The Troop
Ratings224
Average rating3.6
While I certainly love horror and this book packs in some of the best chilling scenes and descriptions. I have realized that maybe body horror isn't my thing after reading this. I was constantly plagued by itchiness and creeped out the whole time.
Much of this book I just found to be gross. Mostly because Cutter describes everything so vividly that I found myself having to put the book down a lot. Also maybe not the best choice of books to read during a pandemic.
Read this in the recommendations of strangers on Facebook and it's one of the most gruesome horror I've read. The perfect diet book, actually, because you'll lose your appetite within the first chapter.
In a nutshell: Five boys and a Scoutmaster are on an island, soon to be joined by a man, ravaged by a mysterious disease, who's escaped from a military research centre. Things go bad, very bad, and it's pretty much up to the kids to survive.
The above does not do justice to the horror contained in the tale. Shades of Lord of The Flies with its frequent kids vs adults juxtaposition, but really, a solid, frightening Man vs Monster story.
This was a fun and icky horror. I don't think the writing style is quite for me but I did enjoy my time reading this in the end.
Creepy and visceral. Not for the faint of heart.
Suspend your disbelief and get ready for a ride.
Unfortunately, disappointed. Gore for gore's sake just never does it for me. Still, concept alone will bring me to try another Nick Cutter before abandoning him.
This book is not for the faint of heart. I'm a splatter punk fan and even some of the scenes gave me the willies. Well written great characters. I didn't like that one of the boys was wearing an obvious I am a bad seed sign.Other than that great book.
I'm really torn between 4 and 5 stars.
This was a terrifying book. Terrifying in the most primal way. The fear it builds does not come from a wicked beast or something paranormal, it comes from something that's all to real and can't be fought: a virus inside you.
The writing style really felt like a Stephen King book, with its background character development and interviews and case file parts (which was on purpose, as the author acknowledges). That said I really loved it.
The transition from innocent childhood where the adults handle everything, to the sad truth that adults are sometimes as lost as children, was really well done. Every kid had its own fleshed out character and took a reasonable part in the story.
The gory and disgusting “action” parts were evenly spaced out and believable.
But it's also a sad book. There's nothing good happening to any of the characters. All they got left are memories of better times, on which they cling on while going through hell. It doesn't have a happy ending, which I really like. Life isn't like the fairy tales.
So why not 5 stars? Because all the animal cruelty left a bitter taste in my mouth. I know that it WAS there to do just that, and for a few characters those scenes were crucial, but it was a bit too fleshed out for my tastes. Like the author really had fun writing sites full of those stuff.
Yes yes, I know that drawing the line on animal cruelty in a book where kids slaughter themselves is weird, but that's just how I roll. I can't help it.
