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The Cavern
When a sink hole opens up near the Australian outback town of Pintalba, it uncovers a pristine cave system. Sam joins an expedition to explore the subterranean passages as paramedic support, hoping to remain unneeded at base camp. But, when one of the cavers is injured, he must overcome paralysing claustrophobia to dive pitch-black waters and squeeze through the bowels of the earth.
Soon he will find there are fates worse than being buried alive, for in the abandoned mines and caves beneath Pintalba, there are ravenous teeth in the dark.
As a savage predator targets the group with hideous ferocity, Sam and his friends must fight for their lives if they are ever to see the sun again.
Soon he will find there are fates worse than being buried alive, for in the abandoned mines and caves beneath Pintalba, there are ravenous teeth in the dark.
As a savage predator targets the group with hideous ferocity, Sam and his friends must fight for their lives if they are ever to see the sun again.
185 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 11, 2019
479 people are currently reading
2234 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 275 reviews
October 31, 2020
this was my worst nightmare omg
April 10, 2020
When a sinkhole opens near a secluded town in the Australian outback, a group of cave divers is brought in to map the underlying cave system. Turns out, though, they are not alone. Something is hiding in the labyrinthine underground- (and partially underwater-) system. And it is hungry.
There’s a bit more background story to the whole thing, but mainly the plot is built on this simple premise. The execution, though, the execution is nearly flawless.
This is a scary, bloody, exciting, nasty, fast-paced, cruel, relentless, and for the most part pretty dark creature feature. It doesn’t pull any punches. It aims to scare and entertain the reader, and to challenge and torture the protagonists. Honestly, it is great fun. For the reader, not so much for the protagonists.
It is not funny, though. This is not your average creature feature where you haha along while the characters head for their inevitable and often times ridiculous demise. Okay, there was one death that was kinda ridiculous, and yes funny, because of how terribly unlucky it was. But I guess that’s what happens when you enter an unexplored, unforgiving and possibly unstable cave system. And when the ultimate evil is waiting for you in the shadows. Shit happens.
Anyways, I liked this book a lot. It was nonstop entertainment and it managed to goose my bumps a couple of times.
4.5 stars, rounded up.
Highly recommended to all you creature feature and horror aficionados out there.
This was another buddy-read with Cathy, who enjoyed it as much as I did. Well, I suppose. Because for once I finished first. :)
There’s a bit more background story to the whole thing, but mainly the plot is built on this simple premise. The execution, though, the execution is nearly flawless.
This is a scary, bloody, exciting, nasty, fast-paced, cruel, relentless, and for the most part pretty dark creature feature. It doesn’t pull any punches. It aims to scare and entertain the reader, and to challenge and torture the protagonists. Honestly, it is great fun. For the reader, not so much for the protagonists.
It is not funny, though. This is not your average creature feature where you haha along while the characters head for their inevitable and often times ridiculous demise. Okay, there was one death that was kinda ridiculous, and yes funny, because of how terribly unlucky it was. But I guess that’s what happens when you enter an unexplored, unforgiving and possibly unstable cave system. And when the ultimate evil is waiting for you in the shadows. Shit happens.
Anyways, I liked this book a lot. It was nonstop entertainment and it managed to goose my bumps a couple of times.
4.5 stars, rounded up.
Highly recommended to all you creature feature and horror aficionados out there.
This was another buddy-read with Cathy, who enjoyed it as much as I did. Well, I suppose. Because for once I finished first. :)
October 14, 2019
No messing around in this book. Slow build-up? Pffft! It‘s B-Movie Horror Flick Night! Body count of the epilogue: 2:0 for the monster. And it keeps going. It‘s bloody, there is gore, there is a lot of action, suspense, oh-shit-moments and it‘s a lot of fun. It is well written to boot and the characters actually have personalities.
It‘s a little predictable, but that‘s to be expected with a creature feature fest like this.
If you are in the mood for uncomplicated monster fun with plenty of blood splatter—this is a pretty damn good choice! Oh yes, and I multiplied my knowledge of Aussie slang by a lot!
PS: very, very creepy! Caves! Cave diving! Darkness! Weird noises! Eep! It‘s vicious!
Recommended! 4.5 stars. Thank you, Dennis, for pointing me towards this particular cave system!
It‘s a little predictable, but that‘s to be expected with a creature feature fest like this.
If you are in the mood for uncomplicated monster fun with plenty of blood splatter—this is a pretty damn good choice! Oh yes, and I multiplied my knowledge of Aussie slang by a lot!
PS: very, very creepy! Caves! Cave diving! Darkness! Weird noises! Eep! It‘s vicious!
Recommended! 4.5 stars. Thank you, Dennis, for pointing me towards this particular cave system!
October 7, 2022
A sinkhole opens up near a secluded town in the Australian wilderness, inviting room for potential disasters. The town employs a group of professional divers to explore and map out the watery underground cavern. Sam and his pals are in for a fun adventure in deep unexplored territory. Little do they know, this is far from a natural disaster. Something otherworldly with sinister intentions is lurking deep below, just waiting for someone or something to swim into its domain where it reigns as supreme master.
The Cavern effectively combines three big fears of mine. Terrifying sea creatures, claustrophobia in the darkness and fear of the unknown. A team of deep divers explore a mysterious cavern full of intricate subterranean paths and dangerous monsters. It's dark, it's suffocating and there's a touch of lovecraftian horror to heighten the dreadful atmosphere.
Despite how brutal and merciless it was, the main antagonist actually ended up being somewhat sympathetic and understandable in the end, ranking this higher than your average monster-filled spookshow.
My rating: 3.9/5
The Cavern effectively combines three big fears of mine. Terrifying sea creatures, claustrophobia in the darkness and fear of the unknown. A team of deep divers explore a mysterious cavern full of intricate subterranean paths and dangerous monsters. It's dark, it's suffocating and there's a touch of lovecraftian horror to heighten the dreadful atmosphere.
Despite how brutal and merciless it was, the main antagonist actually ended up being somewhat sympathetic and understandable in the end, ranking this higher than your average monster-filled spookshow.
My rating: 3.9/5
January 29, 2024
This is a fun novel about a group of cave explorers attending a small rural outback town to explore a recently uncovered cave system. What they find inside is an ancient shape shifting alien who has been hibernating for the past decade and shes hungry.
The characters in this were all great a young couple, brother and sister and my favourite an old Vietnam Vet who runs the local pub.
It skips along and had authentic dialogue and the scenes with the alien were all well done but the story really follows the tropes and is predictable in that aspect making the overall tension lack a little.
I definitely enjoyed this and the writing is well done but one I probably wouldnt read again. 3.5 stars down to 3.
The characters in this were all great a young couple, brother and sister and my favourite an old Vietnam Vet who runs the local pub.
It skips along and had authentic dialogue and the scenes with the alien were all well done but the story really follows the tropes and is predictable in that aspect making the overall tension lack a little.
I definitely enjoyed this and the writing is well done but one I probably wouldnt read again. 3.5 stars down to 3.
May 11, 2019
It takes a lot of unnerve me. As a lifelong fan of horror I’ve become ‘hardened’ to most of its tropes and darkest ideas. So when I stumbled upon The Cavern I almost kept scrolling. Almost. There was something about the cover that sent a chill down my spine, so I decided to take a punt. I brewed a pot of coffee and sat down for what I thought would be a solid read.
Boy was I wrong.
This book is terrifying. The Cavern tells the story of an expedition into a newly uncovered caving system near the outback town of Pintalba. As the group descends down into the bowels of the earth things go wrong, and the expedition finds themselves suddenly fighting to survive as a savage subterranean predator targets them one by one.
I have to admit, once I started to read this book I struggled to put it down. Hodge nails the claustrophobic atmosphere of caving and the tension that is critical to any good monster story. There were moments where chills genuinely rolled over my skin as the monster stalked and struck at the expedition. The characters of the group are all well fleshed out and layered, and the monster itself is something that has crawled out of the deepest and darkest abyss the universe can offer. They say the devil is in the detail, and Hodge’s background as a ER Nurse serves him well when describing the graphic demise of some of the victims. This book is not for the faint of heart! By the end of the story I was a nervous wreck, and I honestly thought about leaving the light on that night.
The Cavern is one of the best horror stories I’ve read in recent times. It’s a two hundred page piece of nightmare fuel that will leave you petrified of the depths beneath our feet.
5 out of 5 stars.
Boy was I wrong.
This book is terrifying. The Cavern tells the story of an expedition into a newly uncovered caving system near the outback town of Pintalba. As the group descends down into the bowels of the earth things go wrong, and the expedition finds themselves suddenly fighting to survive as a savage subterranean predator targets them one by one.
I have to admit, once I started to read this book I struggled to put it down. Hodge nails the claustrophobic atmosphere of caving and the tension that is critical to any good monster story. There were moments where chills genuinely rolled over my skin as the monster stalked and struck at the expedition. The characters of the group are all well fleshed out and layered, and the monster itself is something that has crawled out of the deepest and darkest abyss the universe can offer. They say the devil is in the detail, and Hodge’s background as a ER Nurse serves him well when describing the graphic demise of some of the victims. This book is not for the faint of heart! By the end of the story I was a nervous wreck, and I honestly thought about leaving the light on that night.
The Cavern is one of the best horror stories I’ve read in recent times. It’s a two hundred page piece of nightmare fuel that will leave you petrified of the depths beneath our feet.
5 out of 5 stars.
October 26, 2020
This seemed to be a perfect book for me, something big and scary under water and people poking at it. But I was bit underwhelmed, didn't find this as exciting as I wanted to and it wasn't a fun adventure. I have to keep looking for another book that will do what the Mega series with sharks did for me.
May 20, 2024
To read and enjoy this, I recommend you disengage your critical thinking... much like the characters do
January 14, 2024
When a sinkhole opens up in the Australian outback near the town of Pintalba, it reveals an unexplored cave system. Sam is recruited as a paramedic support by his girlfriend Ellie and her team of cave enthusiasts to explore it before anyone else, but as they descend into the dark, they realise that someone - or something - else is hiding down there, and it's eager to find them.
In typical horror fashion, we start the book with two characters that have nothing to do with our main cast: a couple, Jim and Beth, who paid good money for the chance to explore the cave before anyone else. They reach a subterranean lake and, as Jim sets up their camera, Beth glimpses a child in the water. Her instinct kicks in and she dives into the water to save him. Little does she know, the child is actually a shape-shifting monster and it's going to eat her and her husband with gusto - and gore.
I can already point out one of the reasons why this novel didn't work for me. One of the things that scares me the most with such a premise is the idea of the characters - and I with them - not knowing what they are facing. The mystery for me plays a huge part in creating tension and suspense. Is there really a monster stalking them? Is it just their imagination?
In this instance, I already know the answer, and what would have been a nice way to relate to the characters throughout the first part of the novel is turned into just one more bit of information they have to catch up on. But let's keep going.
We now meet Sam, a paramedic who in theory suffers from claustrophobia (and we'll get back to that), and his girlfriend Ellie, while they go diving off one coast or another. He's hit by something in the water and panics, and then blames his claustrophobia for it. Even though he was not in a closed space, and being hit by something in the ocean would scare pretty much everyone. Ever heard of sharks?
Anyway, they talk about this cave system that just popped up and how they will explore it. They also have a team all set up: Max, who is Ellie's little brother; Frida, who is a biologist specialised in cave systems; and Aaron, who is a jerk but has a lot of money. His only purpose in the story is to literally buy their privilege to enter the cave.
We meet all of them and then, you know, after the gruesome first chapter, you expect the story to go quickly enough: what else is there to do? The town is small and half deserted, and since we already know what lurks in the dark, what's the point in waiting? The only interesting thing left is to see how the characters will react to the monster in the cave.
So of course it will take almost half of the book to get there.
We follow the guys lingering in the hotel, finding out that the city was famous for its opal mines - all closed now - and that the miners thought something called the "Miner's Mother" inhabited the caves. They used to leave small offerings at the entrance of the tunnels to favour protection before going to work. Of course all of this is dismissed by them as just folklore. Even though a couple of people have disappeared in the last few days - and we know it was the monster, because we followed the scenes through their points of view.
In the meantime, we follow Max as he helps Mia, the local paramedic, because she currently has no help and someone is prank-calling her all the time.
We find out that the person calling her planned to feed her to the monster, but Sam's presence ruined her plan. And that's how we are introduced to two more characters: Karen, who lost her little brother Archie and her father to the Miner's Mother some forty years earlier, and her mother to suicide a little later; and Trevor, her brother and police officer. They are feeding the monster in the hope that it will go "dormant" again, as it did forty years ago. Their whole evil plan actually revolves around the hope that the Miner's Mother will eat the group of cave explorers and be satisfied enough to go back to sleep. Even when Trevor seems to find some humanity (or even just common sense) left in him and proposes to seal off all of the entrances to the mines and starve the monster, Karen still thinks that maybe she can leave one open, just one, so that she can go there and ask the monster to show her her little brother's face.
Because if a monster ate your little brother and used his face as bait to eat other people, of course you'd want to feed it and visit it from time to time, right?
Anyway, we get to the 44% mark according to my ebook, and we finally enter the cave. First of all, I'll admit I don't know how these things work, but if you get a paramedic on the group in the eventuality that someone might need help, then why do you start the exploration and leave him up top? If someone is hurt after a couple of hours of exploring the cave and squeezing into the cracks, I don't see how a paramedic who is not there is going to help. But we don't have to worry about that, because Aaron is bitten by some little creature literally seconds after setting foot in the cave, so he's the one who is left up top and Sam joins the group.
Now, let's talk about Sam for a second. He's supposedly claustrophobic, and honestly? I feel like the author has no idea of how a phobia works. Sam's claustrophobia only shows up a little when he's stuck in a passage, and can't move neither onward nor backward. He takes a deep breath, focuses, and after ten seconds he's out and feels great.
This is not a phobia. This is a normal human reaction at the thought of being stuck under thirty meters of solid rock. And his "phobia" is never brought up again, only mentioned almost in passing in another point of the cave, when they have to pass through a narrow tunnel underwater. Once again, Sam is understandably scared, but nothing more. I would honestly be shitting myself at the thought of doing it all again to go back to the surface, but Sam is exhilarated and never spares it a second thought. Good for him, I guess?
Let's now talk about the monster for a moment. As far as I understand, it has a vaguely human shape, but with talons at the end of her fingers and really sharp teeth. It eats pretty much anything, but of course her favourite prey are humans - probably because they are the only creatures stupid enough to get themselves into the tunnels of their own volition. It also has the ability to assume the appearance of her victims, even though for some reason she can't hide her talons (?), and of course she can't talk, but her screams sound like human voices.
Now for the really fun part. We get a couple of sections from her perspective - why not, we already followed at least four people whose only point was to die, let's add another useless point of view. She thinks about the last few days and literally acknowledges that her hunger and aggression are rising because of a spike in her hormones due to pregnancy. She must have a PhD she never told anyone about. She mentions meters when talking about distances, and creatures that she knows have evolved from her species - not sure how, since her last clutch was exterminated except for one male, but maybe alien forms of life evolve randomly and in a very short amount of time. She also somehow knows that it's been exactly forty years since her last clutch, and I'm still wondering how a beast that lives in dark tunnels under the earth can understand the concept of year and also figure out how many have passed, when I have a calendar and I barely know what month it is.
So you'd think the monster's intelligence is at a human level or something very close, but then it mostly acts like an animal every time it comes in contact with our protagonists, so... I'm confused?
Anyway, at this point the only thing left to do is watch as everyone stumbles around to see who makes it alive at the end. You could guess pretty much every single thing that happens from the moment they enter the cave; just imagine everyone doing the stupidest thing possible, and you should be on the right track.
The characters are dull and I couldn't care less for any of them. The exploring group was made up of idiots who couldn't read the signs and put two and two together to save their lives. The subplot with Karen and Trevor doesn't add anything to the story, and it ends in the most anticlimactic way possible. I wasn't even hoping for the monster to kill them, because even the Miner's Mother grated on my nerves, and everyone seemed to become stupid when the plot needed it. I just wished the caves would collapse and kill everything and everyone.
The writing style is also a bit repetitive. I reached a point where I thought that if I read once more about "rhythmical arterial spurts", my eyes would roll so hard that I would see my own brain. Same thing for the word "mate"; I get that the book is set in Australia, but every single person or group that is not mentioned by name is a mate. Girlfriends are mates, friends are mates, colleagues are mates, even comrades during the Vietnam war are referred to as mates. Reading this book, you would think Australian people don't have any other word to refer to people they know. (Please confirm if you're reading this from Australia; I'm actually kind of curious now.)
Aside from that, I don't think the book is scary. It's gory and very graphic when the creature shows up, but that's about it. And even though it might be a bit disturbing, especially for more sensitive readers, gore doesn't really do it for me. I feel like the idea for this story was good, but it would have been ten times scarier if we discovered things together with the main cast. Instead we knew from the start what the monster was and what it could do, and even during the novel we always knew where it was and when to expect it. I feel that took away a lot from the story.
To sum this up: I didn't love the writing style, with its repetitions and unneeded jumps between different perspectives; I didn't care for the characters, they were all pretty bland; the monster wasn't scary; even the spelunking aspect is really not so well executed. It's easy at times to forget we are supposed to be in a cave. It feels like one of those B-Movies, but it's not one of those "so bad it's so good" situations, it's only... bad. It would have been so much scarier if only the author didn't feel the need to explain every single detail from every perspective, and instead left some surprises around.
I went into this hoping to find something similar to The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - which, by the way, is amazing - but I was sorely disappointed. Of course this doesn't mean that you can't enjoy or love this book; I'm happy for you if you did. It just wasn't what I was looking for, and I needed to get it off my chest.
In typical horror fashion, we start the book with two characters that have nothing to do with our main cast: a couple, Jim and Beth, who paid good money for the chance to explore the cave before anyone else. They reach a subterranean lake and, as Jim sets up their camera, Beth glimpses a child in the water. Her instinct kicks in and she dives into the water to save him. Little does she know, the child is actually a shape-shifting monster and it's going to eat her and her husband with gusto - and gore.
I can already point out one of the reasons why this novel didn't work for me. One of the things that scares me the most with such a premise is the idea of the characters - and I with them - not knowing what they are facing. The mystery for me plays a huge part in creating tension and suspense. Is there really a monster stalking them? Is it just their imagination?
In this instance, I already know the answer, and what would have been a nice way to relate to the characters throughout the first part of the novel is turned into just one more bit of information they have to catch up on. But let's keep going.
We now meet Sam, a paramedic who in theory suffers from claustrophobia (and we'll get back to that), and his girlfriend Ellie, while they go diving off one coast or another. He's hit by something in the water and panics, and then blames his claustrophobia for it. Even though he was not in a closed space, and being hit by something in the ocean would scare pretty much everyone. Ever heard of sharks?
Anyway, they talk about this cave system that just popped up and how they will explore it. They also have a team all set up: Max, who is Ellie's little brother; Frida, who is a biologist specialised in cave systems; and Aaron, who is a jerk but has a lot of money. His only purpose in the story is to literally buy their privilege to enter the cave.
We meet all of them and then, you know, after the gruesome first chapter, you expect the story to go quickly enough: what else is there to do? The town is small and half deserted, and since we already know what lurks in the dark, what's the point in waiting? The only interesting thing left is to see how the characters will react to the monster in the cave.
So of course it will take almost half of the book to get there.
We follow the guys lingering in the hotel, finding out that the city was famous for its opal mines - all closed now - and that the miners thought something called the "Miner's Mother" inhabited the caves. They used to leave small offerings at the entrance of the tunnels to favour protection before going to work. Of course all of this is dismissed by them as just folklore. Even though a couple of people have disappeared in the last few days - and we know it was the monster, because we followed the scenes through their points of view.
In the meantime, we follow Max as he helps Mia, the local paramedic, because she currently has no help and someone is prank-calling her all the time.
We find out that the person calling her planned to feed her to the monster, but Sam's presence ruined her plan. And that's how we are introduced to two more characters: Karen, who lost her little brother Archie and her father to the Miner's Mother some forty years earlier, and her mother to suicide a little later; and Trevor, her brother and police officer. They are feeding the monster in the hope that it will go "dormant" again, as it did forty years ago. Their whole evil plan actually revolves around the hope that the Miner's Mother will eat the group of cave explorers and be satisfied enough to go back to sleep. Even when Trevor seems to find some humanity (or even just common sense) left in him and proposes to seal off all of the entrances to the mines and starve the monster, Karen still thinks that maybe she can leave one open, just one, so that she can go there and ask the monster to show her her little brother's face.
Because if a monster ate your little brother and used his face as bait to eat other people, of course you'd want to feed it and visit it from time to time, right?
Anyway, we get to the 44% mark according to my ebook, and we finally enter the cave. First of all, I'll admit I don't know how these things work, but if you get a paramedic on the group in the eventuality that someone might need help, then why do you start the exploration and leave him up top? If someone is hurt after a couple of hours of exploring the cave and squeezing into the cracks, I don't see how a paramedic who is not there is going to help. But we don't have to worry about that, because Aaron is bitten by some little creature literally seconds after setting foot in the cave, so he's the one who is left up top and Sam joins the group.
Now, let's talk about Sam for a second. He's supposedly claustrophobic, and honestly? I feel like the author has no idea of how a phobia works. Sam's claustrophobia only shows up a little when he's stuck in a passage, and can't move neither onward nor backward. He takes a deep breath, focuses, and after ten seconds he's out and feels great.
This is not a phobia. This is a normal human reaction at the thought of being stuck under thirty meters of solid rock. And his "phobia" is never brought up again, only mentioned almost in passing in another point of the cave, when they have to pass through a narrow tunnel underwater. Once again, Sam is understandably scared, but nothing more. I would honestly be shitting myself at the thought of doing it all again to go back to the surface, but Sam is exhilarated and never spares it a second thought. Good for him, I guess?
Let's now talk about the monster for a moment. As far as I understand, it has a vaguely human shape, but with talons at the end of her fingers and really sharp teeth. It eats pretty much anything, but of course her favourite prey are humans - probably because they are the only creatures stupid enough to get themselves into the tunnels of their own volition. It also has the ability to assume the appearance of her victims, even though for some reason she can't hide her talons (?), and of course she can't talk, but her screams sound like human voices.
Now for the really fun part. We get a couple of sections from her perspective - why not, we already followed at least four people whose only point was to die, let's add another useless point of view. She thinks about the last few days and literally acknowledges that her hunger and aggression are rising because of a spike in her hormones due to pregnancy. She must have a PhD she never told anyone about. She mentions meters when talking about distances, and creatures that she knows have evolved from her species - not sure how, since her last clutch was exterminated except for one male, but maybe alien forms of life evolve randomly and in a very short amount of time. She also somehow knows that it's been exactly forty years since her last clutch, and I'm still wondering how a beast that lives in dark tunnels under the earth can understand the concept of year and also figure out how many have passed, when I have a calendar and I barely know what month it is.
So you'd think the monster's intelligence is at a human level or something very close, but then it mostly acts like an animal every time it comes in contact with our protagonists, so... I'm confused?
Anyway, at this point the only thing left to do is watch as everyone stumbles around to see who makes it alive at the end. You could guess pretty much every single thing that happens from the moment they enter the cave; just imagine everyone doing the stupidest thing possible, and you should be on the right track.
The characters are dull and I couldn't care less for any of them. The exploring group was made up of idiots who couldn't read the signs and put two and two together to save their lives. The subplot with Karen and Trevor doesn't add anything to the story, and it ends in the most anticlimactic way possible. I wasn't even hoping for the monster to kill them, because even the Miner's Mother grated on my nerves, and everyone seemed to become stupid when the plot needed it. I just wished the caves would collapse and kill everything and everyone.
The writing style is also a bit repetitive. I reached a point where I thought that if I read once more about "rhythmical arterial spurts", my eyes would roll so hard that I would see my own brain. Same thing for the word "mate"; I get that the book is set in Australia, but every single person or group that is not mentioned by name is a mate. Girlfriends are mates, friends are mates, colleagues are mates, even comrades during the Vietnam war are referred to as mates. Reading this book, you would think Australian people don't have any other word to refer to people they know. (Please confirm if you're reading this from Australia; I'm actually kind of curious now.)
Aside from that, I don't think the book is scary. It's gory and very graphic when the creature shows up, but that's about it. And even though it might be a bit disturbing, especially for more sensitive readers, gore doesn't really do it for me. I feel like the idea for this story was good, but it would have been ten times scarier if we discovered things together with the main cast. Instead we knew from the start what the monster was and what it could do, and even during the novel we always knew where it was and when to expect it. I feel that took away a lot from the story.
To sum this up: I didn't love the writing style, with its repetitions and unneeded jumps between different perspectives; I didn't care for the characters, they were all pretty bland; the monster wasn't scary; even the spelunking aspect is really not so well executed. It's easy at times to forget we are supposed to be in a cave. It feels like one of those B-Movies, but it's not one of those "so bad it's so good" situations, it's only... bad. It would have been so much scarier if only the author didn't feel the need to explain every single detail from every perspective, and instead left some surprises around.
I went into this hoping to find something similar to The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - which, by the way, is amazing - but I was sorely disappointed. Of course this doesn't mean that you can't enjoy or love this book; I'm happy for you if you did. It just wasn't what I was looking for, and I needed to get it off my chest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2025
I wanted something creepy to read on the beach.. this was perfect! that part with Max in the cave gave me anxiety.
May 26, 2025
This was a really great action-packed horror book! I had hoped it would have just a little more focus on the simple horror of caving and cave diving, because when those elements were utilized it was very effective and well researched, but it was a bit more focused on being a creature feature, and that's okay because I really enjoyed it. It was creative, gripping, and very creepy and gory. The characters were good, though they made very inadvisable decisions sometimes, but we wouldn't have an outcome like this if they hadn't. It was well written and overall a well rounded and very fun story to read.
December 7, 2020
This book was a mix of this
and this
with a little bit of this
Cave monsters in Australia! This is one of those 90 min summer movies like Anaconda or Crawl but in book form, I kept thinking this would be great for teenagers, and if my son liked to read (which to my great shame he does not) this would be an exciting read for him. This is not to say it is not well done there is a good amount of foreboding built as well as good character development so that you don't want these crazy Aussies to get eaten.
When a sink hole opens up near the Australian outback town of Pintalba, it uncovers a pristine cave system. Sam joins an expedition to explore the subterranean passages as paramedic support, hoping to remain unneeded at base camp. But, when one of the cavers is injured, he must overcome paralysing claustrophobia to dive pitch-black waters and squeeze through the bowels of the earth.
It is a cool premise and it is an exciting read, great monster adventure.
and this
with a little bit of this
Cave monsters in Australia! This is one of those 90 min summer movies like Anaconda or Crawl but in book form, I kept thinking this would be great for teenagers, and if my son liked to read (which to my great shame he does not) this would be an exciting read for him. This is not to say it is not well done there is a good amount of foreboding built as well as good character development so that you don't want these crazy Aussies to get eaten.
When a sink hole opens up near the Australian outback town of Pintalba, it uncovers a pristine cave system. Sam joins an expedition to explore the subterranean passages as paramedic support, hoping to remain unneeded at base camp. But, when one of the cavers is injured, he must overcome paralysing claustrophobia to dive pitch-black waters and squeeze through the bowels of the earth.
It is a cool premise and it is an exciting read, great monster adventure.
March 11, 2021
I have very mixed feelings about this book.
I loved the writing style, I powered through this book in one day, and when I skimmed the e-book for this review (I originally read the German paperback, which I have a few things to say about in particular, but I'll do that at the end), I found myself enjoying the scenes taken out of context. Alister Hodge is a paramedic and writes medical articles, and you can tell that he’s intelligent and good with words.
But the plot and the characters…
You’re probably thinking, ‘oh this sounds like a B-Movie Horror Flick’ and you’d be right, but it’s not one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ kinda stories, it’s just… bad.
This book is filled with clichés, the pacing is off, the story is predictable, and it is told from the perspective of like, every single character in this book, even the monster itself!
I’m not being critical because I hate this book. I don’t want this to come off as me pointing at this and going “check out this piece of garbage”, because I think there’s a lot of potential and room for improvement.
Okay, let’s dive right in. (Get it? Okay.)
I'm gonna summarize the first quarter of the book and then talk about a few of the complaints I have. Minor spoiler warning, I won't give away anything about the ending though.
In typical horror fashion, the book doesn’t start with the main characters, but with the characters who are killed by the thing from the book, but before the events of the book take place. Jim and Beth, a couple and experienced cavers, are the first people to explore a newly discovered cave system in Pintalba, Australia. As they do their exploring, they hear a noise, and they make a joke about how it may be the "Miner's Mother", a monster the local barman warned them about.
So already, we have the frustratingly unconcerned characters and the drunk barman who knows about the dark secret of the town and warns travellers, but to no avail.
Jim and Beth decide to follow the noise - no surprises here - and find a huge underground room with a cathedral-like ceiling and a body of water at the far end of it. So you already know where the cave diving-action will take place later. As Beth checks out the water, she suddenly catches a glimpse of a child’s face disappearing under the surface.
Beth jumps into the water to save it.
Of course, the child is revealed to actually be the monster, who appears to possess some kind of shapeshifting powers.
I gotta give it to Alister Hodge, the scene when the monster finally eats Beth is pretty disgusting, and the gore in general is good and effective in this book.
In the next chapter, we meet Sam, our main protagonist, who is a paramedic and his girlfriend Ellie, a geology expert and amateur adventurer. The rest of "the gang" is made up of Max, who is Ellie’s little brother, Frida, who is a biologist specialized in cave systems, and Aaron, who is a jerk.
Their plan is to explore and map the cave system with some fancy equipment. They briefly talk about the couple that went missing when they explored the cave, and Frida expresses some concern about it, but Aaron shuts her down real quick.
We also learn that Pintalba used to be known for its opal mining industry but is now essentially a dying town and that Aaron bribed a few people, which is why they’re the only people allowed to go down into the cave in the first place - because he’s a rich jerk.
As they arrive in Pintalba and take a first look at the entrance, the sinkhole on the farm, they raise the topic of the lost couple once more. Ellie mentions that she briefly knew the couple and that they were known as being troublemakers who didn’t care about safety precautions too much.
If you're thinking this statement will age very poorly, you're right.
Back at the hotel, Sam and Ellie look at some paintings of the Miner’s Mother and meet the barman, Jack, who is a retired vietnam veteran, because of course he is. He warns them about the cave because “there are things in this area better left alone”, but they don’t listen to them since he’s just the barman who knows the dark secret of the town and warns the tourists to no avail from every horror movie ever.
Jack talks Sam into helping the local paramedic Mia, who is currently without any assistance and on top of that, appears to have a stalker who prank calls her.
Meanwhile, Aaron brings more bad news - the city’s council has rejected to allow the group entrance to the cave. Bureaucracy will continue to be the true horror of this story.
We also meet Kaz, who lost her little brother Archie and her father to the Miner's Mother, and her (still alive) brother Trevor, who turns out to be the police officer of the town. If you’re playing B-Movie-Horror Bingo, you can strike out “corrupt police officer who is in on the whole thing”. They have an evil plan, which they continue to talk about in detail, basically revealing the whole plot. We're a quarter of the way through the book, and all I'm thinking is 'Oh, I guess this is the story. Now the only thing left to find out is who makes it out alive in the end.'
Complaining time.
In the synopsis, it says that Sam has to overcome "paralyzing claustrophobia". It comes up once right at the beginning, when he says that diving makes him feel claustrophobic. They're not in a cave or anything at this point, it appears to just be about being underwater.
Anyway, Sam is doing okay until some animal bumps into him. He’s stricken with fear and swims back to the surface.
It turns out to be just a seal, so this is a classic jumpscare moment without any real threat behind it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you’re already nervous about diving and then something of considerable size bumps into you… wouldn’t freaking out be a kinda natural reaction?
I mean, I’d be losing my shit and I’m not claustrophobic, I just don’t like the thought of being eaten alive by any sea creature.
Later, when they're in the cave, Sam is crawling on his belly through a narrow tunnel, which is bad. He gets stuck, which is worse.
Again, I think panicking because you are stuck, lying on your stomach, in a narrow cave, is a very normal thing to do. He doesn’t even seem to hyperventilate or anything, he’s just… scared, which - totally relatable - then snaps back to reality, there goes gravity, and he just, plops out. As soon as he does, he's euphoric.
Later, as they're diving, his fear vanishes altogether!
I think if you’re claustrophobic, being stuck would have been an absolutely traumatic experience, and not a hurdle that you feel great about overcoming.
Listen. My mom has what you may call “paralyzing claustrophobia”. One time, when we were at the zoo, they had a building for animals that live underground, and the hallways were made to look like the inside of a cave. It was still roomy, I could fully extend my arms, but it was dark and the walls looked like stone. I didn’t even think twice about it, I was just like “okay, neat”.
Suddenly, I see my mom speed-walking past me, shoving people out of her way without even realizing. I had to apologize to everyone for my mom basically stampeding their kids as I jogged after her.
The only way you could get my mom to crawl through a fucking underground tunnel is if you knocked her unconscious and stuffed her in there. And I think as soon as she wakes up, she’d just go into shock, like a possum.
For someone who’s claustrophobic, I believe it would have been full panic-mode as soon as the sky is out of sight. The phobia doesn’t just kick in during extreme situations.
I’m very afraid of spiders, and I wouldn’t freak out only when like, a fucking tarantula crawls on my face, no, I get terrified by the tiny spiders that live in my shower even though they don’t threaten me in any way, shape or form. That’s why it’s a phobia, and not just common sense, or a normal will to stay alive.
I think the word “claustrophobia” was just thrown in there to make it seem more interesting. It’s not inconvenient for the plot in any way, it doesn’t cause any drama or any problems, Sam is just a bit more nervous than the other people in the group who’ve done caving a hundred times and then overcomes his fear almost immediately. It would have been so interesting to have Sam paralyzed by his irrational fear to the point where he can’t do anything about the very real threat of the monster.
Another thing that bothered me was the structure and the multiple narrators. Chapter 9 for example goes like this: ‘Sam and Ellie talk about a ghost tour’, ‘Kaz and Trevor explain their evil plan’, ‘Sam and Ellie actually do the ghost tour’, ‘Stella watches her friend Warwick become mine mother food’. You can totally write from the perspective of multiple characters, if it’s done well. But usually, you’d do a character break like, every chapter, not 3 times within a chapter!
The author also seems to change from a personal to a neutral narrator sometimes, and that really took me out of some moments. Like in this segment, when we read through the Miner's Mother point of view:
So, the miner’s mother doesn’t know what the regulator and breathing tube is, which is to be expected, but she knows about decompression sickness and uses the metric system???
Earlier, the author used “paces” to describe distance from the monster’s point of view, which I thought was very smart, but now he kinda flip flops between a personal and neutral narrator, which makes the whole scene seem kinda weird. I’m probably overthinking this, but when I read this, the miner’s mother being like love eating humans, gotta get back to my cave, just have to make this 30 meter dive totally took me out of the moment.
Also, the thirty is written out, and the forty is in numerals, I just realized that.
Another thing I noticed while reading this is that when the author wants to describe that it’s really dark, the characters wave a hand in front their face. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never, ever done this in my life. Where did this trope come from? Maybe I’m the weird one here.
The German translation of this work is okay, I noticed some instances where some words were left out, and there were a few comma errors, but those were very consistent so Tina Lohse, you gotta look into that.
Also, the “Miner’s Mother” was always italicised, so I read it like “DiE mInEnMuTtEr”.
However, with the title, they did that dumb thing Germans do, which is leave the English title as is and add a dumb sub-title. So now we have “The Cavern - Das Grauen aus der Tiefe”, which means “the terror from the deep” and is a very original title that has never been used before. (There are only three movies with the same title!)
Also, in the translated version, I didn’t get the full Australian experience, which is a shame, because reading Sam trying to wake up Mia, who may or may not be dead, and going “Mia, you gotta wake up, mate!” is pretty funny.
I’d definitely read something from Alister Hodge again, I think he just needs more practice writing fiction, be more consistent with his characters and to be more aware of horror tropes. You can use tropes to your advantage, but you gotta know what you’re doing. If this was structured differently and built more tension, and also didn’t explain every aspect of the plot from every single character’s point of view, maybe it would have scared the shit out of me.
I loved the writing style, I powered through this book in one day, and when I skimmed the e-book for this review (I originally read the German paperback, which I have a few things to say about in particular, but I'll do that at the end), I found myself enjoying the scenes taken out of context. Alister Hodge is a paramedic and writes medical articles, and you can tell that he’s intelligent and good with words.
But the plot and the characters…
You’re probably thinking, ‘oh this sounds like a B-Movie Horror Flick’ and you’d be right, but it’s not one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ kinda stories, it’s just… bad.
This book is filled with clichés, the pacing is off, the story is predictable, and it is told from the perspective of like, every single character in this book, even the monster itself!
I’m not being critical because I hate this book. I don’t want this to come off as me pointing at this and going “check out this piece of garbage”, because I think there’s a lot of potential and room for improvement.
Okay, let’s dive right in. (Get it? Okay.)
I'm gonna summarize the first quarter of the book and then talk about a few of the complaints I have. Minor spoiler warning, I won't give away anything about the ending though.
In typical horror fashion, the book doesn’t start with the main characters, but with the characters who are killed by the thing from the book, but before the events of the book take place. Jim and Beth, a couple and experienced cavers, are the first people to explore a newly discovered cave system in Pintalba, Australia. As they do their exploring, they hear a noise, and they make a joke about how it may be the "Miner's Mother", a monster the local barman warned them about.
So already, we have the frustratingly unconcerned characters and the drunk barman who knows about the dark secret of the town and warns travellers, but to no avail.
Jim and Beth decide to follow the noise - no surprises here - and find a huge underground room with a cathedral-like ceiling and a body of water at the far end of it. So you already know where the cave diving-action will take place later. As Beth checks out the water, she suddenly catches a glimpse of a child’s face disappearing under the surface.
Beth jumps into the water to save it.
Of course, the child is revealed to actually be the monster, who appears to possess some kind of shapeshifting powers.
I gotta give it to Alister Hodge, the scene when the monster finally eats Beth is pretty disgusting, and the gore in general is good and effective in this book.
In the next chapter, we meet Sam, our main protagonist, who is a paramedic and his girlfriend Ellie, a geology expert and amateur adventurer. The rest of "the gang" is made up of Max, who is Ellie’s little brother, Frida, who is a biologist specialized in cave systems, and Aaron, who is a jerk.
Their plan is to explore and map the cave system with some fancy equipment. They briefly talk about the couple that went missing when they explored the cave, and Frida expresses some concern about it, but Aaron shuts her down real quick.
We also learn that Pintalba used to be known for its opal mining industry but is now essentially a dying town and that Aaron bribed a few people, which is why they’re the only people allowed to go down into the cave in the first place - because he’s a rich jerk.
As they arrive in Pintalba and take a first look at the entrance, the sinkhole on the farm, they raise the topic of the lost couple once more. Ellie mentions that she briefly knew the couple and that they were known as being troublemakers who didn’t care about safety precautions too much.
"They had a bit of a rep as being cowboys. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and joined them on one trip up in the Blue Mountains, but that chick, Beth, she was too much for even me. Kept going on about wanting to 'live on the edge', and I got stuck arguing about neglected safety measures. Killed it for me, so I avoided them afterwards." Ellie shrugged. "I suppose if they did go missing while down there, it wouldn't be a huge surprise. If you do stupid shit often enough..."
If you're thinking this statement will age very poorly, you're right.
Back at the hotel, Sam and Ellie look at some paintings of the Miner’s Mother and meet the barman, Jack, who is a retired vietnam veteran, because of course he is. He warns them about the cave because “there are things in this area better left alone”, but they don’t listen to them since he’s just the barman who knows the dark secret of the town and warns the tourists to no avail from every horror movie ever.
Jack talks Sam into helping the local paramedic Mia, who is currently without any assistance and on top of that, appears to have a stalker who prank calls her.
Meanwhile, Aaron brings more bad news - the city’s council has rejected to allow the group entrance to the cave. Bureaucracy will continue to be the true horror of this story.
We also meet Kaz, who lost her little brother Archie and her father to the Miner's Mother, and her (still alive) brother Trevor, who turns out to be the police officer of the town. If you’re playing B-Movie-Horror Bingo, you can strike out “corrupt police officer who is in on the whole thing”. They have an evil plan, which they continue to talk about in detail, basically revealing the whole plot. We're a quarter of the way through the book, and all I'm thinking is 'Oh, I guess this is the story. Now the only thing left to find out is who makes it out alive in the end.'
Complaining time.
In the synopsis, it says that Sam has to overcome "paralyzing claustrophobia". It comes up once right at the beginning, when he says that diving makes him feel claustrophobic. They're not in a cave or anything at this point, it appears to just be about being underwater.
Anyway, Sam is doing okay until some animal bumps into him. He’s stricken with fear and swims back to the surface.
It turns out to be just a seal, so this is a classic jumpscare moment without any real threat behind it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you’re already nervous about diving and then something of considerable size bumps into you… wouldn’t freaking out be a kinda natural reaction?
Something smashed into his back, a hard impact against his tank that drove him forward with the force of a battering ram. He lost his regulator out of his mouth.
I mean, I’d be losing my shit and I’m not claustrophobic, I just don’t like the thought of being eaten alive by any sea creature.
Later, when they're in the cave, Sam is crawling on his belly through a narrow tunnel, which is bad. He gets stuck, which is worse.
"I... I think I'm stuck." Sam tried to sound matter of fact, but there was an edge to his voice. The whisper of anxiety had gained a megaphone, was screaming at him that he would never get free. He'd be entombed in pitch black until he starved. (...) Sam gave himself a mental slap. Focus on reality, not fear. He clamped down on the anxious thoughts, blocking them out to concentrate on his surrounds.
Earth and rock beneath his fingers.
Air to breathe.
Again, I think panicking because you are stuck, lying on your stomach, in a narrow cave, is a very normal thing to do. He doesn’t even seem to hyperventilate or anything, he’s just… scared, which - totally relatable - then snaps back to reality, there goes gravity, and he just, plops out. As soon as he does, he's euphoric.
Later, as they're diving, his fear vanishes altogether!
The anxiety he'd felt about the dive was absent. Now that he was submerged deep underground, he felt that he'd stepped over a threshold. There no longer seemed a point to worrying. If something was to go wrong, it was out of his hands. At the thought, he suddenly felt lighter, and with his mind unencumbered by anxiety, he was free to admire the stark beauty of the underwater cave.
I think if you’re claustrophobic, being stuck would have been an absolutely traumatic experience, and not a hurdle that you feel great about overcoming.
Listen. My mom has what you may call “paralyzing claustrophobia”. One time, when we were at the zoo, they had a building for animals that live underground, and the hallways were made to look like the inside of a cave. It was still roomy, I could fully extend my arms, but it was dark and the walls looked like stone. I didn’t even think twice about it, I was just like “okay, neat”.
Suddenly, I see my mom speed-walking past me, shoving people out of her way without even realizing. I had to apologize to everyone for my mom basically stampeding their kids as I jogged after her.
The only way you could get my mom to crawl through a fucking underground tunnel is if you knocked her unconscious and stuffed her in there. And I think as soon as she wakes up, she’d just go into shock, like a possum.
For someone who’s claustrophobic, I believe it would have been full panic-mode as soon as the sky is out of sight. The phobia doesn’t just kick in during extreme situations.
I’m very afraid of spiders, and I wouldn’t freak out only when like, a fucking tarantula crawls on my face, no, I get terrified by the tiny spiders that live in my shower even though they don’t threaten me in any way, shape or form. That’s why it’s a phobia, and not just common sense, or a normal will to stay alive.
I think the word “claustrophobia” was just thrown in there to make it seem more interesting. It’s not inconvenient for the plot in any way, it doesn’t cause any drama or any problems, Sam is just a bit more nervous than the other people in the group who’ve done caving a hundred times and then overcomes his fear almost immediately. It would have been so interesting to have Sam paralyzed by his irrational fear to the point where he can’t do anything about the very real threat of the monster.
Another thing that bothered me was the structure and the multiple narrators. Chapter 9 for example goes like this: ‘Sam and Ellie talk about a ghost tour’, ‘Kaz and Trevor explain their evil plan’, ‘Sam and Ellie actually do the ghost tour’, ‘Stella watches her friend Warwick become mine mother food’. You can totally write from the perspective of multiple characters, if it’s done well. But usually, you’d do a character break like, every chapter, not 3 times within a chapter!
The author also seems to change from a personal to a neutral narrator sometimes, and that really took me out of some moments. Like in this segment, when we read through the Miner's Mother point of view:
She clasped the strange apparatus between his lips and pulled it out. In the dark, she was blind to the crimson that trickled from his mouth, his blood indistinguishable from water. After a dive of thirty metres, the passage had taken a sharp rise of 40 metres until emerging into the current chamber. A dive that she did with ease, but one that had given the human a severe case of decompression illness.
So, the miner’s mother doesn’t know what the regulator and breathing tube is, which is to be expected, but she knows about decompression sickness and uses the metric system???
Earlier, the author used “paces” to describe distance from the monster’s point of view, which I thought was very smart, but now he kinda flip flops between a personal and neutral narrator, which makes the whole scene seem kinda weird. I’m probably overthinking this, but when I read this, the miner’s mother being like love eating humans, gotta get back to my cave, just have to make this 30 meter dive totally took me out of the moment.
Also, the thirty is written out, and the forty is in numerals, I just realized that.
Another thing I noticed while reading this is that when the author wants to describe that it’s really dark, the characters wave a hand in front their face. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never, ever done this in my life. Where did this trope come from? Maybe I’m the weird one here.
Light brown sediment swirled through the water, creating a dirty soup and reducing visibility to virtually zero. Sam had to hold his hand within inches of his mask to see it through the murk.
Pitch black. Sam raised one hand before his hand and moved it back and forth. He knew it was only a few centimetres from his eyes and yet he couldn't see a thing.
Jack waved a hand before his eyes but could see nothing. The dark was absolute.
The German translation of this work is okay, I noticed some instances where some words were left out, and there were a few comma errors, but those were very consistent so Tina Lohse, you gotta look into that.
Also, the “Miner’s Mother” was always italicised, so I read it like “DiE mInEnMuTtEr”.
However, with the title, they did that dumb thing Germans do, which is leave the English title as is and add a dumb sub-title. So now we have “The Cavern - Das Grauen aus der Tiefe”, which means “the terror from the deep” and is a very original title that has never been used before. (There are only three movies with the same title!)
Also, in the translated version, I didn’t get the full Australian experience, which is a shame, because reading Sam trying to wake up Mia, who may or may not be dead, and going “Mia, you gotta wake up, mate!” is pretty funny.
I’d definitely read something from Alister Hodge again, I think he just needs more practice writing fiction, be more consistent with his characters and to be more aware of horror tropes. You can use tropes to your advantage, but you gotta know what you’re doing. If this was structured differently and built more tension, and also didn’t explain every aspect of the plot from every single character’s point of view, maybe it would have scared the shit out of me.
February 3, 2025
1,5*
Es wären sogar 2 gewesen, hätte er die ERste-Hilfe-Szene nicht so verhunzt, aber dazu später.
Das traurige ist, als Trashhorror-Film, wäre das Buch vermutlich ne gute 4* gewesen, aber als Buch war es eine Qual.
Fangen wir damit an, dass innerhalb der ersten 20% des Buches, das gesamte Monster dargestellt wird, was es antreibt, wo es herkommt, was es für eine Geschichte hat, was für Fähigkeiten hat .... so kann man die Spannung aus einem Monsterhorrorbuch natürlich auch komplett rausnehmen. Was war das denn für ne dumme Entscheidung?
Generell hat der Autor mit Spannungsbogen etc. wohl wenig zu tun, denn a. wissen wir jetzt schon um das Monster und was es kann, b. kommen wir erst ab 60% überhaupt in die Höhle (dafür, dass das Buch CAVERN heißt, haben wir echt wenig Höhle), c. wechselt der Pov auch ständig zu den Einheimischen, sodass halt wirklich ALLLE HINTERGRÜNDE und ALLER VERRAT noch vor HÄlfte des Buches aufgedeckt wurde.
Spannung gab es daher gar keinen - kein AUfbau zu "oh was ist nur das Monster. Oh es ist creepy in der Höhle, weil IRGENDWAS hier unten ist." nope.
Dazu kommt, dass ALLE Charaktere eigentlich intelligente Menschen sind, aber FOR THE SAKE OF THE PLOT, werfen die hier Hirn raus, und machen irgendwas dummes.
- Direkt am Anfang finden die ersten Höhlenbesucher (In einer Höhle, die noch NIE jemand gefunden hat, die erst vor kurzem geöffnet wurde, und dessen Eingang in einer ULTRA TIEFEN Doline liegt) ein "Kind" in einem der Unterwasserseen. Natürlich muss man das sofort retten, surprise, Tod folgt auf shcnellem Fuße.
- Oder ein Vietnamveteran, der das Monster kennt, weiß, dass es in der Höhle mit ihm ist - weil man die Echoortung hört - aber trotzdem reagiert er auf die dumme AUssage "Ja aber was ist WENN ES DOCH EIN ÜBERLEBENDER IST" und verlässt seinen sicheren Posten ~~. Junge.
- Die große Aussage: "Wir haben einen Sanitäter dabei, wir sind vorbereitet auf die Höhle." Und dann bleibt der Sanitäter draußen vor der Höhle .... klar, weil es ja Sinn macht, wenn jemand ind er Höhle verunfallt, dass man erstmal in die UNERFORSCHTE UNKARTOGRAFIERTE Höhle ALLEINE als Sanitäter muss, um den Unfall zu finden. Logisch.
Und der Sanitäter erst. Alterfalter.
Es wird mehrfach im Buch erwähnt, das der Kerl heftig Platzangst hat - natürlich macht es da ja Sinn, den mit UNTER DIE ERDE zu nehmen, weil was soll schon passieren.
Der bleibt sogar stecken - aber ein gut gemeintes "Hey, du hast es fast geschafft." und einmal Durchatmen, haben den vor einer Panikattacke bewahrt.
Hat was von "Hey, du hast Suizidgedanken? Mach mal Sport." Oh, ich bin geheilt. ~~
Was dem ganzen dann noch die Krone aufgesetzt hat, weil es WIRKLICHHHHH nicht schwer ist, einen verdammten ERste-Hilfe-Kurs zu besuchen, selbst für Nicht-Deutsche im Ausland.
Große Töne spucken, als der Autor die Erste-HIlfe-Szene beschreibt, mit rigendwelchen Fachausdrücken und der wichtigen Info, dass ja ein Defibrilator nicht bei allem angewendet wird, wie es sonst im TV ja gezeigt wird (Was stimmt), nur um dann 3 sätze später zu schreiben, DASS DER ALTE MANN NACH DEM STROMSTOSS MEGA ZUSAMMENZUCKT (was halt NICHT stimmt, es ist doch ned so schwer, sowas zur Not sogar zu googeln.)
Das schlimmste war dann eigentlich, dass schließlich sogar in den POV des Monsters gewechselt wurde .... like??? Warum??? Ich brauch kein vermenschlichtes Monster, ich brauch die POV nicht in einem Trashhorror. Dieses vermenschlichen geht mir so auf den Sack. Oh das arme mordende Monster braucht ja einen guten GRUND und eine Sobstory, wieso es das macht, sonst wäre es ja NUR ein normales Tier. Und ich wußte nicht, das Monster die Dekompressionskrankheit kennen .... die übrigens kurz darauf komplett ignoriert wurd. Blablabla.
Wie gesagt, als FIlm wäre es mega gut gewesen (vorallem auch weil der Monster-POV-Gedankengang nicht da gewesen wäre), aber als Buch eine komplette Katastrophe.
Oh, das einzige was gut war, das war der Gore-Anteil. Es war wirklich sehr brutal, like richhhtig brutal, deswegen wäre das in Filmszene gesetzt geil gewesen. ABer leider rettet es das Buch nicht.
Es wären sogar 2 gewesen, hätte er die ERste-Hilfe-Szene nicht so verhunzt, aber dazu später.
Das traurige ist, als Trashhorror-Film, wäre das Buch vermutlich ne gute 4* gewesen, aber als Buch war es eine Qual.
Fangen wir damit an, dass innerhalb der ersten 20% des Buches, das gesamte Monster dargestellt wird, was es antreibt, wo es herkommt, was es für eine Geschichte hat, was für Fähigkeiten hat .... so kann man die Spannung aus einem Monsterhorrorbuch natürlich auch komplett rausnehmen. Was war das denn für ne dumme Entscheidung?
Generell hat der Autor mit Spannungsbogen etc. wohl wenig zu tun, denn a. wissen wir jetzt schon um das Monster und was es kann, b. kommen wir erst ab 60% überhaupt in die Höhle (dafür, dass das Buch CAVERN heißt, haben wir echt wenig Höhle), c. wechselt der Pov auch ständig zu den Einheimischen, sodass halt wirklich ALLLE HINTERGRÜNDE und ALLER VERRAT noch vor HÄlfte des Buches aufgedeckt wurde.
Spannung gab es daher gar keinen - kein AUfbau zu "oh was ist nur das Monster. Oh es ist creepy in der Höhle, weil IRGENDWAS hier unten ist." nope.
Dazu kommt, dass ALLE Charaktere eigentlich intelligente Menschen sind, aber FOR THE SAKE OF THE PLOT, werfen die hier Hirn raus, und machen irgendwas dummes.
- Direkt am Anfang finden die ersten Höhlenbesucher (In einer Höhle, die noch NIE jemand gefunden hat, die erst vor kurzem geöffnet wurde, und dessen Eingang in einer ULTRA TIEFEN Doline liegt) ein "Kind" in einem der Unterwasserseen. Natürlich muss man das sofort retten, surprise, Tod folgt auf shcnellem Fuße.
- Oder ein Vietnamveteran, der das Monster kennt, weiß, dass es in der Höhle mit ihm ist - weil man die Echoortung hört - aber trotzdem reagiert er auf die dumme AUssage "Ja aber was ist WENN ES DOCH EIN ÜBERLEBENDER IST" und verlässt seinen sicheren Posten ~~. Junge.
- Die große Aussage: "Wir haben einen Sanitäter dabei, wir sind vorbereitet auf die Höhle." Und dann bleibt der Sanitäter draußen vor der Höhle .... klar, weil es ja Sinn macht, wenn jemand ind er Höhle verunfallt, dass man erstmal in die UNERFORSCHTE UNKARTOGRAFIERTE Höhle ALLEINE als Sanitäter muss, um den Unfall zu finden. Logisch.
Und der Sanitäter erst. Alterfalter.
Es wird mehrfach im Buch erwähnt, das der Kerl heftig Platzangst hat - natürlich macht es da ja Sinn, den mit UNTER DIE ERDE zu nehmen, weil was soll schon passieren.
Der bleibt sogar stecken - aber ein gut gemeintes "Hey, du hast es fast geschafft." und einmal Durchatmen, haben den vor einer Panikattacke bewahrt.
Hat was von "Hey, du hast Suizidgedanken? Mach mal Sport." Oh, ich bin geheilt. ~~
Was dem ganzen dann noch die Krone aufgesetzt hat, weil es WIRKLICHHHHH nicht schwer ist, einen verdammten ERste-Hilfe-Kurs zu besuchen, selbst für Nicht-Deutsche im Ausland.
Große Töne spucken, als der Autor die Erste-HIlfe-Szene beschreibt, mit rigendwelchen Fachausdrücken und der wichtigen Info, dass ja ein Defibrilator nicht bei allem angewendet wird, wie es sonst im TV ja gezeigt wird (Was stimmt), nur um dann 3 sätze später zu schreiben, DASS DER ALTE MANN NACH DEM STROMSTOSS MEGA ZUSAMMENZUCKT (was halt NICHT stimmt, es ist doch ned so schwer, sowas zur Not sogar zu googeln.)
Das schlimmste war dann eigentlich, dass schließlich sogar in den POV des Monsters gewechselt wurde .... like??? Warum??? Ich brauch kein vermenschlichtes Monster, ich brauch die POV nicht in einem Trashhorror. Dieses vermenschlichen geht mir so auf den Sack. Oh das arme mordende Monster braucht ja einen guten GRUND und eine Sobstory, wieso es das macht, sonst wäre es ja NUR ein normales Tier. Und ich wußte nicht, das Monster die Dekompressionskrankheit kennen .... die übrigens kurz darauf komplett ignoriert wurd. Blablabla.
Wie gesagt, als FIlm wäre es mega gut gewesen (vorallem auch weil der Monster-POV-Gedankengang nicht da gewesen wäre), aber als Buch eine komplette Katastrophe.
Oh, das einzige was gut war, das war der Gore-Anteil. Es war wirklich sehr brutal, like richhhtig brutal, deswegen wäre das in Filmszene gesetzt geil gewesen. ABer leider rettet es das Buch nicht.
July 5, 2024
I absolutely devoured this. An Aussie Descent, where five cave explorers delve deep into the subterranean underground hoping to discover a new system. Instead, they meet the Miner's Mother, a demonic alien life form that travels the varies caves and underwater trenches seeking her human prey.
This had everything I want in a sci-fi action novel. Interesting characters, short chapters and disgusting body horror. No changes. It was perfect.
This had everything I want in a sci-fi action novel. Interesting characters, short chapters and disgusting body horror. No changes. It was perfect.
July 28, 2019
Monster thrill ride
Adventure packed and chilling--this book won't disappoint. Great characters and a perfect, otherworldly setting that sets the perfect atmosphere for what hides beneath. Really enjoyed this and will look forward to more from Hodge.
Adventure packed and chilling--this book won't disappoint. Great characters and a perfect, otherworldly setting that sets the perfect atmosphere for what hides beneath. Really enjoyed this and will look forward to more from Hodge.
October 5, 2020
Well this was good and I enjoyed it. I liked the idea of the creatures they found and then the struggle to get out. I liked how the first encounters were with leeches and then they just got bigger and meaner. I loved the scene where her brother was captured then in away tortured. The only thing I didn't like was the ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2022
0815 creature feature. Auch der anfangs noch gute Schreibstil wurde mit weiterem Verlauf der Handlung immer generischer.
October 8, 2020
I really enjoyed this story. I found it had many elements I appreciate in my creepy horror (monster) reads. Of course there were many predictable parts and I can't say you haven't read or watched anything like it because you probably have. But the monster itself, well, I'm still not even fully sure what the hell this things looks like. Doesn't help that it is able to camouflage itself like a chameleon and share the face of everyone it's killed! Not only that but this monster is hella smart and it's been living and thriving in these caves for years. There is a crazy amount of death and some sick torture on the creatures part. Again this thing is smart and knows far too much about human behavior and anatomy, it was chilling. There's always something I can appreciate in cave stories and underwater diving stories and that's the insane level of fear I personally fear because those things are both terrifying to me. While you won't (hopefully) catch me in any of these situations I can't deny my utter obsession and passion for reading about it. I've learned unexplored caves and caverns are a big no-no but until fictional characters learn the hard way I'll be here silently cheering them on as their guts get torn out and they're used to feed alien/monster spawn like and all you can eat buffet. Very fun, short and interesting read.
July 10, 2020
This was a fun ride. To me, horror has to be interesting and not take itself too seriously in order to work. For me. Maybe not for you? This is just a rip-roaring horror story with some cool monsters, the main ones and the secondary, and a group of people who step right in their path. Simple as that. Nothing too surprising or shocking in this one... and that's why it works. Death scenes are cool and the characters are given enough personality to make you feel for them when they die. And since it's a fast-paced horror book... a lot of them die.
July 26, 2020
Das Buch war schon ein bisschen spooky, hat mir aber trotzdem ganz gut gefallen. Spannend und so realitätsfern, so etwas braucht man zwischendurch auch mal, nur so zur Unterhaltung.
September 24, 2025
Caves and monsters.. nightmare.
April 10, 2022
3.5 Ton of fun but your standard creature feature
September 22, 2024
For me it was a rather mediocre read.
Only read once.
Only read once.
January 19, 2025
I’m not picky. I like my trash, i like my b-movie horror plots, i like clueless soon-to-be victims casually ambling into obvious danger. And i love ‘stralya. This should’ve been the book for me. If this were a movie it would be an enjoyable no-budget grindhouse creature feature.
But it isn’t a movie and it isn’t for me and the writing truly is trash. Even if the prose was less… puce, not even purple, even if the monster was less dull and the gore less lame these characters are just about flat enough to qualify for a b movie with a Michael Dudikoff type as headliner. Flat-earth level flat. Flatland flatbread levels of flat. Flat and ridiculously underwritten and unbelievable. No character in this book dies without an under -torture inner monologue, a final remark, a deep thought. “Sure i’m dying but at least now i understand my predicament!
Dull, forgettable, offensive action schlock and not in a good way whatsoever. Dean Koontz would be ashamed of this. Michael Crichton would be ashamed of this. Dan Brown would even be ashamed.
But it isn’t a movie and it isn’t for me and the writing truly is trash. Even if the prose was less… puce, not even purple, even if the monster was less dull and the gore less lame these characters are just about flat enough to qualify for a b movie with a Michael Dudikoff type as headliner. Flat-earth level flat. Flatland flatbread levels of flat. Flat and ridiculously underwritten and unbelievable. No character in this book dies without an under -torture inner monologue, a final remark, a deep thought. “Sure i’m dying but at least now i understand my predicament!
Dull, forgettable, offensive action schlock and not in a good way whatsoever. Dean Koontz would be ashamed of this. Michael Crichton would be ashamed of this. Dan Brown would even be ashamed.
May 24, 2020
I wanted a quick read to act as a brew in the series I’m currently working through. So I picked up the The Cavern, as I always like a good horror story based around caves. The Cavern isn’t badly written, but it was very predictable and is the same as many other books based around creatures in caves.
I think the main issue with this book is that the central characters were extremely bland. Nothing about them made for characters that I cared about. This was one of those books that I worked through as quickly as possible. So, just 2 stars.
I think the main issue with this book is that the central characters were extremely bland. Nothing about them made for characters that I cared about. This was one of those books that I worked through as quickly as possible. So, just 2 stars.
June 17, 2019
this was a new author I tried but could not pass it up. caving and diving both give me chills, so of course I had to read it. A great book. the characters, dialogue, plot, all good. absolutely loved it will be buying more from this author.
October 17, 2020
3.5 stars
April 7, 2025
To begin, this story breaks one of the cardinal rules of good horror by revealing too much. In the first chapter, you know what it looks like, how it hunts, its abilities, and where it lives. In the next chapter or so, you figure out where it comes from, a cult that worships it, its name, and how long it’s been around. Good horror should adopt the “less is more” mentality. The less you see/know about the monster, the scarier it is. A good author taps into the fear of the unknown.
This story had the usual “there’s obviously some sort of monster, but we will be stupid and get ourselves killed” of your average B-movie. The plot was bland and predictable, and the characters were flat and not memorable. I honestly lost track of who was who and just shrugged when someone died with a “whoever that was.”
Additionally, there was blatant plagiarizing of xenomorphs from Alien. The creature was described as intelligent, humanoid, black skinned, had a long tail, bled green blood, stalked its prey from the shadows, a mouth that shot out to grab food, and even had egg sacs that opened on the top. Even the noises it made were similar xenomorphs. The author added some differences (camouflage and 4-eyes) to avoid copyright infringement, but come on, show some originality.
Finally, the author REALLY wanted you to dislike the monster. I don’t know how many times it was described as sadistic, evil, or demonic. It was literally a just predator. Hunt prey is what they do. Would you call a wolf stalking deer demonic? A fox catching a rabbit described as evil? A cat toying with a mouse is sadistic? (Okay, maybe the last one.) It got annoying.
I was going to give this 2 stars, but I honestly can’t think of any redeeming qualities for this book.
This story had the usual “there’s obviously some sort of monster, but we will be stupid and get ourselves killed” of your average B-movie. The plot was bland and predictable, and the characters were flat and not memorable. I honestly lost track of who was who and just shrugged when someone died with a “whoever that was.”
Additionally, there was blatant plagiarizing of xenomorphs from Alien. The creature was described as intelligent, humanoid, black skinned, had a long tail, bled green blood, stalked its prey from the shadows, a mouth that shot out to grab food, and even had egg sacs that opened on the top. Even the noises it made were similar xenomorphs. The author added some differences (camouflage and 4-eyes) to avoid copyright infringement, but come on, show some originality.
Finally, the author REALLY wanted you to dislike the monster. I don’t know how many times it was described as sadistic, evil, or demonic. It was literally a just predator. Hunt prey is what they do. Would you call a wolf stalking deer demonic? A fox catching a rabbit described as evil? A cat toying with a mouse is sadistic? (Okay, maybe the last one.) It got annoying.
I was going to give this 2 stars, but I honestly can’t think of any redeeming qualities for this book.
August 11, 2021
Trigger warnings: blood, gore, death, death of a friend, death of a sibling, death of a child (in the past), animal death, graphic descriptions of wounds, death, blood etc.
Okay, here's the thing, pals. Story-wise? This was a lot of fun. It's gory and creepy and gross. And Australia is a fucking weird place, so I would totally buy there being a cave system somewhere full of murderous shapeshifting beasties.
HOWEVER. I listened to this on audiobook and I CANNOT. I. CAN. NOT. So this book is set in Australia. The author is Australian. The characters are Australian. Are you telling me they couldn't find A SINGLE FUCKING AUSTALIAN to narrate the audiobook??????
Look, the audiobook narrator tries his best. But he's English. And his attempts at an Australian accent for the dialogue were nonstop full body cringe. And I think it was made worse by the fact that the prose was more often than not in his regular English accent. All his vowel sounds for the dialogue were WILDLY wrong and it kept pulling me out of the story.
Like I said, the story itself was pretty fun. But I just couldn't get past that fucking heinous accent oh my God. So I'm knocking off half a star purely because the reading experience was so painful.
Okay, here's the thing, pals. Story-wise? This was a lot of fun. It's gory and creepy and gross. And Australia is a fucking weird place, so I would totally buy there being a cave system somewhere full of murderous shapeshifting beasties.
HOWEVER. I listened to this on audiobook and I CANNOT. I. CAN. NOT. So this book is set in Australia. The author is Australian. The characters are Australian. Are you telling me they couldn't find A SINGLE FUCKING AUSTALIAN to narrate the audiobook??????
Look, the audiobook narrator tries his best. But he's English. And his attempts at an Australian accent for the dialogue were nonstop full body cringe. And I think it was made worse by the fact that the prose was more often than not in his regular English accent. All his vowel sounds for the dialogue were WILDLY wrong and it kept pulling me out of the story.
Like I said, the story itself was pretty fun. But I just couldn't get past that fucking heinous accent oh my God. So I'm knocking off half a star purely because the reading experience was so painful.
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