. What do her parents do to cheer her up? Take her out to pizza, where he dad proceeds to rant about how much he wants a meat lovers pizza and it's unfair. Tory mentions that pigs are more intelligent than dogs, and then everyone moves on, eating their animals and complaining about climate change. This sequence of events - a rant against carnism, a carnist maintaining the status quo, the complainer maintaining the status quo - proceeds to occur over and over and over again in this book in multiple guises. Now I get it's hard to stand up for veganism, to stand up against human created climate change, how it's easier as an author to sell your book if you're working the moderate midfield. But then why include this in the first place? You certainly didn't change any carnist's minds (they're all patting themselves on the back for opting for "free range cattle" instead of feedlot animals, rather than listening to how the animals should be allowed to be free and live their lives in peace). And it only proceeded to annoy me and make me lose respect for any ethics you might stand for.

I was also hoping this book might set up an interesting juxtaposition in which humans are the hunted, potentially farmed, possibly exploited for another species' survival. But that was definitely not happening. The way this story ended was incredibly mild, very mundane even. (view spoiler)

So, overall, I felt this story was quite weak. It was strong on the horror and thriller elements (especially the thriller; building up to "what are they going to find out there!?" was very well done). It was well written in the prose and sentence format department. I loved a lot of the descriptions and diatribes.

But the characters were weak, no one really grew as a person, the plot was fairly straight forward and exactly as you expect, the setting was okay but mostly mundane (what's the difference between a giant cruise-ship-turned-research-vessel and an office building? not much). I felt there was a lot of potential here but with very little substance at the end of the day.

Also, one large pet peeve is how absolutely IDIOTIC the scientists were. Granted, it's human nature to continue believing in your own biases and prejudices even when confronted with facts to the contrary, but these guys were all of one mind that the mermaids were definitely NOT that smart, even after they proved over and over to their detriment.

Olivia was my most favorite character. She was amazing. She is clearly autistic but doesn't let it hold her back when it's something she really wants to do. I loved her entire arc.

I enjoyed most of this story. I liked the creepy darkness without it being sexual assault and war like in most fantasy novels. But overall I felt there was a lot lacking and was hoping for more. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. ...more

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Nov 14, 2017 Trebyl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned-paper

I'm not quite finished the book - I have less than 100 pages left - and it's been on my mind all day. I spent the weekend when I wasn't sleeping, reading it.

I adore Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire). I am not a horror fan. But the things she makes me feel are amazing.

It's getting dark earlier and earlier (like 4:30 pm early) and I live at least a kilometer away from the nearest body of salt water. I also live several stories above ground level (not that it would stop these mermaids). I was check ...more

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Dec 30, 2020 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

This book is not in my normal wheelhouse, but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. I'm more into specfic than scifi, and definitely not into horror, but I'd heard good things about this from people also not into scifi or horror. I'm glad I picked this up - I couldn't put it down! This gave me a similar feeling to reading R.L. Stine's Deep Trouble from the Goosebumps series when I was a tween. There is an overall sense of doom from the beginning - the sea is a troubling, vast, and not fully known plac ...more

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