Getting this bit out of the way first..

THAT’S NOT HOW MASS SPEC WORKS. HOW DID YOU EVEN SEPARATE THOSE COMPOUNDS? WAS YOUR SPECTRUM JUST A SOLID BLACK RECTANGLE?

ALSO WHY DO YOU HAVE AN ORGANIC CHEMIST DOING THOSE THINGS? THAT’S NOT WHAT THEY DO.

Aaaaand I can breathe now. I’ll put the angry chemist in me away.

Believe it or not, I really enjoyed this book. I felt it had pacing issues (the start was slooooow) and I didn’t really like any of the characters (and felt like a few had great potential but were a bit wasted), but even that didn’t detract from this super fun monster book. It was, very clearly, written with a sequel in mind, which is unfortunate as said sequel does not currently exist, however if you enjoy some good monster horror I would definitely recommend giving this a read.

Grant’s Into the Drowning Deep starts off telling us about a ship that went off hunting for a legend and then showed up with no crew and footage of some very bitey-looking mermaids aboard. Seven years later, a new crew and a new ship are heading back to find out if the footage was a hoax, as is what is most commonly believed, and to definitively prove the existence of said bitey-looking mermaids.

Sounds like a terrible plan, right?

This book was predictable in the way that this type of book should be. It was written so that a well-seasoned horror enjoyer knew exactly what the characters were walking into, and had the tension and dread of watching them do it. The slow pacing at the start particularly helped this (even if, in my opinion, it went on a little too long), and for me it really built up to the payoff I was waiting for.

The mermaids themselves were wonderfully written and the author went into such interesting detail about them. I was absolutely fascinated every time we learned something new about these creatures. Honestly, I could read about them all day and am really hoping that we do get that sequel eventually.

Recommended for anyone who likes a monster story that doesn’t rush but also doesn’t keep secrets.

Don’t just take my word for it, but also that of the person at my book club who tried to read this in the bath and, upon finding themself at a particularly creepy part, decided that they were clean enough.