17571466Title: The Troop

Author: Nick Cutter

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication Date: January 2014

Genre: Adult Fiction/Horror

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

Alone. They are utterly alone. Troop 52 is stranded on Falstaff Island with no cell phones. They don’t plan on an infected man making his way to the island. They don’t plan on a highly contagious disease affecting them. Or the mainland abandoning them. And what happens on the island…

I guess I thought it was going to be more thriller than horror, but The Troop is all horror. Without giving too much away, the boys and their scout leader are stranded on the island when they come into contact with a very, very sick man.

The descriptions are pretty graphic. I couldn’t read the book over my lunch break. I’m not known for a particularly weak stomach, but there is something about the idea of this book that, forgive me, really gets under my skin. When I did read it, I physically squirmed a few times, had to put the book down, and then pick it up the next day. I don’t like the idea of anything like what being described here. GROSS.

The plot dragged in certain places, making the story longer than I think it had to be. A big problem for me was that I didn’t really like any of the characters. Kent is a bully and Shelley is friggin creepy. I mean Shelley, wow. I don’t want to be anywhere near a kid like that. He is probably the most horrifying part of the book. The others are okay, but none of them really stood out enough for me to want them to live. I wanted to know about what happened more than I cared about any of the characters.

The Troop is an intriguing premise that left me uncomfortable and chilled. But I wish I liked the characters more.

Rating 5 Okay