The dog dies. Horribly. It will make you sad. I checked online to see if the dog died as soon as I read there was a dog, because that’s just something you need to check for with horror stories. I kept reading, hoping the story payoff would be worth it. It was not.
I love horror stories, it’s definitely my favorite genre. I have a pretty high tolerance for gore and horrible things happening to people, though I draw the line at like, the insane collection of straight to DVD Hellraiser movies, or anything made by Eli Roth, because if I’m going to put horrible things in my head that will haunt me when I fall asleep or am alone in a cold dark house, it had better be worthwhile at least (Eli Roth never is. (Fuck Eli Roth.) (Just because you’re showing more horrible things on screen than your peers are doesn’t make you special or an artiste, dude, it makes you an attention seeker who needs therapy.)) The Deep has one of the most disturbing death descriptions (not the dog) I’ve ever read. I was walking around a lake as I listened to it on Audible and I had to stop walking and deep breathe because I thought I was going to throw up. That is not how I like to spend my time, but again I can tolerate that sort of thing if it helps the story.
What really takes The Deep from “edgelord but interesting” to “Bye Felicia” is the ending. I won’t spoil it, but the story is sci-fi horror, and sci-fi to me, especially with a sci-fi mystery, is something I want to figure out and solve. As things were revealed, character relationships expanded on, and haunting madness creeping in and around things, I was trying to figure out how it all connects and stay ahead of the story, and this engagement is a big part of why I endured the torture-porn character death descriptions. The ending then throws out any possible connections you as the reader were drawing for a pretty lame, Deus Ex Machina payout. There’s no way you could predict it without random guessing, and while that doesn’t make it lame horror, it makes it lame sci-fi, and I didn’t appreciate that.
I do not recommend The Deep. It is very well-written, apart from that I didn’t like the ending. The style is gripping, the prose quality, but the story ultimately wasn’t worth reading about a sad dying dog. The inclusion of something like a dog in the first place (the setting is a research facility in the Mariana Trench btw) was already a stretch, which ultimately gave it the sense that this was included just to push the edgelord envelope (like Eli Roth COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH) and failed to serve any real use. If you like gruesome, supernatural sci-fi horror or underwater settings, which is what originally drew me to this story, give it a try, but be aware the dog dies and it will make you sad. If it doesn’t, you’re Eli Roth, and you should stop reading my reviews because I am likely to continue being mean to you.
