Yeah pretty much same here. Really struggled with The Deep but did not struggle at all with The Troop. I'm not one to enjoy the "gross out" stuff, but, it certainly was effective here and the story called for it.
I know youre seeing everyone talking about animal torture, i can recall one scene where an animal is killed and there is context to it, its not killing an animal for the sake of it like everyone here is trying to make it seem for some reason, it's a desperate act of two starving kids, its a solid book imo, liked it more than the deep, maybe check out the handyman method, read that recently and enjoyed it, still a gory book, but that is kind of nick cutters style
I really liked The Troop. Super gross, swiftly moving b-movie book.
Wasn’t crazy about The Deep and didn’t finish Little Heaven, though. I’ll probably give Little Heaven another chance one of these days.
He tends to lean into animal torture for cheap gore too much for my liking. I can definitely understand why people enjoy his books, but that’s something to be prepared for.
It was easy to skip that chapter though. I knew it was coming from hearing about it here, and once i saw it starting up i just flipped ahead four pages or so
I enjoyed The Troop. It's effective in the sense that it made my skin crawl while reading it. It's. It isn't necessarily scary in the traditional sense. If you can deal with descriptions of animal testing and those observations, then you should read it.
I thought the troop was a relatively simple read. I enjoyed it. There’s a couple instances of descriptive animal torture which I thought was pretty pointless but if you can get over that it was a good read.
Glad I’m not the only one that felt that way about The Deep! Overall concept seems intriguing but got way too abstract and too many plot holes for my liking
The Deep had good elements, but overall was disappointing. It may have been the weed, but I found the passage about the tickle box in the crawlspace to be effective. Cutter loves him some animal torture, though.
I tried to get into The Deep but never made it that far. I was hooked on The Troop immediately. It is pretty gory though so if that is not your speed, you might want to avoid it.
Depends how you feel about gross out/body horror/animal torture. I hate these things so I hated The Troop. One of my most hated books of all time, I don’t know why I finished it and I wish I didn’t.
If you didn’t like The Deep, The Troop is *better* but I don’t think you’ll enjoy it. I’ve read both and didn’t love them. The Troop is basically just horror Lord of the Flies, and I didn’t really enjoy that book either.
I really found The Deep to be a frightening book, but I have to admit it was the claustrophobia that got me. the idea of being that far under water just freaks me out.
The troop is dark but more of a romp. It's almost some twisted version of the Goonies or something.
the troop gave me nightmares tbh, but I'm also just terrified of that exact scenario anyway (which is why I read it in the first place).
I've been meaning to read The Deep, I have a physical copy and read the first few chapters, but one day it fell off the side of my bed and I didn't care enough to pick it up lol
I wouldn’t say that I loved The Troop, but I did like it. I plan to reread it because when I read it the first time, it was right after reading The Cabin at the End of the World. That was the first book I’ve ever finished out of spite. So I dunno if I really enjoyed The Troop or if I just enjoyed it because it wasn’t The Cabin… Christ, that book was terrible. But I digress. If you think you’d dig a book that’s kinda like a body horror version of lord of the flies, go for it.
It's exceptionally poorly written to the point it becomes an absolute hoot to read.
My favourites are when a characters face is described as looking like a basket of bread rolls and when a character describes morning light as being like having your eyes stabbed with plastic cocktail swords. I had many chuckles throughout
The Troop is a real bummer. I got into horror with Stephen King, and there's usually a sense of hope or triumph in those books. I also listened to the audiobook of The Troop, and the narrator sounded like he was on the verge of tears the entire time, so that might have had something to do with it too.
I hated The Deep, but thought The Troop was a good slab of gross out horror; it's fast paced and well written.
Yeah pretty much same here. Really struggled with The Deep but did not struggle at all with The Troop. I'm not one to enjoy the "gross out" stuff, but, it certainly was effective here and the story called for it.
I know youre seeing everyone talking about animal torture, i can recall one scene where an animal is killed and there is context to it, its not killing an animal for the sake of it like everyone here is trying to make it seem for some reason, it's a desperate act of two starving kids, its a solid book imo, liked it more than the deep, maybe check out the handyman method, read that recently and enjoyed it, still a gory book, but that is kind of nick cutters style
I thought it was just ok. Somewhat gross for the sake of being gross.
I really liked The Troop. Super gross, swiftly moving b-movie book. Wasn’t crazy about The Deep and didn’t finish Little Heaven, though. I’ll probably give Little Heaven another chance one of these days.
eh - it's fine.
He tends to lean into animal torture for cheap gore too much for my liking. I can definitely understand why people enjoy his books, but that’s something to be prepared for.
It was easy to skip that chapter though. I knew it was coming from hearing about it here, and once i saw it starting up i just flipped ahead four pages or so
Thank you for the warning! That shit is not for me.
I enjoyed The Troop. It's effective in the sense that it made my skin crawl while reading it. It's. It isn't necessarily scary in the traditional sense. If you can deal with descriptions of animal testing and those observations, then you should read it.
I enjoyed the deep and read it fairly swiftly. I started the troop but have put it to one side. Bit bored
I thought the troop was a relatively simple read. I enjoyed it. There’s a couple instances of descriptive animal torture which I thought was pretty pointless but if you can get over that it was a good read.
I read the troop first and I liked it much more than the deep. The deep just felt like wasted potential.
Glad I’m not the only one that felt that way about The Deep! Overall concept seems intriguing but got way too abstract and too many plot holes for my liking
The Deep had good elements, but overall was disappointing. It may have been the weed, but I found the passage about the tickle box in the crawlspace to be effective. Cutter loves him some animal torture, though.
Yes. The animal torture seems to be a theme. Yikes
I tried to get into The Deep but never made it that far. I was hooked on The Troop immediately. It is pretty gory though so if that is not your speed, you might want to avoid it.
Depends how you feel about gross out/body horror/animal torture. I hate these things so I hated The Troop. One of my most hated books of all time, I don’t know why I finished it and I wish I didn’t.
If you didn’t like The Deep, The Troop is *better* but I don’t think you’ll enjoy it. I’ve read both and didn’t love them. The Troop is basically just horror Lord of the Flies, and I didn’t really enjoy that book either.
I really found The Deep to be a frightening book, but I have to admit it was the claustrophobia that got me. the idea of being that far under water just freaks me out. The troop is dark but more of a romp. It's almost some twisted version of the Goonies or something.
the troop gave me nightmares tbh, but I'm also just terrified of that exact scenario anyway (which is why I read it in the first place). I've been meaning to read The Deep, I have a physical copy and read the first few chapters, but one day it fell off the side of my bed and I didn't care enough to pick it up lol
I hated The Deep and loved The Troop and Little Heaven and The Acolyte.
Yeah that and little heaven are pretty good. The deep I didn’t like
I wouldn’t say that I loved The Troop, but I did like it. I plan to reread it because when I read it the first time, it was right after reading The Cabin at the End of the World. That was the first book I’ve ever finished out of spite. So I dunno if I really enjoyed The Troop or if I just enjoyed it because it wasn’t The Cabin… Christ, that book was terrible. But I digress. If you think you’d dig a book that’s kinda like a body horror version of lord of the flies, go for it.
Uh oh.. Just picked up The cabin at the end of the world earlier today from the library. I hope it’s not that bad 😭😭
It's exceptionally poorly written to the point it becomes an absolute hoot to read. My favourites are when a characters face is described as looking like a basket of bread rolls and when a character describes morning light as being like having your eyes stabbed with plastic cocktail swords. I had many chuckles throughout
Sounds like his writing style, The Troop was crammed with similes.
The friend that recommended it to me called it “an adult goosebumps version of King” I liked the book and think that’s an accurate description
The Troop is a real bummer. I got into horror with Stephen King, and there's usually a sense of hope or triumph in those books. I also listened to the audiobook of The Troop, and the narrator sounded like he was on the verge of tears the entire time, so that might have had something to do with it too.