Reviews with content warning for Blood - Rolling in the Deep

This is an amazing read, fast paced, spooky but not 'hide under the covers" level. The descriptions of the 'mermaids' is absolutely wonderful, descriptive enough to invision them, without removing the 'mysterious' factor. Each chapter ended with a quote from the documentary about the Atargatis and you the reader could then explore how the documentary differed from the contents of the chapter, allowing the reader to not only explore how the documentary presented the information, but also to identify what they excluded, an exercise in media literacy via mermaid horror. I loved getting to know the crew of the Atargatis, and the assorted newcomers on board for the filming of the documentary, and though the novella is short (as novellas tend to be lol) you still get same amount of character development, and in particular I loved seeing Peter go from

a quiet older scientist, who spoke who rarely to... well he speaks the most during his last moments alive, a passage that is my favorite part of the novella, and follows after my review.

Overall I truly loved this book, and I look forward to reading the novel Rolling in the Deep, I am giving this Novella 5★ stars, because I love it, and I can't imagine any way it could be better in one aspect, without removing its amazingness in the others (in this case, I wish we had gotten more of a look into individual characters though processes and emotions, but in doing so that would remove the "documentary" aspect)

This is my favorite passage from the book, spoiler tagged since it is from the last chunk, and is thus ya know... spoiler-y.

“You are a clever thing, aren’t you?” he asked. He didn’t get out of his chair. If there was one mermaid on the deck, it stood to reason that there would be more. They were beautiful predators, and the ocean was a merciless cradle for their development: they would never have survived through the centuries if they had been foolish enough to follow their prey into hostile environments when they weren’t sure of winning. “Do you have a language?”
“Do you have a language?” echoed the mermaid, and slithered closer. It moved like a mudskipper on land, Peter noted. He would have liked to take measurements, to know how fast they could move. He would have liked to take blood samples, to measure blood oxygen, to know how long the mermaid could stay out of the water.
He was never going to know any of those things, and he found that he was content with this reality. He had seen a mermaid before he died. How could he demand anything more?
The mermaid slithered closer still. He could see the small, fluttering membranes inside its nasal passages—the creature was breathing! It was actually breathing! It must have possessed at least rudimentary lungs. But…why? The Mariana Trench was the very definition of deep water. What evolutionary pressures could possibly have led a creature born in its crushing depths to need the ability to breathe air?
“You’re a miracle,” he breathed.
“You’re a miracle,” the mermaid echoed, before it leaned up and carefully, almost delicately, ripped away his throat.

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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5.0

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kshertz's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I read the other book into the drowning deep first! Both are amazing. I love a book that says, what if this were real, what would it actually be like? How would people actually react? I find this book to be so accurate with how a mermaid would be a smart predator with all these adaptations and humans really would have that array of reactions. It’s so captivating. Id read more books by this author with this same topic for sure

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frantic_vampire's review

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was honestly terrifying. I loved the that this was just as scary as Into The Drowning Deep, but this made it all the more terrifying. Mostly because these characters didn’t know what to expect, they went in planning to make a faux documentary about mermaids not to actually find them and have their faces eaten off. This is one of those things that will stick with you and make you not want to ever set foot on a cruise ship. Rolling In The Deep is getting a solid five stars.

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emilywemily6's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This horror novella was a solid story with an interesting premise, a sense of foreboding, and plenty of horrific details. It made me wanting more!

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ash_ton's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

SO much better than into the drowning deep. why couldn't that have been written like this???

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laurareads87's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Rolling in the Deep follows a crew of scientists, camerapeople, sailors, and professional mermaids on an expedition to the Mariana Trench to film a 'documentary' about mermaids for a television network. Needless to say, the expedition does not go as planned.

What worked for me here: the concept is fun, the writing of the scariest scenes was well done, the slow build worked for me (some reviews criticize this but I prefer slower and suspenseful and thought it worked here), and the interspersing of statements from the network afterward were effective in giving the book itself the feel of a documentary. What didn't work for me: with this many characters and a page count this short, no characters stood out or felt multi-dimensional; I felt like the captain and first mate were most interesting but there just wasn't room in the story to let their relationship really unfold on the page. Even though I found this novella just okay, I do think I'll end up reading the novel that follows it in hopes that with a longer work, Grant can give the characters more depth.

Content warnings: blood, gore, violence, murder, injury detail, body horror, death

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