I have the dubious gift of having read three books from Nick Cutter now, and I can tell you that “it was a book” was the kindest summary I could give for all of them. No other writer inflames in me the kind of passionate frustration that Nick Cutter has, and personally I’ll never read him again. I think he’s extremely capable with prose and it makes it seem like surely he must be a good writer and it’ll be different next time, but there’s more to being a good writer than prose. I find him intensely gimmicky, frankly lazy in many ways, and offensive in the ways you don’t want horror to be while never actually being creepy in the good ways. A great example of all the things I just listed is his intense reliance on extended scenes of prolonged animal abuse that I personally have failed to see as progressing the plot sufficiently to justify their existence. It seems like maybe he’s moved onward and upward to SA now. Personally I think The Troop is only so highly rated because it was read by so many people on BookTok that don’t typically read horror, because I read it all the time and I found it insanely boring when it wasn’t offending me.
@@FeralEcho I completely agree with you. His capable prose is entirely misleading! I was definitely on board with his pacing and sentence structure, but his overall plot and storytelling was just beyond bizarre. Idt I’ll be reading anymore from Cutter.
This review made me laugh a bunch, and I really needed a good laugh lol! "It's a book, 3 stars!" 😂 I might be donating my copy, it doesn't sound like something I wanna spend time on. Thanks for the review, hope you're doing well!
@@Books_on_the_Brain thanks for watching!!! And yeah, this is definitely a tough one for me to say “Go for it!” if you already own it. I just felt more annoyed and offended by this book than anything else, and can’t justify recommending reading it.
Wow, so glad I listened to the spoilers section here, because... what? What in the world? I've read The Deep, and thought it was okay, I didn't like the things about the dogs, but I could get through it. DNF:ed The Troop early on, so I never got to any animal cruelty there, thank god. But Cutter is not a writer for me, I can't get into his writing style at all. So definitely not picking this one up, but I loved hearing your thoughts on it. "It's a book" 😂😂😂
@@mariewesterlind I was so shocked at how the book just devolved and then legit went nowhere. It was so bizarre and uncomfortable with absolutely no pay off sadly. Glad to hear his other books trend similarly since I won’t be picking them up.
Great review. I thought I had already been pushed over the edge but then the moment came when the edge was no longer in sight -- how many lines do you need to get a character in a van?
@@eriebeverly thank you so much! And haha omg which Van? This book had FOUR separate instances of trying to get characters into three different vans 🤣🤣🤣
@@violetprynne You're absolutely right. I should have specified. I was talking about the time that Margaret tried to use her head to pry open the door. From now on if anyone asks me about this book I'm going to tell them the main POV character decides that using her noggin and not her hands, elbows, shoulders, etc. to force open a door is her best move.
Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about the Sopranos stuff in the beginning! 😂 I dnf'd midway, but after your review, I feel validated with my decision. I was totally getting the 13 Reasons Why vibes, which didnt really interest me. This one went up for sale on my Pango. Lol
The only thing I've read by him is "The Handyman Method". I don't remember any animal cruelty in it, but can't say for sure. I just know I didn't really like, thought the big reveal was pretty damn dumb, and there was definitely nothing there to encourage me to explore his work further.
I have the dubious gift of having read three books from Nick Cutter now, and I can tell you that “it was a book” was the kindest summary I could give for all of them. No other writer inflames in me the kind of passionate frustration that Nick Cutter has, and personally I’ll never read him again. I think he’s extremely capable with prose and it makes it seem like surely he must be a good writer and it’ll be different next time, but there’s more to being a good writer than prose. I find him intensely gimmicky, frankly lazy in many ways, and offensive in the ways you don’t want horror to be while never actually being creepy in the good ways. A great example of all the things I just listed is his intense reliance on extended scenes of prolonged animal abuse that I personally have failed to see as progressing the plot sufficiently to justify their existence. It seems like maybe he’s moved onward and upward to SA now. Personally I think The Troop is only so highly rated because it was read by so many people on BookTok that don’t typically read horror, because I read it all the time and I found it insanely boring when it wasn’t offending me.
@@FeralEcho I completely agree with you. His capable prose is entirely misleading! I was definitely on board with his pacing and sentence structure, but his overall plot and storytelling was just beyond bizarre. Idt I’ll be reading anymore from Cutter.
School in Canada ends around the end of June. So, with the book being set in Canada it does make sense that they're still in school.
@@MissNicoleJessica thank you!!! Glad to hear this cuz I was so confused by their timeline 😅
This review made me laugh a bunch, and I really needed a good laugh lol! "It's a book, 3 stars!" 😂 I might be donating my copy, it doesn't sound like something I wanna spend time on. Thanks for the review, hope you're doing well!
@@Books_on_the_Brain thanks for watching!!! And yeah, this is definitely a tough one for me to say “Go for it!” if you already own it. I just felt more annoyed and offended by this book than anything else, and can’t justify recommending reading it.
Wow, so glad I listened to the spoilers section here, because... what? What in the world?
I've read The Deep, and thought it was okay, I didn't like the things about the dogs, but I could get through it. DNF:ed The Troop early on, so I never got to any animal cruelty there, thank god. But Cutter is not a writer for me, I can't get into his writing style at all. So definitely not picking this one up, but I loved hearing your thoughts on it. "It's a book" 😂😂😂
@@mariewesterlind I was so shocked at how the book just devolved and then legit went nowhere. It was so bizarre and uncomfortable with absolutely no pay off sadly. Glad to hear his other books trend similarly since I won’t be picking them up.
In Norway there's school until middle of June, so very glad that I'm not going to school anymore.
@@SuperStrangSshadow oh good to know! Yeah I always got out of school the first week of June. So this book greatly confused me.
Great review. I thought I had already been pushed over the edge but then the moment came when the edge was no longer in sight -- how many lines do you need to get a character in a van?
@@eriebeverly thank you so much! And haha omg which Van? This book had FOUR separate instances of trying to get characters into three different vans 🤣🤣🤣
@@violetprynne You're absolutely right. I should have specified. I was talking about the time that Margaret tried to use her head to pry open the door. From now on if anyone asks me about this book I'm going to tell them the main POV character decides that using her noggin and not her hands, elbows, shoulders, etc. to force open a door is her best move.
Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about the Sopranos stuff in the beginning! 😂 I dnf'd midway, but after your review, I feel validated with my decision. I was totally getting the 13 Reasons Why vibes, which didnt really interest me. This one went up for sale on my Pango. Lol
The only thing I've read by him is "The Handyman Method". I don't remember any animal cruelty in it, but can't say for sure. I just know I didn't really like, thought the big reveal was pretty damn dumb, and there was definitely nothing there to encourage me to explore his work further.
@@sabbracadabra7503 I’ve heard a ton of mixed things about that book. And I feel like the general consensus is also that it’s not worth it.
Your review is much more entertaining than this book seems! Gonna pass on this one! 🤣🤣🤣
❤❤❤❤ sounds amazing
@@JoanneRachel-u4n thanks for watching!