Curtis’s Reviews > The Deep > Status Update
Curtis
is on page 253 of 394
Fitting that cover is 2 stock photos edited together; this book is cliches on top of one another. He apes Stephen King's style to point of parody, from mental interjections, silly-scary visualis, to mantras that characters repeat to themselves. Toybox flashback was useless; was wondering if it was meant to be tense? Only to be irrelevant. Cheesy similes; has to rephrase something he's describing. Snail's pacing. Bad.
— Sep 26, 2026 07:19AM
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Curtis
is finished
Awful ending. Scary creatures spout goofy exposition & literally dismiss the story's first half out of hand. Cool visuals/concepts scattered aaround that I wish had been used better. Rushed & incohesive after plodding middle section; no outline or structural editing was done, themes poorly realized; often thoughtless in execution. The cool climax wasnt worth it. Cutter killed the goodwill he'd built up in The Troop.
— Sep 29, 2026 08:17AM
Curtis
is on page 373 of 394
Problem w/ using all tropes means many plot elements feel random; no story/thematic connections. Most gratuitous 'sex abuse' backstory I've read in ages. But at least climax is entertaining! Ridiculously over-the-top; rapidly discards lots of plot/characterization; logistics often make no sense, but still compulsively schlocky fun. Laughing at it. Slow burn fails, but finally, Cutter craziness I liked in The Troop.!
— Sep 29, 2026 06:38AM
Curtis
is on page 214 of 394
Cutter seemingly looked at a menu listing all the tropes & traumatic backstories, & said 'I'll have one of everything.' It's undersea Solaris w/ sprinklings of many other stories (one scene lifted straight from IT). Everything bad seems to have happened to Luke. But it's all lame in execution. At times scares are just 'what IF there was something scary in here with me?' Tries to be deeper than The Troop; not working.
— Sep 25, 2026 08:45AM
Curtis
is on page 155 of 394
Almost impressive how much things get dragged out because of constant flashbacks. Entering lab/meeting its occupants lasts 50 pages! Some flashbacks necessary but other long ones only used to explain what something sounded like; easily trimmable. Plot too reminiscent of Solaris & The Abyss. Shame because core ideas seem to be interesting (Westlake's tapes have me intrigued!) but attempts to be cerebral not landing.
— Sep 23, 2026 08:03AM
Curtis
is on page 95 of 394
Getting invested! Marked improvement once Luke gets to base & briefed on mission. Lead-up to this could've been cut down. Tragic backstory overload--how much baggage can you pack into a MC before 100 pages? Tension builds; mysterious deep sea feel played well. Feels like I can predict some things (words in blood obviously say 'Fig Men;' why can't Luke work that out when he was just thinking about it?) but intrigued!
— Sep 21, 2026 10:30AM
Curtis
is on page 39 of 394
Disease's rules seem lose; Cutter gets mixed up on how it works within 20 pages--or possibly a sign that narrator has the forgetting disease & will be unreliable as he forgets more? Lots of potential there. Dialogue, storytelling cornier than The Troop, w/ frequent backstory telling which doesn't blend well with present action. Ties into memory motif, w/ things protag. would rather forget. Intrigued by premise, tho!
— Sep 18, 2026 10:33AM