Into the Drowning Deep

By: Mira Grant

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

New York Times best-selling author Mira Grant, author of the renowned Newsflesh series, returns with a novel that takes us to a new world of ancient mysteries and mythological dangers come to life.

The ocean is home to many myths,

But some are deadly....

Seven years ago the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy.

Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they're not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life's work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart, this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will be found only below the waves.

But the secrets of the deep come with a price.

More from Mira Grant

Newsflesh

• Feed
• Deadline
• Blackout
• Feedback

Rise: A Newsflesh Collection

Parasitology

• Parasite
• Symbiont
• Chimera

©2017 Mira Grant (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Another Excellent book by Mira Grant

Where does Into the Drowning Deep rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was by far one of the best audio books I have listened to this year. The story held my interest right until the end. It was very suspenseful and the outcome was totally not predicted.I loved the performance by Christine Lakin and although I had the book checked out from the library I found myself listening rather than reading the book!

Smart, scary, and oh so smart

One of Mira Grant’s greatest strengths is her character development. The mix of people you root for and people you want to see eaten drive the plot forward like a dolphin cutting through the water. The world Grant builds is rife with opportunities for jump scares and drama. The story goes far beyond cheap thrills though. Grant out-sciences the best science writers with her world and her characters. And her villains are far too real to make a cruise seem like a good idea any time soon.

A rare glimpse of non-human cognition.

It is rare to read a book with non-human languages, thought and societies which truly feel appropriately alien. Grant offers a thrilling fast read which turns classic fantasy into smart science fiction.

Just good enough for me to keep listening

I'm totally down the middle on how much I enjoyed this title. On one hand, the story was entertaining and told well. Though it did explore the horrors of the deepest parts of the ocean, and did so well, it also explored things from a very science-heavy angle that was unique and interesting. It was clear the author did her research on a variety of maritime subjects and I feel like I actually learned things reading this.

On the other hand, the pacing of the book was exceptionally slow. Grant spends an abundance of time explaining every little detail to excruciating degree - while interesting, I often found myself wanting her to get to the point. It takes a good half to two-thirds of the book for any real action to occur, and even then it is often interrupted with the mundane.

The characters are interesting and likable enough, but it did tend to feel like their backstories were over-explained while their actual actions were relatively few. This was exacerbated by the ending - with all that time devoted to backstories and buildup, things ended remarkably fast and with little conclusion.

Finally, the writing itself definitely could have been better. The word choice and descriptions used were fine, but they had a tendency to feel like purple prose...it's hard to describe, but there was just an arrogant feel to the way everything was described. An example would be a tendency to repeat phrases for emphasis - powerful in small doses, but annoying when over-used.

That's a lot of negatives, but as I said in the headline the book was still mostly enjoyable, enough that I wanted to see it through to its end. There is still an interesting plot about the hunt for mermaids in the Mariana Trench here, and as others have said it's appealing much in the same way as books like Jurassic Park. The narrator was also acceptable - I wasn't blown away by her accents or voices, but she was clear, identifiable, and unobtrusive

Great narrator, unique and engaging story

Into the Drowning Deep was my first Mira Grant title, and my first Christine Lakin listen -- I enjoyed both enough to make me want to check out their other works (maybe Parasite will be next). The story is engaging and interwoven with enough science to make it feel pretty plausible. The characters are solid and really well characterized by the narrator. The ending came all of a sudden, though, and it felt like a set-up for another book in the series - but I didn't feel like that detracted from the overall experience. It was a "page turner" for sure, and a quick 17 hours. Definitely worth a credit!

Overlong and uninteresting creature story

While Into the Drowning Deep plays with a number of interesting ideas, the execution of those ideas never really comes together and the result is a book that pulls you along on promises until the end when you realize how much of your time the author just wasted. In brief...

This is a creature story, and the author goes out of her way to demystify those creatures constantly. From the monster-perspective chapters to a comprehensive autopsy before the fireworks have even started, the mystery of these monsters is constantly getting sucked out of the narrative. This is a cardinal sin that undermines any sense of tension the author might have been able to build.

But one monster story trope the author does rely on heavily is that everyone has to act like an idiot for any of this to work. From the people setting up the expedition to the people on board, if there's one thing you can count on is that at any given moment a character will do nearly the dumbest thing possible.

And the above point is made even worse by the fact that the plot isn't all that great to begin with. This story is about as close to a straight line as you can get. There are no twists or turns, no surprises, and given the duration there's surprisingly little that happens in general. Half of this book could have been editing out and the consumer would miss nothing. In fact, that would significantly help with the rambling redundancy the author constantly indulges in. The editor really needed to step up on this one.

And then there is the ending. Without revealing any major spoilers, the immediate threat just kind of ends and one of the characters makes a massive leap in logic to resolve a secondary surprise threat that is so much of a surprise that there is no sense of dread built up around it at all (so when it goes away, there's no sense of relief either).

When I first started listening to this I couldn't stop. But hour after hour, as the plot did nothing to generate even the slightest bit of suspense or interest, that compulsion faded to the point that I almost didn't finish. Turns out I should have listened to the cynical voice in my head that told me there was no way this book wouldn't end badly after I finished the dolphin point of view chapter...

Good suspense/horror

Properly horrifying, but I found the ending a little lacking. I have to admit it is probably appropriate however. Great take on a more likely "reality" of mermaids/sirens. Also managed to make a lot of great points about what mankind has done and is doing to the world without being heavy handed.

Narrator: I don't love the narrator, but she does a decent job with most of the accents. I found the men, unless they spoke with accents, pretty one note, and some of the women a little high pitched for comfort. But overall, it is a good listen.

Fiction by Twitter

This book reads like the author did a sweep of Twitter, gathered up all the trending keywords, molded those into stereotypes, passed the outline to a fleet of social justice warriors for character development, who then passed the whole thing along to Leela's Eco-Feminist Collective for plot development. You have the ingenue reporter, supermodel-hot-yet-somehow-insecure. Deaf characters whose disability makes them superior to hearing characters (yet somehow require a full-time caretaker). Autistic character who can't shut up about how different -- not worse, just different! -- she is. Lesbian just beginning to explore her burgeoning sexuality. Also crammed full of gender issues: any character who is competent is female. The male characters are either evil, or bumbling, or function as valets to the female characters, like the protagonist's "lab partner" who drives her around in his Tesla (no, he didn't earn his money, it's his family's) and foots the bill for her costly research privileges. Then there's the female big game hunter (seriously) who saves the (male) researcher from the evil mermaid, mockingly informing him that the pistol he was holding was just a tagging dart pistol. (Um. He's not the boat's dishwasher.) Wait wait, it gets worse: there are also dolphins who can talk to humans! Which could have been cool if this part of the story had been developed smartly and deeply...but it's just sort of stuffed in sideways with a dolphin inner monologue reflecting on the contract they entered into with the humans. (Who are of course screwing them...and the environment...especially the sea...) Was really excited about this one, the concept was really intriguing...but I'm tapping out.

Great read!

Very enjoyable story from start to finish. The characters were dynamic and very well written.

So Much Potential!!

This book was GREAT at first...then it seemed to try to meld some romance and not so subtly bring environmental issues to the forefront when the book would’ve been so much better without either. The story was an awesome premise and it was one of the ONLY books to actually give me a little bit of a chill down my spine (I love horror and books don’t usually scare or creep me out) but this one sparkled in some spots and fell flat in others.

Disclaimer: I’m not a fan of romance and I usually try to avoid the genre. The romance in the story was more of a side story but I feel like it detracted from the plot and created diversions when more attention to the mysterious thriller portion would’ve brought this over the top.

I did like this book but felt with a few changes, I could’ve absolutely loved it. To me, it is clear the writer is talented and I’ll look for more books in the future from her.

Amazing Aquatic Horror

This book is full with interesting characters, detailed science, suspense and terrifying moments. It was an absolute treat and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Too long

Narrator was good apart from the horrible Australian accent.
The story was too long for what it was and not bloody enough. More named characters should have gotten eaten.

Sub par B (C) movie

I expected more from this, it's really predicable, all the characters are self obsessed and just don't care about the trauma that their actions put others through. There's a total lack of understanding of what professional behaviour in such situations would be, everyone behaves like they are 20 years old no matter how old they are. The ridiculous decisions that people make are forehead slapping stupid, the dolphin's plot is incredibly poor. Written to be a movie script, having been culled from countless better stories, please don't make this. Narration is okay and out of respect for her I kept listening until the end, but I felt as if I'd lost some cognitive ability by doing so.

Great spec evo nautical horror

I know every review has mentioned the Australian accent but honestly nothing will prepare you for it, it's some kind of weird blend of South African and Yorkshire and other random things and I have no idea what compelled them to keep it in there. Otherwise it's well narrated and a really good book especially if you like the biology and evolution of the monsters and their environment to be explored and considered

The ocean is bad, but not as bad as that accent

Struggled to put this down, threw down the gauntlet early on and then made you wait for the teases to pay off. The horror of the (very) end of the book might be lost on some, because its bordering on existential, and is left open for a sequel I will be harassing for updates on immediately. If this bitch isn't optioned I need a limited series yesterday.

Read this one first

I really enjoyed this book. The Australian accent is pretty bad admittedly and the climax felt a little rushed to me, especially considering the length of the book but the science is explained really well, the characters are diverse and interesting and it's a very cool interpretation of mermaids. I would be very interested in learning more about the creatures but I completely understand why the detail in this book was limited, being a discovery story. Primarily though, I think I would've enjoyed it more if I'd read this one first rather than rolling in the deep, I get this one is a big time commitment but if you like cool fantasy biology just commit.

Gripping story!

One of the few times where I’ve really been gripped by the plot of a story, really recommend this - my only critique is the Australian accent. Just try to get through it, the plot is worth it!

Into the boring deep

This book tries to be scary sci fi but fails on both counts and ends up being boring and quite silly.

Definitely worth listening to

The level of scientific details and the focus of the emotional state and inner thinking of the characters certainly made this book a thrilling experience.

Pretty easy entertainment

Loved the story though I I have to say sometimes it went a little bit too far in explaining the science behind certain bits, making it drag a little.

The characters were a little melodramatic in some place but on the whole likeable.

The reader was fairly good, very consistent throughout even though their attempts at accents were a little out there