The Troop

“His fear was whetted to such a fine edge that he could actually feel it now: a disembodied ball of baby fingers inside his stomach, tickling him from the inside." I read The Troop back in July and it got stuck with me ever since, so I felt the need to come back to the Canadian wilderness to talk a bit about it. This was such a raw story and held such power over my head. I remember picking this one up because of Mr. King's review on it, I went into the whole craziness pretty blind, not knowing what to expect and oh my sweet Jesus was I shocked in the most twisted and horror satisfying way. As a vivid fan of the horror genre, The Troop did it for me. I truly felt for some of the characters and there were some really moving pieces thrown together in the mix of terror; I highly appreciated that, it gave verisimilitude to the innocence of childhood versus the madness of the mind. This was an easy 5 out of 5 for me. Personally, Max was my favorite. "That's what mortal terror felt like, he realized. Tiny fingers tickling you from the inside.”

"This wasn’t a bear or a shark or a psycho axe murderer; those things were bad, sure, but you could get away from them. Hide.

How could you hide from a murderer who lived under your skin?"

4 ⭐

Well, that was... Gross. I'm not a big horror reader, I don't know why not, because I love the horror movie genre and I'm not easily scared, so you'd think I'd read more of it. So when my bookclub choose this for May's read I was actually really excited to dip my toes into this genre and phew, I feel like I dunked my whole head under. I wouldn't say this book was actually scary horror, it's more horrifying horror, like this was seriously icky and made me squirm. This is one you definitely need to check your triggers for, including, body horror, animal and child abuse, self harm and violence.

This book had a lot of quite poetic prose for a book that was based mostly on describing blood and gore. The imagery was written really well and very disturbing, plus it was balanced out nicely with character development and an almost coming of age type subplot, despite the dire situations they were in. I did find some of the similes a bit long winded and unnecessary, it felt like the author was trying to reach a word count, couldn't find a way to get there just with the plot and had to bulk it out by going off on tangents.

SPOILERS At the end of the book, it wasn't the worm infestation that was actually the most disturbing thing about it, it was the monstrosity of humans. The corrupt funding and animal testing practised by the scientists, the creepiness of the character Shelley, the revelation of military involvement in building a bio weapon and the cold hearted way people reacted to the situation. I found myself very put off by the descriptions of animal abuse and while the turtle scene made sense to the storyline I felt the kitten scene was just overdoing it a bit. END SPOILERS

Overall, a well written book that relied heavily on shock value, which isn't really my cup of tea. I found much of it predictable but I did spend most of the time reading it with a disgusted grimace on my face, and so it definitely succeeded in doing what it set out to do, which is commendable. I enjoyed some of the pyschological aspects to it and the reflections on children's minds compared to adults, especially in the realisation that adults are mostly hypocrites who don't know what they're doing most of the time.

"Nobody loves me

Everybody hates me

I’m going to the garden to eat worms, to eat worms

Big fat juicy ones, long thin slimy ones

Itsy-bitsy crawly-wawly woooorms."

this absolutely batshit insane. and made me squirm it was so…..

I won’t rate since I didn’t finish.

however, I will say…I didn’t finish this because the little boy descriptions felt cruel and too much for me. I could tell you who was fucked up and who had a good chance of survival based on introductions alone.

As always! I googled the plot after deciding to drop the book.

Well. I suppose I should have read the blurb on the back cover before entering this book. I didn't think there would be worms in this story. My bad. Anyway, this book was very gross (like, probably one of the grossest books I've ever read) but I liked it, somehow, because it was also fast-paced, and the characters were intriguing enough to keep me going. (And I like the "kids surviving on their own" trope A LOT). I read some reviews on GR saying that the characters were walking stereotypes (the jock, the nerd, the psychopath...) and while I agree, I think... it worked here. I mean, sure, the characters were definitely inspired by stereotypes, but they were given just enough backstory for me to enjoy them (if we can actually "enjoy" them...) and follow them in their... little adventures, or rather, their descent into Hell. I liked the interpretation that some people here have given to Max's hunger at the end of the book: hunger = lack of connection = need to connect to other people. Not a fan of the mixed-media format for this book, I think it could have been scarier if we didn't have them in-between the chapters following the boys' story. But, ah, I suppose that if Cutter was inspired by King's Carrie, I can't be mad at him...

This book made me discover two things:

1) What body horror is

2) I don’t like body horror

(It was still very well written and a great story so it gets 3 stars)

I see why some people may enjoy this book but it was too much for me. I enjoy horror and don't mind body horror in particular, but the body horror in this book was gratuitous and unending to the point of being over the top. There was no chance to even breathe because the book was one terrible thing after another for 300 straight pages.

the prevailing emotion i felt throughout this book was "wtf did i just read" but i wish i felt more real horror/emotion for the characters rather than just being grossed out. idk why i didn't feel hit with the full force, because it was really well written and unlike some other reviewers i felt that i got to know the characters well. besides that, this book...what can i even say. there are some scenes that i will never forget. the animal scenes were particularly disturbing, and some were extremely gratuitous. i mean, most of the scenes in this book were gratuitous, but there were a few that were just horrible and added nothing to the story. i hate shelley. despite these...complaints?...i think this was a good book. it freaked me out, but was also strangely thought-provoking and interesting as a coming-of-age story. tbh, i just feel accomplished for getting through it.

fuck shelley, fuck dr egerton, fuck the military an fuck u cutter newt DESERVED BETTER

Damn.

Maybe for some but I didn’t love this book in spite of the hype. Really graphic in some ways I didn’t enjoy and didn’t really fall for any of the characters

3.5 stars (rounded up) “The past had a perfection that the future could never hold” To be honest, I didn’t start liking this book until I was about 160 pages in. After that, it became a page turner and for the first time in a long time I lost sleep to keep reading. It was gross, funny, and had the familiar tones of friendship that can be seen in Kings “It.”

Grotesque and addictive. I pulled a squished up face for half of it, but in a good way.

I really wanted to love this book. When it comes to gory horror, a lot of people don't care for it. I happen to love it. The bloodier, the better. I love picking up a book and being absolutely disgusted by it. But this book was just a dissapointment. Maybe I'm just personally not disgusted by worms or bodily infestations? That could possibly be it. But I think the real problem was the writing. Cutter is a rambler. There's no other way to put it. At least 50% of this book was long winded, poorly executed discriptions of EVERYTHING. About halfway through the book, I starting skimming paragraphs dedicated to unnecessary discriptions. The first half of the book took me two days to read. I got through the second half in 45 minutes. The flow of the whole book just felt off because Cutter repeatedly stopped to tell random stories about the characters' lives that had absolutely no relevance to the plot at all. It seemed like a very poor attempt at creating depth and characterization. The one thing I did like about this book was how Cutter inserted transcripts from trials and investigations, records from lab experiements, newspaper articles, and letters that some of the boys had written to a psychologist. This book would have been so much better if it had been told in the style of World War Z or the Illumine Files, told primarily through records and documents. The things that happened to the troop on the island were boring and predictable. It would have been a much more horrifying story if we had been left to imagine what had happened on the island based on the records and documents accumulated afterwards.

I think it was a very good horror novel, for someone who only has dabbled in the genre. However, sometimes the details of the gore were too much. I did enjoy the book, and if anyone wants to know what it feels like is basically "Lord of the Flies with tapeworms on steroids". Would definitely recommend it to any non-squeamish horror/thriller fans!

My stomach is churning at the end of this, I am horrified and I want to cry, but it was so so good.

Holy shit.

Wow. I don’t even know what to say. This book was so disgusting and borderline emotionally scaring that I don’t think anything will ever gross me out again. I’ve been completely desensitized. I don’t think anything I’ll read in the future will make me feel quite as sick as this book did. That being said, I really enjoyed it. I love the mixed media, and I love how Cutter will mention something seemingly irrelevant and then 5 chapters later it comes back around and I was like “oh my fucking god”. There were a few times that I just HAD to put the book down, I needed a break. Now I’m about to start The Deep by Cutter… my biggest fear is the ocean. Wish me luck.

That was messed up. I was sweating the last 100pgs

This and “The Deep” are Cutter’s best. The overall novelty is, perhaps, debatable, as one might list numerous works serving as an integrated, inspirational force. Nevertheless, it reads as something brand new- extrapolation from classics like “Lord of the Flies” and “The Stand,” intelligent additions to classic tropes, a merciless pace, and enough imagery to horrify without ever making it the Big Fulcrum, this work captures the struggle against brutal pathology, and [mostly] children’s efforts to understand, respond, and suffer. Sound familiar? It isn’t a commentary on COVID, but it opens itself up to a good deal of reflection- while reading, yes, but particularly upon finishing. A great read. Try “The Deep” for a second dose of Cutter.

Im sad, these poor children. Why? Just why? Im sad

Nick Cutter you will be receiving my therapy bills! In all seriousness this was a fun time! Or, as fun as a book can be that kept my stomach in knots for 11 hours. It does have a plotting problem with about a third of the book spent just having characters wait for the next event to occur, and I wasn't a fan of some of the tropes employed (if I never read a book with a psychotic child again it will be to soon) but there's no denying the gut-wrenching power of Cutter's imagery, so effective that it makes other body horror films seem tame. All around a solid novel that will keep you hooked, no matter how much you'll want to put it down.

I feel like I need to take a shower after reading this book.

I got this recommendation of Tik Tok and I was under the impression that it was body horror. But to me, there was nothing really body horror about it. Body gross? Absolutely. The characters were written great and I like the addition that not all the boys were completely sane before coming to the island. I loved the idea of a vacant island being stricken with a virus. But as someone who actively watches horror movies, there was nothing body horror about this book and that was disappointing.