Book Review: Deeper

Deeper is a horror science-fiction novel by Jeff Long and a sequel to The Descent, a dark tale of a group of explorers who discover that a group of humanoids dwell in a large underground kingdom; the humanoids are known as ‘hadals,’ named for their scientific name Homo hadalis, and their culture is one of frightening brutality. The sequel story is kicked off when a group of children suddenly disappear and it seems as though the hadals are responsible. Linguist Ali von Schade, the sole survivor of the previous expedition, finds herself going back to the underground to help find the children. Meanwhile, a mother of one of the missing girls gathers a miniature army to go down and retrieve the children. However, they are ill-equipped to handle the underground world and unprepared for the horrors found there…

The strongest part of the story is most definitely the atmosphere and setting. The caverns are a very claustrophobic setting and Long does a good job in showing how the sanity and morale of the people underground begin to deteriorate as their rescue mission hits roadblock after roadblock. The caverns do a very good job inspiring dread in both readers and characters, playing upon the primal fear of darkness and the idea that the farther from civilization one gets, the more likely it is to lose one’s humanity. Long knows that caverns are frightening places because of the above factors, and the horror inspired by being lost in labyrinthine caverns is only amplified by the fear of what could possibly lurk in such dark depths of the world.

Another thing that Long does quite well in this novel is the character emotions. Much of the tension comes not from the dwellers in the dark, but from how the people going underground begin to crack under pressure, especially the paranoia that comes from the idea that the people who have come into contact with the hadals had been changed by Stockholm Syndrome and are possibly trying to lead others to doom. There is also the adult fear of children being kidnapped by monsters that the characters cannot fully comprehend and only know as violent beings, adding yet another layer of urgency and terror to the novel. The fear for the safety of the children adds further tension between characters, especially when some feel that the rescue mission is doomed and that they should leave the caverns, while others feel that they must press on, no matter the cost.

One thing I felt that Long could’ve improved on, however, is the motives of some of the characters that feel that it’s necessary to venture back into the caves to seek out the hadals. Throughout the novel the readers are given the idea that certain characters feel a strange pull that compels them to once again seek out the hadals. The story implies that the meeting with the hadals, combined with their time in the caverns, has done something strange to their minds to make them think this way. While one could infer that the trauma of the experience has caused their capacity for rational thought to have deteriorated a tad, the novel seems to imply that some of the characters believe that there are answers that only the underground can give. However, I feel that this point hasn’t been elaborated on too much other than to foreshadow a possibly otherworldly force at work. As it stands now, it just feels like an excuse to have some characters insisting on heading back underground for the sake of heading back underground.

While I would be hesitant to call this a horror story, I would still recommend people give this book a shot. It does a good job in painting a terrifying and mysterious world filled with dangerous beings that humanity has yet to fully comprehend, showing the fear and tension that the characters are experiencing as they venture below ground, and creating a mystery that will have readers constantly turning pages to see what happens next. It is ultimately a story about what happens when humanity is forced to confront what it truly is in the dark.