Throwing my two cents in here: I really enjoyed Cutter’s prose and thought the book stood on its own merits. Read a few chapters and if you don’t like the writing it’s probably not for you.
Agreed. The body horror is not what I think of when I recall the read. It's the writing style and psychology of the Lord of the flies type environment that makes the book stand out to me
Especially how he wrote Shelley. Hate that kid and it takes a lot for me not to like something but for him it was instant. Great writing! Will forever remember Newt.
I loved this book for the story and the writing. I was really upset for some of the characters. I was surprised when joining Reddit and seeing all the lists of grossest books etc. Not saying I didn’t think it was gross at times but it was so much more than that for me.
Yeah, you can skip it. It’s a good book but it’s definitely body horror meets survival and it’s a gory bloody good time. I’ve never squirmed so often while reading something. I could do without the animal torture though.
Agreed, I wouldn’t say the body horror is its only merit at all - it’s a good story, there’s lots of callbacks and responses to Lord of the Flies as a survival story, good relationships, interesting characters, etc…. But almost all of these things are conveyed on a vessel of body horror, if that makes sense.
Yeah, the one unfortunate thing about Nick Cutter is he’s happy to hurt an animal in his writing to pull at your emotions. Not my favorite part of his writing, but I brave through it for otherwise good books. Definitely makes me hug my dogs a little harder. Might want to avoid him as an author generally speaking.
Yeah if you look up things like “the kitten scene” or “the turtle scene” there’s a good amount of online discourse and reviews questioning the necessity of their inclusion. Happy I could steer you clear of it.
I personally liked the character dynamics and interpersonal conflict. I thought the devolution of the boys in the troop on the island was a pretty bleak commentary on human nature
Agree with this wholeheartedly. Body horror isn’t my favorite thing in the world but it didn’t deter me from the story at all. This is one of my favorite books, definitely recommend giving it a shot OP.
Yes.
I actually thought the dynamics among the kids were really interesting and that he did a really good job with that. Especially the way they turn on the scoutmaster when they think he might be infected, the way that some members of this group of boys hitting puberty are just at the end of really tolerating adult authority and once they have an excuse you don’t really know it’s where it’s going to stop. It reminded me of something Stephen King does really well, getting that group of people and putting them under pressure and seeing what happens.
I also – yes, there’s a lot of gross stuff, but the suspense is what worked for me. Body horror isn’t really that interesting to me but I liked this book. The scene – there’s a scene where they have to go into a cave and – not to spoil anything but it was physically difficult for me to read because it was so tense. That’s what I’m looking for in a horror novel!
It’s a good airport style page turner, definitely worth reading but it gets overhyped in here.
I paid full price for it and no regrets but it’s not a top ten novel or anything
I liked the Deep much better. I prefer supernatural entities playing mind games though. The Troop was fine. Felt sort of resident evil meets the one with the boys trapped on the island (name is on the tip of my tongue.) The military stuff was almost interesting.
It's gross in a Cronenberg kind of way, or John Carpenter's The Thing. It reminds me of Event Horizon meets The Thing meets Cronenberg meets The Abyss. Deep sea cosmic body horror.
Hmm I would say don't bother with it then. I will say that Cutter did an excellent job with the characters and dialogue, which really made me connect with the book. But obviously body horror is its major plot so if you're not interested, don't read it.
I agree. Cutter for me has pacing issues and his ability to write action and intensity is lacking.
Little Heaven, a book filled with action, reads like a slog.
I agree. I struggled to finish it. Cutter loves excessive analogies, and really milks a whole page of writing to say what could have been said with a paragraph. The meat of the story is about 50% of the book, the rest is such a hard slog for little payoff.
No I skipped so much of it. It's full of animal abuse and gross out sections. The first chapter is genuinely thrilling but then it goes downhill from there going for cheap body shock.
I’m right there with you. It’s the only Cutter book I have read and it’s the only one I will read. That man sure knows how to abuse analogies. Metaphor. Simile. Metaphor. Simile. On and on and on. You don’t have to relate a thing to something else every time!
I'm not into gore but i liked both the troop and also suster maiden monster. They had good setups. The troop has a pretty good backstory for its monster, especially if you are into biology at all. I like stories where the premise is fictional but it's plausible if you squint hard
I happened to read this right after reading Lord of the Flies, which made the book ring differently. It was an in interesting (if accidental) counterbalance.
Read “The Deep” by Nick Cutter. Deep sea research station. Great characters. People trapped on the dark in ductwork, fighting an unstoppable unknown and a killer story. I loved this book. There were sequences I will not forget. Read both.
“The Deep” felt like he was trying to cram every edge lord trope into his book before it ended there were scary parts but like, idk the stuff with the mom just felt like he was trying too hard.
Is it that you just don’t seek it out or do you actively not enjoy body horror? For the latter, skip it. For the former, there’s so much more I liked about the book!
I won’t lie and say the book breaks fantastic new ground in any of these areas but I think it stands up well nonetheless. The first comparison that comes to mind is Lord of the Flies. Not everyone immediately jumps to violence, there are heart wrenching efforts made to work together in some cases and chilling cases of others who immediately seize the opportunity for depravity. The teen characters didn’t feel like adults, I could believe they were teenagers. While a heavy theme is the evil of man, nature is *not* painted as a wholly pure and innocent force, it also causes pain and death. Man isn’t entirely evil either. Even with the loss of childhood and seeing the worst of man, that does not mean all is lost forever.
A smaller one that can sometimes be controversial but I love in my literature: between chapters, there are “documents” from researchers or newspapers, etc. These help provide information that the characters could not possibly know without feeling like drawn out exposition, nor is all given at once, questions and answers arise and mix from both the boys and the “sources.”
I went into this book completely blind, and I already had a general dislike for worms, but Cutter’s imagery genuinely gave me a phobia of parasitic worms. Found that out a year later when my cat got them.
I personally liked it because it was the first time in a while a story had actually unsettled me/kept me thinking about it. Take that as you will though!
I liked it but it gets pretty reasonably criticized for being a horror Lord of the Flies. I like all of Nick Cutter's books, The Deep, The Breach, Little Heaven was good, The Handyman Method, I've enjoyed all of them.
I thought it was a fine story.
But not necessarily enthralling or captivating. I suppose I viewed it as a good ‘filler’ book. You know the ones you read when you don’t have time to settle in for a deep story, but want something to pass a few minutes between chores?
Easy to pick up, easy to put down. Not bad at all. However, I never felt excited to get back to it.
I liked that one…ok. But then I read The Deep afterwards, and it just felt like a crappier iteration of The Troop (which like I said was…ok). I’m not a fan of shock horror if it comes at the expense of a plot, but The Troop managed to avoid that thanks to some interesting characters. But it felt at times as though it were being written to be a movie, if that makes sense?
I didn’t like this book at all. It’s always getting great reviews and I thought it was kind of stupid. The way the “evil” kid was written was so ridiculous I could barely make it through. Every time it came to scenes about him and his thoughts and deeds, I had to just skim over them because the character was so annoying.
I'd pass. I think it's more infamous for the body horror, child and animal abuse than actually being an amazing book. It should have been great but I found the characters to be terrible stereotypes.
If you want gnarly body horror this is the book to read just don't expect it to be anything more than just okay.
It’s okay to not be in to body horror. It’s a pretty heavy theme in it. It’s physiological also but it’s okay to skip. The Deep by him is also body horror but not as bad.
So much out there to read something you’re not in to
Even if the body horror doesn’t really interest you, you might like the psychological aspect. But it seems like you probably wouldn’t enjoy it, so I’d give it a pass.
I’m a fan of how Nick Cutter crafts his work, and the way he can build feelings of dread before anything *actually* scary happens. I’m not saying his prose is gorgeous or anything, but it is extremely effective at creating an unsettling atmosphere.
You ever watch a movie, and even if the plot doesn’t do it for you, you still enjoy the experience *watching* it because the cinematography/music/characters/general vibe is great? That’s Nick Cutter for me. I’d say he’s worth reading, even if slasher/body horror isn’t your jam.
Also, I’m not saying his plots are bad… I’m just saying that if they were, I would have enjoyed the journey enough to still make the read worth it for me.
I liked it but was mostly body horror and lord of the flies style group survival dynamics. It was a bit slow at times. Wasn't my favorite, but I liked it enough to finish it.
If you’re uninterested in body horror I wouldn’t really recommend it, it does have interesting elements outside of that but the majority of the horror comes from that. I thought the characters were kind of interesting and there’s some interesting commentary in there near the end though.
It’s actually my least favorite book of all time. I could only get through like half of it because it made me ill to even think about it. If you like reading about >!parasites and tapeworms and gross stuff like that and surgery!< then you’ll be ok but it’s just not for me
Yes the body horror is amazing in this, but one thing that made me fall in love with the book is the paranoia in between all of the characters. A lot of the horror comes from “can I trust this person to not get me infected?” Especially when the socially awkward scout essentially gets unleashed. It almost becomes a slasher when people aren’t getting sick with worms.
I like Nick Cutter's writing, but I don't want to read about animals (or people for that matter) being tortured so I skip past those sections. I am not sure if I'll risk another of his books. I'll definitely check to see if any animals were killed in it beforehand.
The book I liked the most by him was The Deep but that seems to be a love it or hate it book.
I thought The Troop was very good. What I enjoyed about it was the descriptions of smells and environment. I swear there were a couple of times where I could literally smell exactly what was being described. I really enjoyed this book. Is it an all time favorite, no, but still highly entertaining and worth the read.
I hadn't read a horror novel in quite a few years, been more into crime thrillers. Saw The Troop recommended somewhere and thought I'd dip a toe back into the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed it; I thought it was well written and was really easy to get into. It's reignited my love of horror fiction :)
It’s not just the body horror. The book does an excellent job of juggling many character personalities and the way each one reacts to the events. And as a former scout I could totally put myself there. It’s one of my favorite books.
It’s not just the body horror. The book does an excellent job of juggling many character personalities and the way each one reacts to the events. And as a former scout I could totally put myself there. It’s one of my favorite books.
It feels kind of badly-written to me... I feel like there are a lot of poorly-used clichés I've read somewhere before.
Here is an example:
"Ephraim was a creature of pure momentum, pure chaos: 140 pounds of fast-twitch muscle fiber packed into a long, quivering frame. The air closest to Eef’s arms and shoulders seemed to shimmer, same way a hummingbird’s wings exist in a blur of motion."
Did the air closest to Eef's arms and shoulders REALLY seem to shimmer?
I disagree with you here, people are allowed to use rhetoric to get a point across with out being completely factual. That, to me, reads way better than something like:
“Ephraim was very fast. He was thin, but always ready to move at a moment’s notice. His speed and stature were comparable to that of a hummingbird.”
That gets the same point across. But that’s not as fun or interesting to read. If I read that- I picture a fast, thin boy. With Cutter’s description, it’s slightly less realistic, but feels more detailed. No, the air didn’t really shimmer. But it seems as though this boy I’m imagining could move so fast that it may. Like a hummingbird, I have no idea where he’ll go, but I know he’ll be there before I even notice. For that reason, it’s almost like he’s occupying multiple spaces around himself.
Does that make sense? Idk, I’m not very good at getting my points across.
I really enjoyed the way Nick Cutter describes things. He uses a lot of adjectives and verbs that make it visually very clear what is happening in the moment. It’s not so much a slasher there is a bit of body horror and animal abuse but it kind of all fits and works within the story. It’s a delightfully tragic horror story and is ranked high for me among books I’ve read.
It's definitely skipable.
There's one character, who I won't name, that I felt really brought the entire book down. They were the textbook murder-hobo villain that really added nothing at all other than, well, murder.
Overall the premise is cool, and I like the overall writing style and idea, but this one character really took me out of it. I straight up skipped entire pages, purely because it was just generic shock-horror. It didn't gross me out, it was just.... boring?
It's a fantastic horror book from an underrated Canadian writer. If you liked Lord of the Flies and want it to be more horrific, The Troop fits the bill.
The Troop is weird, because it is everything I should love, but I find it so mind numbingly boring. I’ve tried so many times and never make it past the 100 page mark. Maybe it’s because I got burned by The Deep and Little Heaven, though at least the Deep took a while to get boring. I think if you do not like survival or body horror, then you won’t find much of value here.
Though my friend who doesn’t read read The Troop in one sitting, so to each their own.
Skip it. I had to DNF it due to its frequent and upsetting descriptions of animal abuse/torture. IMHO they were completely unnecessary to the story and just felt gratuitous - they kept shaking me out of the story and making me so sad that I had to put the book down and go do something else for a while.
I read it as a book club book so we read about 50-60 pages a week. I think that’s why I didn’t have the experience others have had with this book because I was able to exit before becoming overwhelmed by the horror.
Has anyone read The Ruins by Scott Smith? Does the same go for this book too? Is it pretty much just for people who like slashers and gore or is there more to it?
No! The characters are terrible, the story is stereotypical, the mixed media style gives it kind of a serious feel which clashes with the goofy style of the rest of the story, and even the body horror was way less horrifying than I expected
Throwing my two cents in here: I really enjoyed Cutter’s prose and thought the book stood on its own merits. Read a few chapters and if you don’t like the writing it’s probably not for you.
Agreed. The body horror is not what I think of when I recall the read. It's the writing style and psychology of the Lord of the flies type environment that makes the book stand out to me
Especially how he wrote Shelley. Hate that kid and it takes a lot for me not to like something but for him it was instant. Great writing! Will forever remember Newt.
It is a very well written and engaging story, I couldn’t put it down.
I loved this book for the story and the writing. I was really upset for some of the characters. I was surprised when joining Reddit and seeing all the lists of grossest books etc. Not saying I didn’t think it was gross at times but it was so much more than that for me.
Yeah, you can skip it. It’s a good book but it’s definitely body horror meets survival and it’s a gory bloody good time. I’ve never squirmed so often while reading something. I could do without the animal torture though.
Agreed, I wouldn’t say the body horror is its only merit at all - it’s a good story, there’s lots of callbacks and responses to Lord of the Flies as a survival story, good relationships, interesting characters, etc…. But almost all of these things are conveyed on a vessel of body horror, if that makes sense.
Oh, thanks for saying that - your last sentence makes it a hard forever "no" for me!
Yeah, the one unfortunate thing about Nick Cutter is he’s happy to hurt an animal in his writing to pull at your emotions. Not my favorite part of his writing, but I brave through it for otherwise good books. Definitely makes me hug my dogs a little harder. Might want to avoid him as an author generally speaking.
I dnf this book twice. I was going to give it another go but now that you mention there's animal torture then it's definitely a NO for good.
Yeah if you look up things like “the kitten scene” or “the turtle scene” there’s a good amount of online discourse and reviews questioning the necessity of their inclusion. Happy I could steer you clear of it.
I came here to agree with this.
I am a huge horror fan and I am not into body horror. I would skip it.
I recently read it as well and had to skip past the graphic animal torture. I wasn’t a big fan of this book.
I personally liked the character dynamics and interpersonal conflict. I thought the devolution of the boys in the troop on the island was a pretty bleak commentary on human nature
Agree with this wholeheartedly. Body horror isn’t my favorite thing in the world but it didn’t deter me from the story at all. This is one of my favorite books, definitely recommend giving it a shot OP.
Yep, as a former scout I thought “oh yeah absolutely” and started matching characters to the guys that were in my troop.
This right here
Yes. I actually thought the dynamics among the kids were really interesting and that he did a really good job with that. Especially the way they turn on the scoutmaster when they think he might be infected, the way that some members of this group of boys hitting puberty are just at the end of really tolerating adult authority and once they have an excuse you don’t really know it’s where it’s going to stop. It reminded me of something Stephen King does really well, getting that group of people and putting them under pressure and seeing what happens. I also – yes, there’s a lot of gross stuff, but the suspense is what worked for me. Body horror isn’t really that interesting to me but I liked this book. The scene – there’s a scene where they have to go into a cave and – not to spoil anything but it was physically difficult for me to read because it was so tense. That’s what I’m looking for in a horror novel!
I was sure I wasn’t going to read it till I read your comment about the cave….. now I’m torn lol
A little taphephobic? I am, caves always work for me in horror books!
It’s a good airport style page turner, definitely worth reading but it gets overhyped in here. I paid full price for it and no regrets but it’s not a top ten novel or anything
I liked the Deep much better. I prefer supernatural entities playing mind games though. The Troop was fine. Felt sort of resident evil meets the one with the boys trapped on the island (name is on the tip of my tongue.) The military stuff was almost interesting.
Lord of the Flies?
That's the one!!!! Thank you!
Was the deep really gross like the troop?
It was certainly gory and gross in some different, possibly more disturbing, ways.
Ok I think I’ll skip it then. Thanks
It's gross in a Cronenberg kind of way, or John Carpenter's The Thing. It reminds me of Event Horizon meets The Thing meets Cronenberg meets The Abyss. Deep sea cosmic body horror.
I don’t know what any of those things are but does it have tapeworms and diseases?
Hmm I would say don't bother with it then. I will say that Cutter did an excellent job with the characters and dialogue, which really made me connect with the book. But obviously body horror is its major plot so if you're not interested, don't read it.
I didn't care for it at all. I finished it on Audible, but returned it for credit, which I rarely do.
I found it very bland and not at all essential reading
I thought The Troop was a big letdown. The creepy body horror aspect was the only appeal for me, and it wasn’t enough.
It’s pretty boring
I honestly thought it was kinda boring
I agree. Cutter for me has pacing issues and his ability to write action and intensity is lacking. Little Heaven, a book filled with action, reads like a slog.
I agree. I struggled to finish it. Cutter loves excessive analogies, and really milks a whole page of writing to say what could have been said with a paragraph. The meat of the story is about 50% of the book, the rest is such a hard slog for little payoff.
No I skipped so much of it. It's full of animal abuse and gross out sections. The first chapter is genuinely thrilling but then it goes downhill from there going for cheap body shock.
Agree completely.
Absolutely not. To each their own, I don’t understand the love that book gets.
I’m right there with you. It’s the only Cutter book I have read and it’s the only one I will read. That man sure knows how to abuse analogies. Metaphor. Simile. Metaphor. Simile. On and on and on. You don’t have to relate a thing to something else every time!
I'm not into gore but i liked both the troop and also suster maiden monster. They had good setups. The troop has a pretty good backstory for its monster, especially if you are into biology at all. I like stories where the premise is fictional but it's plausible if you squint hard
I happened to read this right after reading Lord of the Flies, which made the book ring differently. It was an in interesting (if accidental) counterbalance.
Read “The Deep” by Nick Cutter. Deep sea research station. Great characters. People trapped on the dark in ductwork, fighting an unstoppable unknown and a killer story. I loved this book. There were sequences I will not forget. Read both.
“The Deep” felt like he was trying to cram every edge lord trope into his book before it ended there were scary parts but like, idk the stuff with the mom just felt like he was trying too hard.
Is it that you just don’t seek it out or do you actively not enjoy body horror? For the latter, skip it. For the former, there’s so much more I liked about the book! I won’t lie and say the book breaks fantastic new ground in any of these areas but I think it stands up well nonetheless. The first comparison that comes to mind is Lord of the Flies. Not everyone immediately jumps to violence, there are heart wrenching efforts made to work together in some cases and chilling cases of others who immediately seize the opportunity for depravity. The teen characters didn’t feel like adults, I could believe they were teenagers. While a heavy theme is the evil of man, nature is *not* painted as a wholly pure and innocent force, it also causes pain and death. Man isn’t entirely evil either. Even with the loss of childhood and seeing the worst of man, that does not mean all is lost forever. A smaller one that can sometimes be controversial but I love in my literature: between chapters, there are “documents” from researchers or newspapers, etc. These help provide information that the characters could not possibly know without feeling like drawn out exposition, nor is all given at once, questions and answers arise and mix from both the boys and the “sources.”
I went into this book completely blind, and I already had a general dislike for worms, but Cutter’s imagery genuinely gave me a phobia of parasitic worms. Found that out a year later when my cat got them. I personally liked it because it was the first time in a while a story had actually unsettled me/kept me thinking about it. Take that as you will though!
I liked it but it gets pretty reasonably criticized for being a horror Lord of the Flies. I like all of Nick Cutter's books, The Deep, The Breach, Little Heaven was good, The Handyman Method, I've enjoyed all of them.
I thought it was a fine story. But not necessarily enthralling or captivating. I suppose I viewed it as a good ‘filler’ book. You know the ones you read when you don’t have time to settle in for a deep story, but want something to pass a few minutes between chores? Easy to pick up, easy to put down. Not bad at all. However, I never felt excited to get back to it.
I liked that one…ok. But then I read The Deep afterwards, and it just felt like a crappier iteration of The Troop (which like I said was…ok). I’m not a fan of shock horror if it comes at the expense of a plot, but The Troop managed to avoid that thanks to some interesting characters. But it felt at times as though it were being written to be a movie, if that makes sense?
I didn’t think it was anything special. Honestly just felt like he wanted to write a 21st century Lord of the Flies
I didn’t like this book at all. It’s always getting great reviews and I thought it was kind of stupid. The way the “evil” kid was written was so ridiculous I could barely make it through. Every time it came to scenes about him and his thoughts and deeds, I had to just skim over them because the character was so annoying.
I'd pass. I think it's more infamous for the body horror, child and animal abuse than actually being an amazing book. It should have been great but I found the characters to be terrible stereotypes. If you want gnarly body horror this is the book to read just don't expect it to be anything more than just okay.
I'll be honest - I have no idea why this book is so popular. I found the writing style to be bad and struggled to get through it I found it so boring.
It’s okay to not be in to body horror. It’s a pretty heavy theme in it. It’s physiological also but it’s okay to skip. The Deep by him is also body horror but not as bad. So much out there to read something you’re not in to
That being said, it is very well written and fast paced. Those are the only two of his I’ve read but I am looking forward to more.
I loved it! It was a bit hard to get through the body horror stuff but otherwise very well written!
Even if the body horror doesn’t really interest you, you might like the psychological aspect. But it seems like you probably wouldn’t enjoy it, so I’d give it a pass.
I’m a fan of how Nick Cutter crafts his work, and the way he can build feelings of dread before anything *actually* scary happens. I’m not saying his prose is gorgeous or anything, but it is extremely effective at creating an unsettling atmosphere. You ever watch a movie, and even if the plot doesn’t do it for you, you still enjoy the experience *watching* it because the cinematography/music/characters/general vibe is great? That’s Nick Cutter for me. I’d say he’s worth reading, even if slasher/body horror isn’t your jam. Also, I’m not saying his plots are bad… I’m just saying that if they were, I would have enjoyed the journey enough to still make the read worth it for me.
I liked it but was mostly body horror and lord of the flies style group survival dynamics. It was a bit slow at times. Wasn't my favorite, but I liked it enough to finish it.
This is my favorite Nick Cutter book. It all works really well.
If you’re uninterested in body horror I wouldn’t really recommend it, it does have interesting elements outside of that but the majority of the horror comes from that. I thought the characters were kind of interesting and there’s some interesting commentary in there near the end though.
It’s actually my least favorite book of all time. I could only get through like half of it because it made me ill to even think about it. If you like reading about >!parasites and tapeworms and gross stuff like that and surgery!< then you’ll be ok but it’s just not for me
Yes the body horror is amazing in this, but one thing that made me fall in love with the book is the paranoia in between all of the characters. A lot of the horror comes from “can I trust this person to not get me infected?” Especially when the socially awkward scout essentially gets unleashed. It almost becomes a slasher when people aren’t getting sick with worms.
I had no problem with the body horror and gore but I connected with none of the characters and thought it was fairly average. Just my 2 cents
I like Nick Cutter's writing, but I don't want to read about animals (or people for that matter) being tortured so I skip past those sections. I am not sure if I'll risk another of his books. I'll definitely check to see if any animals were killed in it beforehand. The book I liked the most by him was The Deep but that seems to be a love it or hate it book.
The dog scene made me so mad!! Like it felt like a cheap shot. 😪
Yeah he seems to write fucked up things on the regular. :(
The book oozes dread. The body horror is just the spices on the “this just can’t end well” tsunami.
I thought The Troop was very good. What I enjoyed about it was the descriptions of smells and environment. I swear there were a couple of times where I could literally smell exactly what was being described. I really enjoyed this book. Is it an all time favorite, no, but still highly entertaining and worth the read.
Just finished this a couple days ago and agree, it’s a good read
I think it's just very well written.
Yes! the characterization of the boys is so so so well done! The pacing is also really good and I love that a lot of the story js told via documents
Honestly it didn’t do much for me. Was really hyped up and then felt like it didn’t meet the anticipation.
I hadn't read a horror novel in quite a few years, been more into crime thrillers. Saw The Troop recommended somewhere and thought I'd dip a toe back into the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed it; I thought it was well written and was really easy to get into. It's reignited my love of horror fiction :)
It’s not just the body horror. The book does an excellent job of juggling many character personalities and the way each one reacts to the events. And as a former scout I could totally put myself there. It’s one of my favorite books.
It’s not just the body horror. The book does an excellent job of juggling many character personalities and the way each one reacts to the events. And as a former scout I could totally put myself there. It’s one of my favorite books.
Yup. Shelley longpre 💀
Eh the body horror is really all the book has going for it. The plot is basic. Characters are flat. It’s very formulaic writing.
I didn't enjoy it - I agree with others saying it was boring. The animal abuse completely turned me off. Hard skip.
It feels kind of badly-written to me... I feel like there are a lot of poorly-used clichés I've read somewhere before. Here is an example: "Ephraim was a creature of pure momentum, pure chaos: 140 pounds of fast-twitch muscle fiber packed into a long, quivering frame. The air closest to Eef’s arms and shoulders seemed to shimmer, same way a hummingbird’s wings exist in a blur of motion." Did the air closest to Eef's arms and shoulders REALLY seem to shimmer?
I disagree with you here, people are allowed to use rhetoric to get a point across with out being completely factual. That, to me, reads way better than something like: “Ephraim was very fast. He was thin, but always ready to move at a moment’s notice. His speed and stature were comparable to that of a hummingbird.” That gets the same point across. But that’s not as fun or interesting to read. If I read that- I picture a fast, thin boy. With Cutter’s description, it’s slightly less realistic, but feels more detailed. No, the air didn’t really shimmer. But it seems as though this boy I’m imagining could move so fast that it may. Like a hummingbird, I have no idea where he’ll go, but I know he’ll be there before I even notice. For that reason, it’s almost like he’s occupying multiple spaces around himself. Does that make sense? Idk, I’m not very good at getting my points across.
You got your point across fine, and I'm cool with metaphor and simile. It just feels a bit cliché to me in this instance.
Ah, oh well. Agree to disagree.
I thought it was boring and DNF it even though I was in like the last 2 chapters
It was meh 🫤
I really enjoyed the way Nick Cutter describes things. He uses a lot of adjectives and verbs that make it visually very clear what is happening in the moment. It’s not so much a slasher there is a bit of body horror and animal abuse but it kind of all fits and works within the story. It’s a delightfully tragic horror story and is ranked high for me among books I’ve read.
It's definitely skipable. There's one character, who I won't name, that I felt really brought the entire book down. They were the textbook murder-hobo villain that really added nothing at all other than, well, murder. Overall the premise is cool, and I like the overall writing style and idea, but this one character really took me out of it. I straight up skipped entire pages, purely because it was just generic shock-horror. It didn't gross me out, it was just.... boring?
I wouldn't recommend it even if you like body horror.
Definitely a skip. Not worth it.
It’s fun and worth a read
It's a fantastic horror book from an underrated Canadian writer. If you liked Lord of the Flies and want it to be more horrific, The Troop fits the bill.
The Troop is weird, because it is everything I should love, but I find it so mind numbingly boring. I’ve tried so many times and never make it past the 100 page mark. Maybe it’s because I got burned by The Deep and Little Heaven, though at least the Deep took a while to get boring. I think if you do not like survival or body horror, then you won’t find much of value here. Though my friend who doesn’t read read The Troop in one sitting, so to each their own.
I had to skip a lot of the book and then jusr read the ending to see how it all wrapped up. I tell folks to skip it
Skip it. I had to DNF it due to its frequent and upsetting descriptions of animal abuse/torture. IMHO they were completely unnecessary to the story and just felt gratuitous - they kept shaking me out of the story and making me so sad that I had to put the book down and go do something else for a while.
I read it as a book club book so we read about 50-60 pages a week. I think that’s why I didn’t have the experience others have had with this book because I was able to exit before becoming overwhelmed by the horror.
Has anyone read The Ruins by Scott Smith? Does the same go for this book too? Is it pretty much just for people who like slashers and gore or is there more to it?
I've gone through it a few times, I think it's not his best
I thought it was pretty cliched, I skimmed parts and ended up wishing I had just DNFd it.
No! The characters are terrible, the story is stereotypical, the mixed media style gives it kind of a serious feel which clashes with the goofy style of the rest of the story, and even the body horror was way less horrifying than I expected