The Queen

By: Nick Cutter

Narrated by: Ariel Blake, Zac Aleman, Corey Brill, Pete Simonelli

“One of the hottest horror authors on the planet” (Paste) and writer of the #HorrorBookTok sensation The Troop returns with a heart-pounding novel of terror about a young woman searching for her missing friend and uncovering a shocking truth.

On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most people in town—even the police—think she’s dead.

Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything, know the most intimate details about one another…except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed, and death. And now Charity wants Margaret to know her story—the real story. In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend—a person she never truly knew at all…

©2024 Nick Cutter (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Enthralling

Really compelling story and characters. Horrifying imagery. Part Carrie, part Aliens, part The Fly, part Rivers Edge.

Lots of bugs .

I like Cutter a lot and I love his work with bugs and body horror. I myself am a little bored of teenaged girl horror tropes. There’s moments of mean girls , Carrie , Jennifer’s body in here that just feels a little done but the villain is evil creepy crawly fun.

This book is a bit too rapey for teenagers to be the focal point. But Cutter is overall still an author I seek out of the grossest horror that leaves me thinking about scenes from each one of his works. This is the grossest yet I think, and that’s a compliment.

Yikes. Boring and forgettable.

I’ve read half a dozen of Cutter’s books and I mostly enjoyed them (The Deep being very good imo) so I pre ordered this one.
Wished I hadn’t.
It’s mostly the whining of a chubby high school girl mixed with oddly specific analogies.
None of the characters were well developed so I didn’t care about any of them. The bad guy was lame and the premise was silly and boring.
I made it all the way through but just barely. It got to the point that I kinda stopped listening and would just periodically check to see if it was almost done.
The female voice actor I find annoying. Her girl voices are always shaky and victim-like or just whining.
Her male voices are caricatures that sound nothing like how men sound.
Skip this one… it’s not scary, not fun, not believable and not worth a credit.

It was only okay

There were a few bits that were entertaining, the ants, otherwise it was only okay. For the majority of the novel I found it so distracting that Charity’s nickname is Plum and Margaret’s nickname is Cherry. Basically the girls have the same name. Cherry, Chair, Charity. Like really? Why isn’t Charity Cherry? Then there’s Hair. SMH. The author could have literally picked any other names.

A visceral masterpiece

Nobody quite does body horror like Nick Cutter and The Queen delivers that in full force.

Very good! Body horror fr fr!

It was all great. It was really messed up though! It would be very hard for some people to listen to, so only do this with an open mind and a strong stomach. Body, who for sure 100%.

He once again horrifies and grosses me out on another level. Amazing.

Cutter has such a way with throwing me into the book. The book is grotesque and terrifying almost as much as the troop. I dare to say worse. It is a beautifully executed story and has me starting again to see what I had missed through the words.

As Always

Awesome book as always from Nick Cutter! Great performance from the narrators as well. Loved it!

Bugs, hard science, and great characters.

Nick cutter is one of the best and this book doesn't fail to deliver.

Vivid descriptions of both characters and situations make the story feel authentic. There are aspects of story writing that very few people think of that make this book unique, for instance "The Queen" doesn't have a linear story line and there are separate story lines that converge to paint a picture that no one character could have. I especially like the level of actual science used in the book, there's nothing more annoying in sci-fi/horror than "mysterious monster antagonist that just attacks", there's none of that here. The antagonists and protagonist in this book are well fleshed out.

The performance is solid and Corey Brill stands out as the MVP which shouldn't surprise anyone, but everyone did a fantastic job and I would gladly listen to any of the performers again.

Bonkers fun

Cutter is my favorite author right now. Every time you get comfortable, he takes things up a notch. There’s a winking silliness at times, like the pikachus, the comic book villian billionaire, the monster expressing teenage angst after slaughtering a hundred people, and the Greta Thunberg appearance. Cutter’s over-the-top body horror is there too of course. This one is less serious than The Troop and more grounded than Little Heaven but definitely more fun. Probably not the best place to start with Cutter though.