Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

“Do I think they found mermaids? Yes. Of course I do. And I think the mermaids ate them all.”

Rating

Review

Into The Drowning Deep follows humanity’s endless curiosity and greed, and what happens when it meets the hidden mysteries of the deep, dark sea. One ship has already been lost to the myth of mermaids, found floating with no crew left in site, and now Imagine, an entertainment company, is planning on sending another. The Melusine is said to be the perfect boat for the quest, but can it protect its passengers from the truly unknown?

2018 was filled with a whole bunch of mermaid-related disappointment for me. Almost every book I tried or wanted to try ended up being a disappointment, either not doing the lovely ladies of the sea justice or promising mermaids when really delivering something else. Into the Drowning Deep was my latest in a long line of attempts to find a mermaid/siren book I actually enjoyed, and I’m happy to report that it was my first success! This book does everything right when it comes to bringing this myth to life, and I could not have been more frightened by how it was.

Into The Drowning Deep perfectly blends science fiction and horror, using one to enhance the existence of the other. This is especially obvious in the first 50-60% of the tale, where most of the build-up occurs. It’s also where most of the scientific background and explanation happens, where we learn the existing theories behind the footage from the Atargatis, and for the existence of mermaids in general. In most situations, this wouldn’t necessarily be all that scary, rather boring actually. However, the way Grant gives us this information as well as the constant interjections of foreboding foreshadowing grips the reader and forces them to pay attention. The reader knows all these facts will later be the difference between life and death, the difference between success and a repeat of the Atargatis disaster.

Additionally, the way the story is written, through a constantly changing group of characters, really added to the overall experience. We had the perspective of a variety of passengers, from the bloodthirsty hunters hired to kill the mermaids when they found the ship to the mechanics tasked with fixing a failing a security system. We also had the perspective of a large cast of scientists, all with different focuses and motives behind them being on the Melusine, giving a fairly broad image of the scientific community that would be impacted by this discovery. Additionally, we weren’t made to like and appreciate all characters, with most being flawed and fully three-dimensional characters. We might even wish for the death of a few here and there, for some of the more, disgusting, characters to be taken by the mermaids as a snack. This also compliments the horror/sci-fi mix of the book, as the characters being realistic works to make the story itself feel more real, and thus more horrifying.

My only issue with the book was its ending, as I feel it came and went waaay too fast for all the build-up that preceded it. While the final “twist,” or rather revelation, was extremely interesting and deserved the build-up, the tying up of ends felt weak and underdone. Now I normally don’t need/want a book to resolve everything in the end, but it felt like there was too much ignored, too much left unsaid. It made the ending feel unsatisfying, and while my mind keeps coming back to Into the Drowning Deep after having finished it, it’s mainly due to me feeling like there’s still more left to be said, not any thought-provoking feeling it left behind.

All in all, I still loved this book. The sub-par ending was more than made up for by the journey to it. I found myself constantly surprised by both the characters and the mermaids, and while I won’t say this book made me afraid to turn the lights off at night, I will admit that I’ll be a bit warier next time I’m looking out upon the deep, dark blue.