Book Review: Into the Drowning Deep


Into the Drowning Deep is the first book by Seanan McGuire (writing under the pseudonym of “Mira Grant”) that I've ever read, and it is a very good first impression of the author. Embarrassingly, I didn't know this book was a sequel to Rolling in the Deep, but thankfully knowledge of the first book wasn't a requirement to understand and enjoy the sequel. Be warned that this review will contain mild spoilers for the first book.

Seven years ago, Imagine Network sent a crew out on the Atargatis to film a mockumentary on mermaids. The entire crew was lost at sea, leaving behind only a recording that hinted at a grim fate for all on board. Now a new crew is setting out to discover the truth behind the Atargatis incident, and on board is Victoria "Tory" Stewart, a scientist and the younger sister of one of the missing crew members. She hopes to find answers and closure, but soon discovers just how dangerous the mermaids she and the others had been chasing truly are.

I really like this book, and I especially enjoy the characters and overall setting. This story has a pretty sizeable cast of characters, and McGuire does a great job making each one stand out. The character interactions are great to read, and while a majority of the characters don't really change all that much throughout the story, they still do a great job making the entire crew feel alive. There is also a romantic subplot in this story that I liked, though it did feel just a tad rushed and I think could've been improved by having the characters interact more.

I also really like the killer mermaids of this story. I think McGuire succeeded in creating a version of the mythological creature that is fairly grounded in reality. There was clearly a lot of thought put into how said mermaids could survive in their current habitat and how features like their ability to mimic sounds could be used to hunt. Every moment they're around is very memorable, and they make very effective monsters.

Overall, Into the Drowning Deep is a very fun read, and it has piqued my interested in McGuire's other works. I heard that another book in the same setting is in the works, and I hope that's true. This is definitely a setting I want to revisit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: Mythago Wood

Image
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock is a book that immediately caught my attention from the moment I saw its summary. A labyrinthine forest filled with primeval magic? Entities born from old legends and fairytales? A place where fascination can turn into obsession and insanity? I was sold as soon as I finished reading the summary.   Mythago Wood is about a young man named Steven Huxley. His father, George Huxley, had been obsessed with the Ryhope Woods up until his death. George was convinced that Ryhope Woods was a place where legends and stories came to life, and he was particularly obsessed with the story of Guiwenneth, a warrior’s daughter who was rescued and raised by magpies after her aunt tried to take her for herself. Steven finds that his brother Christian is slowly starting to become just as obsessed with the Woods and Guiwenneth as their father was. When Christian disappears into the Woods to search for Guiwenneth, Steven soon begins to be drawn into the strangenes...
Read more

Book Review: The Ruins

Image
I remember when I was still in high school I had stumbled upon the Wikipedia page for a movie called The Ruins . I remember reading through the plot of the movie and noticed that it was based on a book. A couple years later and I finally got my hands on the book. The Ruins is a novel written by Scott Smith in 2006. It is about a group of four college students: Jeff, Amy, Stacy, and Eric. The four of them are on vacation and meet up with two other characters: a German named Mathias and a Greek that calls himself Pablo. Mathias’s brother Heinrich had run off to an archaeological dig site because he had fallen in love with one of the archaeologists and Mathias wants to bring him back. Jeff offers to accompany him and that is how the four end up going to the ruins. Despite several attempts to dissuade them, the six go up to the ruins only to be forcibly quarantined up there by several Mayans after Amy stepped on some of the vines growing there. Things get worse when Pablo fal...
Read more

Book Review: Tortured Souls - The Legend of Primordium

Image
On July 2001, McFarlane Toys released six action figures designed by English writer Clive Barker. Each toy was packaged along with a chapter of a novelette penned by Barker himself, detailing the character’s history and the world that they live in. This series of action figures was known as Tortured Souls and sought to convey what Barker described as ‘the use of flesh as canvas.’ The chapters would then be bundled together in a book titled Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium . Primordium is a city that is said to have existed before all other cities. It is a place of corruption and decadence, a place where the rich and powerful indulge in all manners of sins. An assassin named Kreiger kills a Senator on behalf of the criminal Duraf Cascarellian. However, Kreiger ends up running into the dead Senator’s daughter, Lucidique, who persuades him to try to strike back at the Empire that made his life so miserable. To do this, she leads him to the enigmatic Agonistes, an entity ru...
Read more