The Deep - Review

Author: Alma Katsu

Genre:  Historical Fiction / Paranormal

Format: Hardback

Pages: 420

This has actually been a hard book for me to rate. I keep going back and forth between three or four stars, and The Deep might b that book falls somewhere in the middle. Because as a whole I really this book and the story as a whole. I already added another book by Alma Katsu, The Hunger, to my TBR list. So hopefully what follows isn't a rambling mess, but comprehensive thoughts about The Deep. Because it was such a strange book.

First things first, the amount of research that went into The Deep was amazing. One the first pages I read in a book is the Author's Notes, or Author's Page, whichever they have. Especially in Historical Fictions because I'm a nerd and I like to see what kind of research went into the book. To read all the primary sources that Alma Katsu went through to create The Deep was amazing, but it was undeniable as you read. Little details on the fashion, on the opinions of the time, and both ships. It was impressive and made for a great story when you compare the two sister ships.

I also really liked Alma Katsu's writing style. This was the first book by her that I read, and I hard a time putting this book down. The story itself moves at a decent pace. It was hard to find a place to stop to do things like go to work and to sleep. Though I'll admit I did very little of the latter. Because once I really started to get into the story I had a thousand question and I needed to know what was going. As the plot unfolds your not just getting the story from different characters, but different eras. So it takes times for those ends to meet up, and I spent a lot of time with one real question.

Was Annie possessed or just crazy?

Sadly an answer that question is a spoiler, but honestly I spent most of the book not really sure until the end. Though I started to pick up little things here in there as the story went on. Annie's story is sad, and toward the end you really feel for the girl. 

As for the other characters, the are the worst. To be fair it had nothing to do with how they were written. It all had very much to do with the time period and the way most of the characters in first class passengers thought. Maddie Astor and Caroline were tied for who I hated the most. Les Williams came in as close third as well. Mostly because he a good thing going for him and he really kind of a threw it all away. Though he does get points for what he did toward the end.

Besides my heart hurting for Annie, our main character, I was quite taken with David Bowman. I'm sad the only chapters we got of him were those set in 1912, I would have liked to know where he ended up. But, it made sense that not everyone could just reappear on Britannic.

I was also a big fan of the wrap up for two big reasons. First because I love when books like The Deep don't really have the happiest of endings. It felt like the only real way for this story to come to an end, organic maybe for a lack of a better word. But, also because it always feels good when you've picked up on the crumbs lefts between chapters to suss out how the end will go. 

So yeah, a good book. One that kept me on my toes and really unsure what was gong on. Which was fine because slowly I started to figure out what was going on. It all built up to a perfect moment with an explosive ending.

Buy, Borrow, or Skip: I would say borrow. I honestly really did enjoy this book, but I'm not sure I'll ever read it again. The cover is gorgeous and at the moment it looks lovely on my shelf. I just don't think I need to give it another go.

 

HAPPY READING!!