I liked this a lot! It does a great job from early on setting the mood of creeping dread, as we know everyone is headed into a dangerous situation with dubious motives and laughably inadequate safety measures. Tory, Jillian, and Olivia are excellent main characters, and there are a bunch of other good characters too. Oh, and disability representation! I also loved the human relationships that exist alongside all the chaos and danger. And the ending was good. ( )

really excellent premise that just didn't deliver for me unfortunately :-( add to the growing collection of 'would've been a great tight 90min on the syfy channel and i would've had fun' but instead i'm slogging through almost 500 pages ( )

Whoa.
Okay.
Wasn't expecting that many blood-thirsty, screaming, eerily intelligent mermaids but now that I've read about them- I WANT MORE.
Grant's writing is impeccable in this novel, just as dark and unsettling as the waters of the Marianas Trench and all the creatures residing in its depths. I was quickly drawn into the story and didn't want to stop reading until I found out what was going on. Each chapter kept building and building so wonderfully upon the last, creating a chilling atmosphere and this heavy sense of dread that permeated the entire second half of the novel. I'm fairly picky about what kinds of horror I like, but "Into the Drowning Deep" hit all the right marks for me.
There's also a fantastically diverse range of characters and having them all pushed into one ship just set the scene perfectly for the ensuing chaos and conflicts. I loved seeing each of their goals and attitudes play against one another, but Oliva was by far my favorite of them all! She was such an underrated, nerdy badass and I would love to see her in a future book.
My single complaint is that the ending felt a teeny bit too rushed to be 100% satisfying. I wish it had been just a tad more drawn out- maybe 2 more chapters?
Other than that, I would highly recommend this novel to horror fans, or anyone looking for an intense, mysterious read that dives into the realm of oceanic folklore.
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Surprised so many folks I follow enjoyed this...I found the long chunks of exposition and the self-righteous monologues very tedious. The premise is not really believable, and the irrational behavior of most of the characters (as scientists and as people) was consistently frustrating.

It's one thing for a novel to have a little hedged science if the characters are convincing and enjoyable to read about, or to have irritating, irrational characters if the science and plot is fantastic. But a supposedly science-centric book with unlikable characters making rather stupid decisions didn't give me much to love.







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It's not your run-of-the-mill Lovecraftian horror, but I'm not a fan of Lovecraft. I am a fan of other writers who play in his world, most of whom have done a much better job at writing within it than he ever did.

That which Lovecraft described as "so horrible it can't be described in wordy-words," Grant takes as a challenge and prances on his grave. She actually shows us the monster with great descriptions, heart-pounding action scenes and in a scientifically imaginative manner.

The characters were well-written, the plot was solid, the dialogue was real and the creatures were sympathetic enough that your heart tugged just a little in the wrong direction occasionally. Fun! ( )