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Book Review: The Deep by Nick Cutter

The Deep by Nick Cutter

Pocket Books, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4767-1774-6

Available: Paperback, mass market paperback,  library binding, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

With his second novel, The Deep, author Nick Cutter has his modus operandi firmly established: keep the number of main characters to five or less, put them in an isolated setting, add in a biological menace to terrorize the characters, and a dash of blood, and voila, you have a thriller/horror novel.  It’s the formula he uses, and he does it very well.  This book moves at a fast clip: no lengthy expositions or wasted time.  It’s a good thriller from one of the better writers of the genre.

 

The plot: it’s present day, and the human population is being ravaged to extinction by a new disease called the ‘Gets.  The only possible hope for a cure lies in a research station at the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific, in the form of a new sort of biological organism.  As the book opens, contact with the three scientists at the research station has been lost.  Luke Nelson is the brother of Clayton Nelson, one of the scientists trapped on the bottom.  For reasons unknown to Luke, he’s brought in to make the trip to the bottom and re-establish contact with Clayton and the others.   Once he gets to the station, mayhem results.  The biological organism is not what it seems, and it bends reality for all the humans, causing deadly results.

 

Most of the book takes place in the claustrophobic environs of the research station. The characters quickly realize they are trapped in a station where reality and fantasy, through their dreams and nightmares, quickly meld together: distinguishing between them becomes almost impossible.  Cutter’s skill really shines here.  You start to feel claustrophobic on reading some of the sequences, such as the ones with characters trapped in corridors or ducts.  Add in the terror the characters feel from the creatures (or figments of their nightmares) pursuing them, and you have a first rate thriller.  The descriptions are perfect: Cutter really lets you feel the emotions of the characters as they struggle to survive.  The backstory on Luke Nelson and Clay Nelson is filled in with chapters interspersed throughout the book that reference a point in their lives growing up.  As it turns out, those chapters are not just asides for understanding the characters, but play a part in the overall story thread. These chapters do help flesh the brothers out, but they won’t change your thinking about them.  They are pretty much good or evil: there’s very little in-between.

The only drawback to the book is the ending, which felt rushed and seemed confusing, asking more questions than it answered.  After over 480 pages of excellent writing, the last 10 just felt tacked on.  Outside of that, this is an excellent thriller/horror novel, recommended for adults and teens alike.

 

Contains: violence, mild gore

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Book Review: Demons Among Us by W.E. Zazo-Phillips

Demons Among Us By W.E. Zazo-Phillips

K Studio,  2010

ISBN: 978-0984194520

Available: New

 

Demons Among Us is the first book in a trilogy. The story follows Elizabeth Townsend, a Coast Guard officer serving on the cutter Surveyor when the end of the world occurs.  What appears to be a virus has attacked a boy in Albany.  When a priest is called in by his mother, who fears it’s actually a demon possession, the demons infecting the boy discover they can move from person to person through blood.  They spread like wildfire and civilization is brought to the brink of extinction, with the infected running in packs like wild animals, killing everyone it their path.  Elizabeth and her crewmates are brought to a secure facility so they can contact any surviving family members and make preparations to be taken to the West.

 

Five years after the infection, Elizabeth is living in a commune in the desert.  Run by what’s left of the U.S. Military, the commune is one of many scattered throughout the Western United States. The communes are segregated according to gender, with the main job of the women being reproduction.  We discover that Elizabeth is a sensor—someone who can detect an infected person.  Unfortunately for her, there are people in the remaining government who wish to exploit that ability.  While at a major conference, Elizabeth discovers this plot to use her, and decides to go on the run.  Unknown to most of the people living in the communes, there are scattered communities of uninfected people living beyond the reach of the military.  What will Elizabeth find?

 

This is a brilliant story—demon possession that spreads like a virus.  It’s not overtly religious, but there are references to Christianity, with the communes being named after books of the Bible, and the Biblical quote “I am Legion…we are many”.  There are also people who can make holy water, which rids the demons from the body without killing the possessed.  The characters are well-developed and the story itself is well-written.  I also enjoyed the fact that our “hero” is a strong female.  There are a few mysteries left to be played out, which really holds my interest.  There are two other novellas to come, and I am looking forward to reading them.  Demons Among Us is quite the page-turner. Highly recommended.

Contains: adult language, cannibalism and sexual themes

Reviewed by Colleen Wanglund

Book Review: Severance by Ling Ma

Severance by Ling Ma

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux,  2018

ISBN-13: 978-0374261597

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Severance starts out fast and almost funny, with the author’s description of a group of survivors Googling YouTube videos on survival skills, because of course they are.  It’s 2011, and the End is here. The world has been felled by Shenzhen fever, which is a fungal infection with symptoms that initially mimic the common cold, transported worldwide from factories in China that pay their workers almost nothing and force them to work under unhealthy conditions to produce cheap consumer goods. As the infection progresses, victims find themselves trapped in repeating the same familiar motions, such as setting and clearing the table, over and over, even after their minds are gone.

Candace Chen, a millennial first-generation Chinese immigrant who is now a naturalized American citizen, loves New York City and survives there by working for a publishing company that contracts out its work to the Chinese factories in Shenzhen. Specifically, it’s her job to get Bibles published there. Ma’s demonstration of the hypocrisy involved on the part of  companies profiting off Christianity demanding custom Bibles published cheaply, and Candace’s active role in it (she is not a likable character, although she does have some relatable moments) despite the harm done to Chinese workers, is about as subtle as an anvil hitting the reader on the head. She writes lightly, though, and it often reads as satirical rather than serious.

When Candace considers quitting, she realizes she can’t escape complicity as long as she participates in a consumer economy where too many people are ready to buy cheaply made goods, and she loves the city too much to leave. As people flee the city to escape Shenzhen Fever,  or at least spend their limited lifespans with family, Candace stays put. Soon she is the only employee left at her company, kept there only by the financial incentive of a large bonus if she continues going in until a certain date, and with only her camera to keep her company as she documents the deserted city for her blog, determined to stay to the bitter end. There isn’t a lot of action in this part, so you might think this would get boring, but it just continues to build the tension.

When she does leave, she runs into a small band of survivors in an otherwise empty world, led by a power-hungry IT guy whose brutality has been freed by the end of civilization, who frequently stops the group to break into houses and steal the belongings of the dead (or sometimes the infected, mindless, living) on their way to a “safe place” he knows of, which turns out to be a shopping mall in a Chicago suburb. If you are starting to get a Romero vibe, I will tell you there are monsters in the shopping mall, but the horror is not what you think it’s going to be. Once again, we get a long, slow build broken by sharp, fast moments of violence.

This is not as straightforward a story as I have described here. The plot threads are entangled, as we learn about the effects of Candace’s story of immigration and family, both in China and the United States; her attempts to fit in with her peers and build romantic relationships; her general feeling of randomness as a twentysomething in New York City; the comfort of working in a job you are good at but don’t necessarily like; and her grasping at survival by any means necessary once that privilege is no longer available. It’s not really possible for me to explain how these come together to make her story, a disturbing and yet one which has many elements to it that should make the reader personally uncomfortable. Beyond her own story, once you read the description of  the fungal infection that ends everything, Shenzhen Fever, you’ll find yourself holding your breath. Funny and full of dread, satirical and serious, and somehow pre-apocalyptic, apocalyptic, and post-apocalytic all in the same book, Severance definitely isn’t for everyone, but readers willing to slow down occasionally will enjoy the subtle humor, feel the growing dread and desperation, and find there’s a lot for their minds to chew on.