Book Review: The Deep by Alma Katsu

 

Goodreads Summary: Someone, or something, must be haunting the ship. Between mysterious disappearances and sudden deaths, the guests of the Titanic have found themselves suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone from the moment they set sail. Several of them, including maid Annie Hebley, guest Mark Fletcher, and millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, are convinced there's something sinister--almost otherwordly--afoot. But before they can locate the source of the danger, as the world knows, disaster strikes.
Years later, Annie, having survived that fateful night, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, newly refitted as a hospital ship. When she happens across an unconscious Mark, now a soldier fighting in World War I. At first, Annie is thrilled and relieved to see he survived the sinking. But soon, Mark's presence awakens deep-buried feelings and secrets, forcing Annie to reckon with the demons of her past--as they both discover that the terror may not yet be over.

Brilliantly combining the supernatural with the height of the historical disaster, The Deep is an exploration of love and destiny, desire and innocence, and, above all, a quest to understand how our choices can lead us inexorably toward our doom.

Goodreads Ratings: 3.37 stars with over 5,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Horror, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Fantasy, Adult, Thriller, Ghosts

Goodreads Challenge: 29/50 (Oh hey, I'm finally ahead of schedule. Which is good because Shadow Rising will probably set me back) 

2021 Reading Challenge: #24 Free Space, Pick any book! (Find the entire challenge here)

Book Review:

Hello, readers! I hope everyone is having a delightful Saturday. Monday is my birthday, so I took yesterday off work and was actually productive. I cleared out my desk at work since I'm going full-time remote (Yay, no more commute! Not that I've had one for a year and a half.) I also did a bunch of laundry and some homework. For dinner, the husband and I tried a new-to-us place. It was a bistro in a bowling alley and surprisingly upscale (luckily only in looks, not in price.) Chris had the ribs, and I had some of the best gluten-free pizza I've had in seven years of having to eat gluten-free. We were going to go to the zoo today, but it's scorching and humid, so no. I imagine we'll probably just go walk around the mall like cool kids to get out of the apartment for a bit. Also, Reading Challenge Co-Conspirator, Tress, has a birthday on Tuesday. Go give her some love on her blog. Tress's blog can be found here. 

Okay, so book review time. If you recall, a few weeks ago, the husband let me loose in Barnes and Noble. The Deep was one of the two books that I picked up while I was unsupervised. I've wanted to read more fiction about the Titanic, and so I saw the cover realized that The Deep was about both the Titanic and its sister ship, the Brittanic. Fair warning, this review is going to be kind of full of spoilers because I can't really discuss my thoughts on this one otherwise. I'll try to keep them to a minimum.

The Deep by Alma Katsu takes on an interesting perspective and combines the sinking of the two ships with the paranormal. I think this book is a perfect example of an interesting premise, poor execution. It really needed to be scaled down by a content editor. The book is just over 400 pages, and there are somewhere around ten (maybe more) perspectives that are shown in the book. Off the top of my head, I think there were perspectives from Annie, Caroline, Mark, the Astors, The Astor's servant, Violet, Dai, Les, Mr. Stead, Charlie, a doctor, and Annie's Mother. It made it really hard to stay into the story, mainly because most of these points of view felt like nothing more than filler. They didn't really add to the story. Their primary purpose was to provide additional experiences as to why the ship was haunted, but it mostly just felt like I was reading the perspective of all 2,230 people on the Titanic.

A lot was going on in this book. I felt like I was reading Girl Interrupted if it were set on the Titanic and influenced by Irish folklore. The haunting and ghosts felt understated. As I mentioned before, there were many people's stories told to explain how it was haunted. However, it mostly boiled down to ominous feelings other than one seance where the paranormal activity was easily explained away. What little it did touch on beyond that seemed easily forgotten. I didn't find the horror aspects of this scary, and honestly, a lot of it felt predictable where Annie was concerned. The main "thriller" aspects were surrounding secrets that Caroline and Mark were hiding. After 300ish pages of a discombobulated story, is fully explained in 30 pages towards the end of the book. The entire book essentially boiled down to the sinking of the two ships was because a pissed-off ghost regretted choices they made while alive and had to deal with the consequences.

I really wanted to like this book. I love history, and I've always been fascinated by the unfortunate happenings of the Titanic.  However, there were just too many characters' perspectives that felt like they didn't need to be there. The hauntings were lackluster, and for being labeled as horror, it wasn't scary at all. I've been debating giving it a two or three rating, and I will give it a two. Honestly, there just wasn't enough there that I did like to warrant the higher rating. I was incredibly frustrated most of the book because of how disjointed it was. I hardly ever read more than one book at a time, and I think I've read a few while struggling to get through this one. I will, however, give credit where credit is due. This book did actually take the time to include LGBTQ+ relationships. There's one included that felt genuinely real to me, and I thought it was well done. It didn't feel like it was included just to be trendy. I felt like the characters did love each other, and honestly, if they had their own prequel of before they got on the Titanic, I'd read it. I just didn't feel like they had a lot to do with the specific story at hand. I also think that the author hinted towards a polyamorous relationship. I don't know if the three characters involved were in a true relationship with one another, but it definitely seems like they could have been if their circumstances had been different. I definitely applaud Alma Katsu for including that in the story.