The Mariana Trench

by Matt Shaw

Thousands of climbers have successfully managed to scale Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Only a handful of divers have descended to the planet's deepest point; the "Challenger Deep" in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench. Over the last few months a series of earthquakes have been rumbling from deep within the trench. Curious to know why, and the impact they are having, a team of scientists start an expensive expedition down into the depths. Funded by a billionaire - who is going along for the ride in his specially designed submarine - the team head beneath the ocean's choppy waves with the world watching. Little do they know that 7 miles beneath the ocean's surface, their nightmares await and their world will never be the same again.

Genres: Horror, Novella

115 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 6, 2021

About the author

Biography

MATT SHAW was born, quite by accident (his mother tripped, he shot out) September 30th 1980 in Winchester hospital where he was immediately placed on the baby ward and EBay. Some twelve years later (wandering the corridors of the hospital and playing with road kill when he was on day release), the listing closed and he remained unsold, he was booted out of the hospital to start his life as a writer and hobbit – beginning with writing screenplays and short stories for his own amusement before finally getting published when he was twenty-seven years and forty-five seconds old.


Once Published weekly in a lad's magazine with his photography work, Matt Shaw is also a published author and cartoonist. Has to be said, can be a bit of a flirt and definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, somewhat of a klutz.

Favourite books
"Roald Dahl's Collection of Short Stories"
Tim Burton's Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy
Anything, really, written by himself. Because he is that good.

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Matt Shaw outing. You can basically figure out how everything goes down, even before starting the first page. There were a ton of characters thrown in and the story constantly jumped from past to present, surface to underwater to yacht, etc and even randomly to other books from Shaw that felt out of place. And there were notes that those particular aspects could be read further in his other works, too. Just some very awkward creative decisions, all circling around a very bare bones aquatic horror story that's been done to death. The actual quality of the writing was the highlight, but everything else fell very short of my expectations. This either needed to be much, much longer and more focused on the primary story and cast, or it needed to remove quite a bit to be a very short, yet more fine-tuned affair.

[Tammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Shainlock]

The punctuation, wrong words, and other mistakes kept distracting me.
I love the subject matter!
I’ll try again once this is proofed more. Half of my highlights are corrections.
Edit: no rating until I finish it
I got to 66% or so … I have lots of library books out rn too or I wouldn’t be worried about it.

Bottom of the trench or even going in a submersible if you keep up with the news on these things- terrifying.
Other such books are Nick Cutter-The Deep.

[DA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this!

This underwater mis-adventure is a simple story, but keeps your attention in spite of the fact. I really enjoyed the back and forth between then and now. And the ending, well I did not see that coming but it makes perfect sense.

[Sea Caummisar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of submarines and deep water stories. Every one I've ever read has let me down. When someone told me this would help me with the questions I had after reading 'Below Deck', I knew I had to read it. It's not a bad read at all. It did help me with the suspicion s I had with the other story

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I think we all know by now that if a rich guy says something like “opportunity of a lifetime” or “I have a good idea” it’s not and you should run the other way. This is a short story about people that didn’t listen to the voice in their head telling them it’s a very bad idea to go along with a wealthy man’s ego boosting/midlife crisis trip. There were several noticeable typos, but they were more a minor annoyance and didn’t take away from the plot. I liked the story and the writing style, there were time jumps so the action started immediately which is great. I also liked the tie in to Matt Shaw’s other short story Below Deck. This was the first Matt Shaw story I read and I think it was a good introduction. I really didn’t like the man-splaining of the plot in the back I thought it was unnecessary because the plot was pretty straight forward.

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love underwater horror and the Mariana Trench is a great locale because we just don't know everything about it. This was an awesome take on that! Such a great read

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a novel as a novella padded out with chapters from one of the author's other books. Still, a quick and entertaining read.

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. The book could have gone so many great places, but didn't.

This book had too many typos, grammar errors, and formatting fuck-ups. Also, see how annoying it is to see the same word in every sentence in your book? It really sucks for anyone trying to immerse themselves in the book. Okay, I'll stop.

Seeing that this author has an absurd amount of works (200+), I don't think they spend a lot of time editing or reading what they write.

There were too many pointless characters for how short the read was. The random story line about a yatch was just there to make you buy a different book and only detracted from the submarine story. What was beneath the crack was not original nor a shock.

The BEFORE and NOW made it even more painful to try and enjoy the story.

The explanation/weird "I'm smarter than you" couple of pages by author at the end made me roll my eyes. Don't treat your readers like idiots and try to overexplain a simple plot twist that has been done too many times.

Skip reading this and just go watch Triangle instead.

[Dixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like this author but this book was not any good. the story was good, but bouncing around back and forth was confusing, then putting in other stuff and saying continue with another book, twice was annoying. then the ending was stupid and sucked

[Echo Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! What a fun read! The ending can mess with your head a little bit. I can always appreciate a good mind f*ck. I can’t say too much without giving it away. If you know. You know.

Great deep sea read that leaves a lot to your imagination. He gives you just enough story to keep it solid but not enough to limit the readers own imagination. I really loved it. There were some editorial errors that tripped me up but besides that I really loved this book!

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a dud!

I really hate when stories jump back and forth to "Before" and "Now!" It's too disrupting! I thought the ending sucked too.

[Freya LaRouge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the usual gore but still good

Having only recently discovered Matt Shaw, I have been trying to read more of his books. This one caught my attention because the Mariana Trench intrigues me, so seeing Matt do his own take of what was lurking below was a must read. I usually enjoy his gory, graphic details very much. This one wasn't very gory at all but it was still hard to put down. You never know what might be lurking below the waters surface. I can't wait to read Below Deck, which was referenced in this book on a few occasions.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Twisted wierd

I get the premise for the story but I really hate the layout of “before” then “now” then “before” again. It could be a great story with more details and events, all in all not my cup of tea but it isn’t bad just not for me.

[Mr C Aylett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Utter rubbish!

What can I say, poorly written, poorly executed, utter drivel….a deep sea ripoff of Alien…clearly beneath the sea, people can hear you scream!

Don’t waste your time reading this…just move on…and for those that give this book praise, then I hate to think what your reading lists are like!

[Beverly Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

u kiddin?

stupid stupid stupid i hated it this arthur usually writes much better stories ridiculous n stupid n predictable yuck waste o my time

[Colleen Olestad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time , horrible and poorly written

One of the worst books I have ever read, a complete waste of time. Very poorly written, clumsy and amateur

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often I find this author too graphic for my taste, but this one was tamed down quite a bit. The main premise of the story was good, the setting great, and I enjoyed some of it, but found there wasn't enough there for me to connect to characters, or who was who, and really care who died and who didn't. If time had been taken to explain things a bit more it would have been a much better read...for me, but I did like it.

[Crystal Fenerty · Rating 1 out of 5]

not impressed

None of the characters were likeable or even overly realistic. The grammar was horrible, did they not edit this book or have someone review it? Obviously no research beyond most basic “few have been here before” it is merely used as a ‘supposedly’ scary unknown. This book actually refers you to another of the author’s book, adding sections referring to the other book, and added absolutely nothing to the story line. This book was honestly so horrible I will never read any of this author’s other books as all follow the same theme of hell. There is nothing new to his writing and just repeats the same story in a different location with different people.
And the continued use of the word Whilst is incredibly annoying and I figure it was just added because the author likes the word.

Most definitely do not recommend this book to Anyone! Seriously don’t waste your time.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one wasn't what I expected it to be. I liked that the creature wasn't the standard sea creature but the book as a whole really didn't make much sense.

I've never been a huge fan of the Before/Now sequences in books because it just doesn't seem to work. If it's done right then it can be great but most don't do it right. I didn't think that the Before/Now sequences did much to enhance the reading; instead they distracted me from what was going on.

I get that the the author was going for like a Matrix or paradox type thing but it just didn't come across well. The book read disjointed and hard to stay interested in. I didn't think the hints to scenes from Below Deck really did much for this either. As someone who hasn't read that series, I didn't know who any of the people are and the scenes abruptly cutting off and saying "continued in Below Deck" was really frustrating for me for continuity.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You make it sound like we’re heading into war.”
“For all you know, we could be.”


John Drain is super excited to visit the Mariana Trench. It’s been a passion of his for some time now. It’s the lowest point on the planet—seven miles deep.

What started as a pie-in-the-sky pet project has morphed into a scientific mission: a month of study, under the sea.

The ship has a full crew; not just John and his men, but all manner of specialized scientists and the like.

Told in an effective then/now style. Ominous and scary.

The team comes across unexpected findings, like orange glows that emanate from the floor of the sea. Earthquake. Cracks. Storms.

Paced very well; commendable use of foreboding tone throughout. Really could benefit from tight editing. 💀

The ending. Well. Not necessarily a fan…but. The additional explanation being the actual, real, ending, makes this much more palatable.


“It wasn’t supposed to be like this…”

[Maixee Francisco · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had soooo much potential but it wasted it.
It started out good, I enjoyed the back and forth of the timelines. I picked up on the pattern early on but what I did not see coming was the lead up to the reveal. Like, really? That's what we aimed for? And that's all you're doing with it??

There were inconsistent thins here which made it difficult to grasp sense of what was revealed towards the end. It's so sad. I grt that it's a short book but hey, you could have done so much more with the length you decided to take.

One thing's for sure, this book will not be what you think it is- and I mean that in the not so good way.

[Marsha L. Borski · Rating 1 out of 5]

For me, The Mariana Trench by Matt Shaw, was not a GoodRead. As soon as the first tentacle "birthed" it's appearance, I thought "really"? Ho hum, not an "Alien" redux (although, it's one of my favorite thrillers). This novella is no thriller though. I found bouncing between before, now and future boring. I suppose the plot is supposed to thicken when the orange crack appears. However, as far as I was concerned, that's when any hope of mystery or intrigue was lost. Story over, the boogeyman is unmasked.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the idea of horror books about the sea or ocean and I really don’t think there is enough of them and after reading the book ‘into the drowning deep’ I had really high hopes for this book but I was disappointed. At times it was tense but that feeling of tension went away really fast when I realised that this book just felt like a parody of alien and that I didn’t care about any of the characters. It’s not the best written book out there and it could be improved but I still kind of like it in a way that I like bad horror films.

[Angelica · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty, I'm conflicted with this one.
I've read works by Shaw before and they always seem to leave me feeling somewhere between 'damn, I wish there was more' and 'what was the point'. Its harsh I know, but whilst he can come up with an amazing plot that is intriguing to horror readers, rarely do these plots get flushed out.
The balance between before and now in this book was great at building tension, but it was damaged by the ending that was rushed and included very unnecessary inserts of random characters; it was jarring and badly disrupted the story that was being told.

[Kirsty Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid quick and easy read. Nothing groundbreaking but a good story overall. It was interesting that a couple of questions were answered from two other books (Below Deck and Beyond Human) or this was a good way to pique your interest if you haven't already read them. If you read this and thought it was good/interesting I'd definitely recommend you read the two other books mentioned as they are both excellent.

[N_jadeReads Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wtf happened!

The book started off interesting, as the ocean is my biggest fear. I liked the then and now story telling but by about 80% done I was lost and didn't know what was happening. I hated how the book kept jumping from the Mariana Trench to below deck, I get was he was trying to do but when I started to get invested in one plot it would cut off. Overall I give this a 2.5 star rating.

[lina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very excellent novella

Matt shaw may be a extreme horror writer but he can do soft horror like this one.

I think the bad reviews for this is because it made them think. Matt shaw does like to mess with the head of people.

But i will not ruin this book with a review because if i did i would ruin it. But it is soft horror but makes i think. Oh oh i like the before and now matt did...good one. 5 bottom of the ocean out of 5

[Munira Hussain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understood the book and what it was trying to do, I just felt like it wasn’t a completely fleshed out idea. Lots of hints and nods to certain things and the “Before” and “Now” concept was creative.

I just wish there was more done with the idea behind the cracks and that we got to see MORE of that, and MORE of the creature, and MORE of what was in Yolanda. I just wish there was MORE; it felt surface level to me.

But it was a quick read, and a good palate cleanser if needed between books.

[River · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite Matt Shaw books that I have read yet. The story was fast paced with the perspective flipping between "before" and "now" to keep the reader guessing as to what was happening and why. There were a few sections that tied into a different book of his, they felt mostly disconnected and irrelevant aside from promoting another of his books. Probably would have given it 4 stars if not for the constant and distracting spelling errors and the unnecessary plug of his other book.