Review : The Deep by Nick Cutter

From the acclaimed author of The Troop—which Stephen King raved “scared the hell out of me and I couldn’t put it down.…old-school horror at its best”—comes this utterly terrifying novel where The Abyss meets The Shining.
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.
But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Mariana Trench, a heretofore-unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia”—a universal healer, from initial reports—has been discovered. It may just be the key to eradicating the ‘Gets.
In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab, the Trieste, has been built eight miles under the sea’s surface. But when the station goes incommunicado, a brave few descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths…and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.

Oh be still my beating heart! I’ve just finished The Deep and I’m sat here wondering just what the actual fuck I have just read?! This has been my first read in the horror genre for many years and god what a book to have picked. This book was Bone- Chillingly terrifying, my heart wanted to escape from within my chest it was beating that hard. The book has been described as a mix of The Abyss and The Shining and that comparison has nailed this story. This is classic horror writing at it’s very best – Gruesome, Real and Frightening. The story develops very human emotions to fear with psychological elements. This story very much packs an enormous punch and it leaves you feeling winded and off – balance.

The World has become riddled with “The Gets”

A plague has overcome the earth where it manifests itself physically with pock-marked skin that develops into forgetting small things – like where you left your keys, and develops into forgetting major things like how to drive and finally when your body forgets how to exist and you die. This triggers the main story of what is happening below the ocean – 8 miles down. A substance has potentially been discovered in the deepest recesses of the ocean, further than any human could possibly survive, it’s deadly and crushing. A protected lab has been constructed but at a terrible cost where three scientists will examine and test this wonder substance. Can it be a cure?

Human’s weren’t built for this. There’s a reason nothing exists down here. Or nothing should.

Without examining the horrendous goings on within the lab, there are terrible things that could go wrong down there. The pressure alone would tear them apart, there are deadly creatures that roam the deepest depths of the ocean. Terrible creatures…ugly…

Psychological Elements – Claustrophobia, Isolation and Paranoia

These elements play out throughout the story in glorious HD. You are 8 miles beneath the surface, the mere pressure of the water and the contained way the characters were kept in would be claustrophobic as hell. They haven’t seen daylight in god knows how long and they only have each other and tonnes of water around them for company. No wonder they each fall into madness with their arms outstretched – Or do they? Is it actually some other supernatural force at work here? One scientist openly talks about holes appearing in the lab walls, of it having an exorable pull towards it. How can a hole appear in the wall and not have the water crush them into a pulp?

Flashbacks

This is I think where the author really comes into his own with this story. It is classic horror at its absolute best. The main character Lucas often has flashbacks to his childhood and just how terrible his mother was to both Lucas and his father. It’s this type of writing that reinforces the notion that we are all a product of our upbringing. Those monsters that you were damn sure were under your bed or in your closet – what if they were actually real?

Overall, this was a read with one eye open type of book. If you are squemish then this isn’t a book for you. It’s a horror story what would it be if there wasn’t death, blood, gore and suffering?