The Deep

Starred review from September 22, 2014
Fans of unflinching bleakness and all-out horror will love this novel. Expecting to assist in the study of a miraculous cell-regenerating substance discovered deep undersea, veterinarian Luke Nelson descends eight miles to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. What he finds there, in a research lab warped by incredible pressure and trapped in utter darkness, is a mounting wave of physical and mental aberrations. Something down there is testing—or playing with—the scientists and their lab animals. Readers watch as Luke is unpeeled, layer by layer, and reshaped into something terrible. The novel’s horror is notable both for quantity and quality. Where some writers shovel gruesome details into their fiction, Cutter (The Troop) uses a front-end loader. However, his sharp observations and choice of details keep readers from getting numbed by the accumulation of catastrophes; each new shock is freshly disturbing. Genre fans will find this an admirable addition to the list of horror novels that share its title. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

November 1, 2014

In Cutter's second dark thriller (after The Troop), the boundary between real horror and terrifying delusion blurs. The story follows Luke as he travels to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean where his brother and two other scientists are studying an unknown substance called "ambrosia." The scientists have not been heard from for days. Earth's human population is succumbing to a plague named the 'Gets, which causes people to slowly forget everything until their bodies no longer know how to live. Ambrosia has miracle-like healing properties, so the scientific probe is a last-ditch effort to save humanity. Luke's arrival at the undersea lab immerses him into a world where the nightmares of his past come alive, and new nightmares fill the darkness found at the bottom of the sea. Is he hallucinating, or is something driving him to insanity? VERDICT Cutter does a good job of using his characters' histories to flesh out their personalities and advance the plot. Intense scenes of gore and adult themes make this horrific psychological thriller unsuitable for teens, but these elements will appeal to readers who enjoy Stephen King or Lovecraftian stories.--Matt Schirano, Magnus Wahlstrom Lib., Bridgeport, CT

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