• Into the Drowning Deep

  • By: Mira Grant
  • Narrated by: Christine Lakin
  • Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (3,069 ratings)

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Into the Drowning Deep  By  cover art

Into the Drowning Deep

By: Mira Grant
Narrated by: Christine Lakin
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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

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What listeners say about Into the Drowning Deep

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story. A little preachy

This book had me hooked quickly. The author did an excellent job introducing the characters. Scary plot. I wish there was a little less preaching on environmental stuff. The repetitive conversations about it made me hit the skip button a few times. I'm fine with learning about the horrible stuff mankind does to the earth but when the main character has the exact same conversation about saving whales with 4 different people (when it isn't necessary to the plot)...about an hour of this could have been reduced.

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71 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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

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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Time wasted.

I've never been compelled to write a bad review before until now. The story meanders something terrible. The logic makes no sense with bad obstacles introduced in an attempt to make you feel a sense of danger... They went on this expedition well armed and badly equipped all at the same time. Protective safety shutters which need a code to deploy? Really? And the shutters are never tested ahead of leaving port. Why? There was no ticking clock to rush out there by. The two hunters should have been the focus of the story. For as brief as they were in the story, they were what I wanted to see more of. Unrealistic sense of urgency throughout. When the sh!t hits the fan... there is no tension. Just as you think it's about to take off like a roller coaster... the author zigs and talks about stuff no one cares about. Well, I didn't care about any of the characters. They just talked about the danger they were in. Never do you experience it with any of the characters and the few times you do... the author meanders again with Novocain-like inner thoughts or conversation. Rarely does the author venture out into the danger to give the reader any sense of fear or excitement.

Paint your characters into a deadly corner and make them fight tooth and nail to escape.

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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!

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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!

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

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...

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Ending? Did I miss something???

The ending was abrupt and rather unfulfilling. They hype up this large encounter that I thought would end with the Navy coming in and doing battle with this monstrosity and the world getting a clear look at the horrors beneath the waves but... nope. Just fade to black and then lesbian cuddles and a lot of unresolved plot threads.

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10 people found this helpful