About The Troop

Post 1762:

The Troop is a horror novel written by Nick Cutter. In many ways, this is an excellent book. The situation is fraught, the characters compelling, and the dangers are terrible, both tangibly and psychologically.

Like a lot of suspense/horror thrillers, we find our characters stranded in a remote place. In this case, an island somewhere off the coast of Canada. It’s pretty rocky and desolate, but no big deal. It’s just five members of a Boy Scout troop and their Troopmaster. Should be all good. Back home on the shore real quick.

Not so much. A sick guy shows up and really messes with their day. He’s real hungry. That’s because he has genetically engineered worms eating him.

Now this premise is a little nutty. No matter, I went with it. Cutter is a very good writer. His range of words is way larger than I expected—unfair for me to expect anything, I suppose, but I just randomly picked this paperback up. The language is elevated beyond most commercial fiction, for sure, and he uses every trick to make you imagine the pain and misery and madness facing these boys.

Remember The Lord of the Flies? That book has always terrified me. The sudden but not so sudden turn to savagery, played out by kids.

Well this is that. On acid and steroids and cranked up to eleven. It isn’t the reflection on society that Lord of the Flies is, but in many ways it has powerful things to say about the nature of fear and the way kids and adults deal with what they don’t understand. It tackles inherent evil through some of the boys more menacing actions. All in all, pretty deep for a gory gross-fest. It will be probably be a movie if it isn’t already, but man—that’ll be hard to watch. Anyway, I recommend. Cheers and see you after.