Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Orbit Books,2017
ISBN-13: 978-0316379403
Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

Mermaids? Scary? If you’re familiar with Mira Grant(aka Seanan McGuire), author of the Feed series, you know she’s capable of some horrific storytelling. In Into the Drowning Deep, the sequel to her novella Rolling in the Deep, Grant has reinvented a creature that most people don’t take seriously into a terrifying monster. The novel is scientifically based, utterly plausible, and rich in characterization– and it will make the reader cringe every time a dark corner is turned. Into the Drowning Deep is as frightening as Aliens and as mind-bending as Jurassic Park, with the lyrical prose only Grant is capable of writing.

The plot goes something like this: Imagine, an entertainment corporation that seems part reality-show machine and part “Umbrella Corp,” sent a cruise ship into the heart of the Pacific, towards the Mariana Trench, in search of a fictional beast they believe will steer millions straight through televisions into their pockets. Except, of course, something goes wrong and everyone on board goes missing. Only a secret video and splatters of blood remain.

Victoria is a marine biologist whose sister was one of the victims on that first boat. Now, Imagine wants Victoria to be a part of the second voyage, to prove that mermaids actually exist. She’s grouped with a college professor who’s devoted her life to cryptozoology, the woman’s husband and Imagine guru, a pair of deaf twin sisters who are geniuses in their given fields, and a plethora of other characters. Not one of the secondary personalities is poorly drawn; everyone has a backstory that works here without it overwhelming the story.

The ship has its own mysteries, and things obviously go wrong, but not in a typical “bad horror movie” way. The creatures find them and all hell breaks loose, but not in a manner that’s expected. Fans of Grant’s Feed series know that blood and gore will not be avoided, yet it is not exploited, either. Despite the carnage, the cast and crew of the ship remain committed to solving this sci-fi horror mystery of the hows and whys of the mermaids, and not just surviving them.

With very few parts that lag, Into the Drowning Deep rolls through the currents fast and hard, pushing the reader to keep up. While deftly pacing the story so the reader knows what’s going on and why, Grant also captures the lives of the characters in a manner that most cannot. Even the unlikable people evoke sympathy from the reader, and the suspense is genuine because of it. While not as hardcore and explicit as Michael Crichton, the science rings true. It is fascinating, teaching the reader about the mysteries of the deep sea and what we don’t know– yet.  Recommended.

Contains: gore, violence, sex.

Reviewed by Dave Simms