The Deep – Nick Cutter

A mysterious disease dubbed “the ‘gets” is ravaging the human population.  Starting off slowly, it hinders your ability to remember where you parked or where you left your wallet.  In time, it advances to the point where you forget to breathe and your heart forgets to beat.

A new substance, believed to be a miraculous cure-all healer, is discovered at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the lowest known point in the ocean.  It isn’t long before a state of the art research center, populated with a select few brilliant scientists, is constructed eight miles below sea level.

When a sub resurfaces carrying the mutilated body of one of the researchers and communications from the station cease, two brave individuals are sent deep into the unknown to investigate.

The Deep is Nick Cutter’s follow up to his first novel, The Troop – you know, the one that scared Stephen King.  Cutter must’ve known that he had to up the ante this time around and what’s scarier than a story set eight miles below sea level?  Answer: not much.

While the story does take its time in building to the truly terrifying stuff, the final one hundred pages are absolutely insane.  I’m talking edge of your seat, nightmare worthy material.  In the Troop, Cutter relies on the fear of infection and disease and while those two elements are certainly present in The Deep, he’s more so playing on the true psychological madness of claustrophobia and everlasting darkness.

The Deep is set to hit bookstores a little under one year following The Troop (January 2015), I worry that I may get spoiled by a steady stream of Cutter material.  Either way, I can’t wait for book three.

Side note: if this ever gets made into a movie, Jim Parsons is the PERFECT actor to fill the shoes of Clayton.

Expected Release Date: January 13th, 2015