When Elyse and I heard about a horror novel with bloodthirsty mermaids, our wonder twin powers activated like never before. Yes, that’s right: killer mermaids.
The majority of the book takes place in the near future in 2022. Seven years prior, Imagine Entertainment (think another Syfy Channel) bankrolled a “mockumentary” out to the Mariana Trench. The ship contained journalists, researchers, and the like to investigate whether mermaids were real. The ship was found abandoned with no one on board and the footage found was highly disturbing: mermaids climbing the sides of the ships and attacking the ship’s passengers. The footage was written off as a publicity stunt and a hoax.
In 2022, Victoria “Tory” Stewart is a marine biologist doing work in sonar patterns. Her older sister was a journalist on board the first mermaid expedition and she’s still searching for answers on what happened to her. With Imagine Entertainment hoping to put together another voyage on the seventh anniversary, Tory is at the top of their list to join. Not only is her research the lynchpin in providing just enough ammo to warrant another investigation to the Mariana Trench, but the aspect of her being related to a former passenger would make for great ratings and publicity.
Queue a montage of various characters coming together to form the expedition’s team. A stern “sirenologist,” a scheming corporate henchman, big game animal hunters, and all sorts of scientists.
And like many horror novels, things go horribly wrong in the most twisted and entertaining ways possible.
Amanda: Let’s start with the good things!
Mira Grant does an amazing job building tension. There’s this anticipation and, despite all the interesting characters she’s created, I just wanted to get to more and more of these mermaids. Though I suppose they could be scene as the book’s antagonists, I found them so fascinating and it was clear that Grant did some heavy research in regards to marine science.
Elyse: A good thriller builds a sense of dread that pervades the narrative early on. Right away we get a glimpse of the mermaids–and they’re terrifying. No seashell bras here. But that glimpse is shaky and uncertain, and that makes it all the more horrible. You see the monster, but only kind of.
I really like that Grant gave us that glimpse immediately, otherwise the assembling of the crew of the Melusine could have dragged on. Instead we knew what they were in for, and so there was a great anticipation.
And when shit did start to go wrong, she paced it out wonderfully.
Amanda: Elyse does make a fan-fucking-tastic point about our first shot of the mermaids. Since we already (sort of) know what they’re capable of, I wanted to see them more than any of the characters. Not to say that the cast wasn’t interesting, but the mermaids seemed to eclipse their roles for me.
What’d you think of the characters?
Grant does a good job including diverse characters, characters with disabilities, and characters of different sexualities. I was worried the large cast would be tough to keep track of, but everyone had such a distinct personality, story, and way they interacted with their fellow voyage participants. You could tell there was a lot of care taken into crafting them, though there was one disappointing outlier for me.
Jason, Tory’s ex-boyfriend. I never fully understood his bitterness against his girlfriend. They clearly had two different ways of going about their research and, even though she broke up with him, she never bothered to correct anyone who thought the opposite. His resentment felt typical of one-dimensional villainy.
For example, there’s a couple who are big game hunters on the ship. For the most part, they’re pretty shitty people, but the more you learn about them and how much they love each other, I began to hate them a little less. For Jason, there was no redemptive elements in his character.
Elyse: Jason felt shoe-horned into the plot a little bit.
Mira Grant depicts a lot of different relationships in this book, and I love that.
We get a f/f romance between Tory and Olivia. It’s a really lovely addition, especially the sensitivity given to the fact that Olivia is neurodivergent.
We also get male/female friendships that are profound without being sexual. Tory and Luis work closely together and are good friends without any sexual undertones or jealousy.
Olivia and Ray also have a solid, loving friendship.
And then you have Dr. Toth and her ex who definitely aren’t together but still share a history and grudging affection.
Amanda: It’s definitely a big ol’ mixed bag and I loved it, though I will say I found the Tory/Olivia romance happened “off the page” a lot.
What’d you think of the ending? I was ultimately disappointed by it.
Elyse: I thought the ending was leaving room for a sequel, but I’m not totally sure on that. I would totally read the sequel, by the way.
I agree that the end was a little anticlimactic, but ultimately I really enjoyed getting there. Do you feel like she’s opening things up for a sequel?
Amanda: I am desperately hoping for a sequel after that ending.
I thought the “answer” in getting out alive was rather disappointing given how much the crew fought to survive and I really wanted a “where are they now” type epilogue. What are the survivors doing now? How did the expedition affect their career paths? But those unanswered questions does seem to allow for a sequel.
Despite that, a majority of the book was really entertaining and I would recommend it.
Final thoughts? Anything I missed? What do you think you’d grade it?
Elyse: I would probably give it a B. I wasn’t crazy about the end, but I enjoyed the journey overall. I also found the romance to be a bonus.
You?
Amanda: Definitely a B with high hopes for a sequel. C’mon 2018, don’t be a jerk to us!
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Imagine Entertainment is a real production company. It was co-founded by Ron Howard, the man who directed Splash. (:
Haven’t read the review, since I’m currently reading the book.
So far, it’s bee a lot of, “I like this character… who’s a character in a Mira Grant novel. Fuck.”
This doesn’t sound like my scene, but I give Grant props for naming the ship Melusine!
I’m always a bit torn when it comes to Grant/McGuire’s female characters, because I absolutely love some of them (Sloane, the Luidaeg, Rose Marshall) and others seem like a reboot of the ole manic pixie dreamgirl trope, which I find exceptionally boring. Olivia kept teetering on the edge of this category for me.
That ending does seem anticlimactic. That’s always the problem I have with sci fi as a genre – the premise/mystery can be SO INTERESTING and then the ultimate conclusion ends up being kind of dumb or a letdown in comparison.
From a girl with a mermaid-themed bathroom: I know this isn’t a book I could read as horror stories have given me nightmares since I was young and then I’d have to redecorate. I loved reading this review and the premise is so interesting! I will recommend this book to my niece since a horror novel that includes a f/f romance sounds like her jam.
@Tam: I completely agree about Olivia. She wasn’t my favorite character of the cast.
I am excited to read this. Her novella “Rolling in the Deep” is the prequel story about that first trip to the Mariana trench and I loved it.
STOP COPYING ME!!! I swear, you’ve got a camera pointed at my TBR pile. I’m skipping the review since I just started the book this morning. Which has been the case for four of the last six books I read. I start the book, you put up a review that day. I’m feeling a little paranoid.
Wow, this sounds amazing! I will def be reading this and the prequel (Thanks, Misti!). Thanks for the review!
Mira Grant is none of my favorite authors and In pretty sure I made screechy noises when I found out there was a sequel to Rolling in the Deep. It didn’t disappoint, but I agree about the ending- I do want a third book.
As always, I loved Mira Grant’s characters…but the plot felt very much a retread of the previous book, Rolling in the Deep. Including the exact same discovery about dimorphism. I would’ve liked to have seen her bring something new to the mix this time around.
Wasn’t Rolling in the Deep of very limited availability?
I could hardly put this down! I like the series of horror novels she’s written as Mira Grant–Parasitology and Newsflesh–so I was ready to read this too. I liked a lot of her characters and the complicated relationship between Dr. Toth and her ex. It makes you rethink long ocean cruises over deep ocean trenches.
(By the way,I noticed a oblique reference in this book to these series and one that doesn’t seem to be published yet.)
I love that Grant manages to strike a perfect balance between totally believable-sounding science (to a layman) and ridiculous subjects (zombies, mermaids). I do find that her heroines tend to be samey-samey (George, Sal, Tory are all basically the same person, Dr Toth, Dr Cale, Dr Abbey are also basically the same person) but I really liked the departure from zombies here.
I loved how diverse the cast was and in a way that didn’t feel like a Diversity Checklist, but Olivia was not just neurodivergent, she was explicitly on the autism spectrum. I do agree that she was less interesting than many of the other women if only because there were so many badass women, but not quite MPDG territory.
Hopefully sales will be/have been good enough to warrant a sequel (per Seanan McGuire’s tumblr).
The first book in the series was a novella called “Rolling in the Deep”- everyone died in that one, so I was relieved this one had some survivors! I loved both, but the mermaids are scarier the less you know about them, so for me ItDD was less scary. People starting from there, on the other hand, probably will still find it mysterious!
Finished the book the other day and finally read the review.
I can confirm from her Twitter feed that she’d very much like to write a sequel. (It’s dependent on sales.)
I am a retired senior citizen (Canadian type female). Always have several books on the go at once.
Unfortunately, most do not make the “cut”. If my desire to continue has not been tapped by 50 pages its onto the next. I picked up at the library Into the Drowning Deep and am on page 119 thus far. Not really into scary stories but this writer exhibits superior structure and impression that moves the plot along at a steady clip. (Margaret Atwood anyone).
This writer appears to posses a natural talent that has been honed and encouraged. A rare find indeed. Thank you Ms. McGuire.
Coming in in 2022 to say that while I usually love and can trust SBTB reviews, this one led me astray. “Into the Drowning Deep” is definitely a case of YMMV. It has an amazing, fun concept – carnivorous amphibious mermaids eating people on a research ship? I’ll take two, please! – but there is way too much exposition, and because of this stretches of the text have all the verve of a LinkedIn profile, and that definitely sometimes kills the vibe. A tighter edit would have done wonders for this book.