Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

 First of all, I have to begin by giving the Books in the Freezer podcast a shoutout for recommending this title on their recent episode covering "Found Footage" horror. As a person who grew up in the post-Blair Witch environment, I love good Found Footage horror stories...but finding the good ones is definitely a challenge sometimes. I'm going to have to check out some of the other books mentioned in that episode of the podcast, and you should definitely check out the rest of that series too, it's a lot of fun. 

Which brings us to Into the Drowning Deep. The publication history is interesting, as this is a full novel that functions as a sequel to a preceding novelette available through Kindle, Audible, or an e-Book. Since the novelette was only electronically published as far as I can tell, most places online like Goodreads list the initial novelette, titled Rolling in the Deep, as book 0.5 in the series order and Into the Drowning Deep as the first book instead. Without having read Rolling, I can tell you that you don't need to read it first to enjoy the longer novel. I might have to actually buy the novelette for myself just to see how much of the "Found Footage" sections in the second book are from the initial story, or not. 

The basic set up of Into the Drowning Deep is that a research vessel from a cryptid hunting reality TV show was found adrift at sea with all hands on board missing. Footage found on the ship shows that the cast and crew were attacked by the very real mythological creature they had been attempting to find, namely mermaids. Although any similarity to Ariel fades as the creatures in question draw more fully into sight. Into the Drowning Deep picks up as preparations for a second voyage begin to come together to confirm the existence of the creatures that supposedly attacked the initial ship as most people believe the footage to be fake. Or at least want to believe the footage is fake. 

Without giving too much of the rest of the plot away, the mermaids in question were absolutely fantastic. Mira Grant does an excellent job hitting just enough scientific points to be able to allow me enough of a fig leaf of possibility to really enjoy this story as leaning to reality and science based horror and not supernatural horror. I've seen several people online compare this book to Jurassic Park, and the comparison is definitely appropriate. 

This book, especially the audiobook version I listened to, was indeed scary. Thrilling and suspenseful once it gets going, it does take a little time to build up to a roiling boil. Once the action does pick up, Grant does a very good job of letting the pacing ebb and flow so you can breathe in between scenes, which is an aspect of writing and storytelling that can be missing in some works that I truly appreciate when it is  indeed present and done well. 

One of my only criticisms of the book is also tied to one of it's greatest strengths. This book has a rather large group of  characters, and once or twice I found myself lost with who was who. The upside to this, as a horror novel, is that as things begin to ramp up, no character is really safe since there are plenty of them and you definitely feel that there is no "Plot Armor" around our main protagonists. Especially since we do know that everyone did die in that initial voyage from the outset. The knowledge of that first ship really does do an amazing job generating a race against time aspect of the story to see if history will repeat itself, or not. 

Definitely a recommended read, and a big push to me to finally get around to Grant's Newsflesh series that has been on my TBR list for years now. Stay tuned for those......someday.