Sadly just quite boring.

As a fan of both deep-sea monsters and horror in general, I had high hopes for this book but the truth is, I think some books simply don’t work as audios.
 
This is the tale of a boat with an assorted motley crew of people aboard all heading out to see for their own reasons but truthfully the book only really offers a compelling reason for one pair to be there while the rest all seem very flimsy both in reasoning and personality.
 
What quickly becomes apparent is that the majority of this book is about diving, with very little actual horror until the final few chapters and, even then, it is so sparse and rushed as to feel more like an afterthought than the basis for the tale itself. We’re subjected to long diving sequences and the assorted dangers inherent and the terms ‘Bent’ or ‘Narcosis’ at least 500 times each.
 
My main gripe though, besides the lack of anything really happening (and one character referring to breasts as Bazoongas, Chest Muffins and Sweater Stuffing all in one chapter) is how it really doesn’t work well as an audio. There are a lot of moments where words are spoken but then, on the written page, are the internal thoughts showing what the speaker actually meant and this is all read aloud in the same tone making for a very confusing and broken listening experience (maybe an echo could have been added to highlight the internal dialogue?). That’s not to say that the narrator does a bad job. Sure the performance may have been a little lacklustre and straight but there really wasn’t much here for the Al Kessel to work with and so the fault is not his alone.
 
Another issue is that the book has many instances of withheld information where the chapter ends when a character sees something but the book withholds what they say for ages until it is revealed to other characters, making for really long and boring sections where you wait for the inevitable (and sadly often unsatisfying) revelation.
 
So, the question remains, did I enjoy the book? Honestly, no I did not. I honestly do think that it would have been slightly better structured on the written page rather than narrated but this wouldn’t make up for a huge lack of anything interesting happening for the majority of the book and the extremely banal and generic characters. Not a recommend from me sadly

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Atmospheric and eerie

The synopsis of this book caught my attention immediately. A bunch of people stuck in the middle of the ocean together, deep sea diving and coming across a mysterious, unknown and very scary entity... Sounds great!

It starts well and hooked me in with the backstory of one of the diving groups sister's last moments at sea. From there, in honesty, it took me a while to get into the story as it keeps flipping from one character to another, and, I'm not too interested in the technicalities of diving. So had to persevere for bit but once they started diving it becomes really atmospheric, the descriptions took me down there with them and it was very, very eerie. The narration is absolutely perfect and adds to the experience of listening to the story, I cannot fault it.

We have a really odd mish-mash of characters on this boat and I struggled to get to know them, there's one who has mental health issues, probably psychopathic, who believes that everything in the world only exists for him and because of him. He's a truly horrible character that I would never want even close to my life but he was my favourite character as I'd say he's the one we get to hear what's going on for him in the moment. Another, Raven, is my second favourite... and he's not such a nice person either really. So these two stood out, maybe because they are interesting. The others, well, they were there and I struggled much of the time to differentiate between them so they merged into one - until close to the end.

As the story progressed, despite the merging of characters, I was drawn in and half way through decided it's brilliant but needs concentration through the diving descriptions. They are diving a lot. Scary things happen when they dive and I can conclude most definitely that I will never ever dive. It's not often a book gives me the heeby-jeebies like this one did. By the end I'm thinking that this was seriously good stuff, the descriptions of the weird events that unfold are still with me. As is some of the great narrative like the quote below, which struck me as so poignant I had to note it down.

"There are things people were not made to experience. Contrary to popular wisdom our own death is not one of them. We are born to die and on the day of our birth we begin the inexorable process of preparation that will end in the ground. But we are not, cannot be, able to properly prepare for, or face the death of our children. Though born to die, our deaths make sense only in the face of new life and so, when we see our children into the ground before us, it makes a mockery of the process. It cuts the circle off mid arc."


I received a review copy of this story, at my request, from the author/ narrator/ publisher via audiobook.boom and have provided an honest review.

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2 people found this helpful

The Deep

This is a very intense and frightening book!! The creature was very scary but the parts that I found most terrifying were the dangers involved in diving

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5 people found this helpful

excellent. different read to other books

Great narration. looked forward to listening at evry chance as the most unusual story .

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