Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

For this review I’m doing something a little bit different that what I normally do. Most of the time, I write my review after I’ve finished reading the book, which is what most people do as well. This is all well and fine, but sometimes I feel like I’m missing something in my reviews. So for this review, I am going to be writing bits and pieces as I read the book to give a better sense of how I was really feeling about the book as I read it, kind of like a thoughts while reading kind of thing, but a little bit different. Let’s see how this works!

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Before reading

Into the Drowning Deep falls into an interesting genre: Horror and Fantasy. Or at least that is what it is considered on Goodreads. I can’t say that I have ever read a book that could be fully considered both genres before, so reading this is going to be a fun ride! From what I gathered from the synopsis, this follows a young marine biologist Tory whose sister Anne went on a voyage to capture the existence of mermaids. That ship was lost, and there were never any survivors found. Now Tory wants to go back to learn about what really happened to her sister.

While Reading

Some of you may (or may not) know this, but I have a degree in Conservation Biology. My undergraduate thesis was actually centered around ocean acidification and how it affects marine organisms. In layman’s terms, that means I studied climate change. Being apart of that marine lab makes reading this book that much more enjoyable and interesting to me. At the start of this book, Tory is working on a whale watching ship as their marine biologist giving tourists information about the sea life around them, and I am so happy to say that for the most part it is pretty accurate! I love the amount of science that is weaved through this book, and the research that had to have been done to make it accurate and still enjoyable to people who have no background in the sciences.

I’m not sure if sending out a new boat after the disappearance of the original voyage is such a good idea and from what I know about horror novels, this is not going to end well. Are the mermaids real? If they are, chances are they are NOT friendly. I’m still really loving how detailed everything is with all of the different fields of science on this boat! Plus, the diversity is incredible! I can’t say that I’ve read a book that contained this much diversity, not only ethnic diversity, but diverse disabilities as well.

At this point I feel like the genres that Goodreads puts this book into isn’t quite correct. The horror genre definitely fits, but the only thing that really fits with Fantasy is the mermaid aspect of this, and the way that it is done makes it feel more like it could actually be true than a fantasy. That aside, I love the characters and the complex relationships they have with each other.

After Reading

Man, that last 40 pages kept me on the edge of my seat! This may have become one of my favorite books of the year! As far as the plot goes, I absolutely loved it! The science aspects were woven in so seamlessly that even if you are someone who doesn’t understand a lot of science-y things, you’ll get what they are saying. Or maybe that’s just the science nerd in me talking. The characters were great as well! I love how Tory wants to figure out what really happened to her sister and then it becomes so much more than that. Every single one of the characters we are introduced to are each so unique and have their own personalities, and for the most part almost every single character has something that makes them different from everyone else. When I say that, I mean that not everyone is straight and white. There is an incredible amount of diversity in this book, so much so that I noticed it right away. I have a tendency to read books that don’t have a ton of diversity- not because I don’t want to, but fantasy in general is lacking in that category. If you were unaware, Mira Grant is actually a pen name for Seanan Mcguire. I’ve heard fantastic things about the diversity in her more popular Wayward Children series, and that diversity seems to carry over into all her work which is fantastic!

I don’t want to give away too much of what happens, as with horror the less you know the better the book becomes. But just trust me when I say that you will love every single character and you will really feel for them and the situations they are put in. The plot keeps you on the tip of your toes and keeps you wanting more! I HIGHLY recommend this book to, well, pretty much everyone. YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK.