Into the Drowning Deep

By: Mira Grant

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

New York Times best-selling author Mira Grant, author of the renowned Newsflesh series, returns with a novel that takes us to a new world of ancient mysteries and mythological dangers come to life.

The ocean is home to many myths,

But some are deadly....

Seven years ago the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy.

Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they're not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life's work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart, this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will be found only below the waves.

But the secrets of the deep come with a price.

More from Mira Grant

Newsflesh

• Feed
• Deadline
• Blackout
• Feedback

Rise: A Newsflesh Collection

Parasitology

• Parasite
• Symbiont
• Chimera

©2017 Mira Grant (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Possibly a Fizzle

This was...okay. The concept was really cool. It's a true monster story, with some science and education on environmental conservation thrown in. It doesn't necessarily get preachy, per se, but it does have a very clear message. I'll admit that at certain points, the message is heavy-handed, but overall, I didn't mind it.

I wouldn't call this scary so much as it's entertaining in a how-are-they-going-to-get-out-of-this kind of way. The "monsters" are well-wrought--I could really picture what these creatures looked like, and I appreciated them being almost complex, not just mindless gore-mongers. They're predators. It raises some questions on what it means to be human, what it means to be a person, what it means to be good or bad.

I also found the narrator, Christine Lakin, very pleasant to listen to. She has a pleasing voice, and does a great job differentiating voices, and handling male and female characters. The only reason I don't give her five stars is because her foreign accents--most notably, her Australian accent--are cringe-worthy. It's not a deal breaker, but if you do give this a listen, I think you'll hear what I mean.

All that being said, I do think this story ultimately falls flat for a few reasons. One of those reasons is because there is a rather sappy love story thrown in that was a little too insta-lovey for me. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but I just don't ultimately think the story needed it. In fact, there are a couple of spots where Grant is telling a love story, or else a love-gone-wrong story, and it just wasn't that interesting. These should have been side-notes at best, and I just felt they took up too much of the plot. Also, the sheer number of times Grant felt the need to remind us that the passengers on the voyage are scientists is annoying at best, and distracting at worst.

The biggest reason this falls flat for me, though, is that the climax of the story just goes on for far too long. Like, hours longer than it should. The action really peaks at about 14 hours in, and then there's still three hours to go. I found myself wondering how Mira Grant was going to hold the story up for another three hours.

The answer is that she kinda doesn't. It's really just a drawn-out repetition of things we already know at that point. Grant does a great job of making her very diverse (which is a big plus) characters feel truly human and complex, with various motivations and weaknesses and wants. But the last few hours doesn't exactly add to any of that. It's a drawn out bloodbath with a whole lot of angst thrown in. This is a monster story, so I expected the bloodbath, but I wish there had been a little less angst.

And it was so drawn out, that by the time it reaches its resolution, it's unsatisfying. It's a whomp whomp, like Grant wore herself out and just didn't want to go on writing for much longer. If it were possible, I would give this book 3 and a half stars, rather than just three, because I was definitely entertained, and, at some points, even genuinely creeped out. But I can't bring myself to round up. It started out great, but it just went on too long, tried to do too many things, and ultimately fizzled.

Incredibly intense.

Mira Grant weaves a story about the creatures of the deep. The characters are all compelling. Brave, flawed and real. No cardboard women in this book!

Very slow start to a pretty decent story

I struggled to rate this one, for a number of reasons.

I give the narrator a solid 3.5. It would have been a lot higher, but apart from accents her male choices all sound the same (and are only marginally different from her default female voice). In terms of pacing, inflections, accents, and female voices, however, she was fantastic.

The story, I'm sorry to say, only rates about 2.8 stars.

This was an interesting story with a pretty unusual take on what mermaids/merpeople are/could be, and takes us on a pretty terrifying journey into that possibility.

We are introduced to a pretty diverse cast of characters that all bring something different to the table. Unfortunately, most of them are (at best) two-dimensional cutouts.

And I do have pretty serious issues with the fact that with maybe one or two exceptions, every female character in the book is described as a bombshell with amazing... endowments. And with maybe five exceptions, almost all of the male characters are scum sucking douche-bags.

Which leads me to the various reasons for my low rating:

Ultimately, in terms of grammar and prose, it leaves quite a bit to be desired (clunky constructions, passive voice, and lots and lots of extra words that serve no purpose).

Almost every character is introduced with a ton of (mostly) pointless backstory. Which I suppose was a clumsy way of getting to make the characters relatable and make me care about them. But it didn't really work. I ended up feeling for Olivia and Tori, but on account of what they experience during the story, not their clumsily presented backstory.

Over and above everything else, though, I have the major issues.

First, even at the end I have no sense of who was supposed to be the protagonist (there is maybe a slight preference for Tori here, but there are still several possibilities).

Second, the author seemed unable to make up her mind whether the story was being told in a limited third person or an omniscient one. So much of the narrative feels like a tight third person (narration in the voice of The character whose head we happen to be in), yet we bounce between different characters' internal thoughts all the time and we're presented with information that no character in the book could possibly know.

And third, it took forever to get to the point.

If I was reading/listening to a 1,000-page/30+ hour epic fantasy, I might expect to take the first ten hours just setting the stage and getting to know the characters. But in a book like this? No. It didn't need to spend such a long time on mundane happenings before finally getting to the point.

In the end, in glad I stuck with it and finished the story, but I wish the author had done a better job with the writing. Sticking primarily with the here and now, fixing the POV issues, having a clear main character, and not taking so long to get to the point would have gone a long way toward making this a much more enjoyable book.

With how recent this book is (hence, one would thing, it should be among her best work), I'm not sure I'll be reading any more of her work.

Into the Drowning Deep - Imaginative Story

Enjoyed this story but felt it could have moved a little faster and I would have liked a more robust ending. The author's concept of mermaids is novel and frightening but the creature residing in the very deepest part of the ocean is even more mind blowing. Well worth your time listening.

I'm an ocean enthusiasts so I LOVED THIS STORY.

Fabulous narrator, I loved every minute. It didn't even have a slow start. I will be reading more by this author!

Poor reader

She sounds asleep most of the story or bored. Which ever it is I have stopped listening twice for a few days before coming back. Great story and would be an awesome listen with a good reader.

Mermaid book for adults!

I loved this book! I’ve been trying to find underwater fantasy books not written for children and this is the first decent one I’ve found. Loved it, only wish the epilogue was more thorough. The ending felt very abrupt.

Unexpectedly Amazing

I absolutely loved this book! Killer mermaids…not typically my thing. But this book is one of my favs of the year

I wanted to enjoy it.

I was excited initially as I love nautical themed horror. I’ve always loved the ocean and even spent time as a boat captain.
However, my expectations were not met. It’s a good premise, but the characters are two-dimensional to the point of cartoonish and it was obvious minimal research was done.

I really wanted to like it. Maybe I’ll try the author again after she has some more experience.

almost a good book

There is a very sound concept in this book ruined by a cast that makes stupid decisions, character inconsistencies and other cliche moments. It reads like a direct to DVD movie from a decade ago. Some of it is good, the actual science stuff was fun to approach this subject with but like I said, it fell so short in other areas.