THE TROOP by Nick Cutter

When people talk about the different "types of horror," one of the examples that always comes up is "gross out horror." Nick Cutter's The Troop is solidly in that category and is definitely not for the squeamish. It follows the five boys of Boy Scout Troop 52 and their Scoutleader camping on a small island and the tragic events that occur once a sick stranger joins them.

Normally this type of horror wouldn't really be up my alley as it's the least effective, but there are a few major reasons why it works so well here. First is Cutter's dedication to taking the time to economically flesh out every character just enough that you're fully invested and game for anything as the book went on. It proves that you can do anything you want in a story as long as you can get the reader to buy into the characters. The next thing was the book's structure and the way that Cutter weaved in court documents and newspaper/journal articles in an epistolary format that runs parallel to the main action to give the reader a tiny sense of what was happening before, during, and after the events on Falstaff Island. It actually works even better than I expected, doling out just the right amount of info to make it fascinating but not revealing too much. And another reason why the novel is so effective is Cutter's writing. It's inventive, descriptive, and memorable.

There's some stuff in here that some readers might find hard to take but the reason why it's so terrible is because you've connected with these boys and have to bear witness to what happens to them. In the end, the horror in this book is tragic and pretty damn visceral, something that will stick with you for a while, and the book doesn't apologize for any of it.

GRADE: B+