The Troop: A Novel

If you somehow spliced in the isolation and grim anarchy of Lord of the Flies with the unsettling, relentless infestation horror of The Ruins, you might get something like Nick Cutter’s The Troop. Maybe. But even then, you might not get something that’s as genuinely terrifying and disturbing as this book is – a book that ranks for me among the most viscerally distressing and genuinely scary books I’ve read in a really long time. And what’s best of all about is that I don’t even know where to begin explaining which part of it is scariest – the characters and their actions, the psychological terror that Cutter unleashes, or the viscerally disturbing gore that he tosses out when you’re least prepared?And yet, the premise is deceptively, cruelly simple. It’s the story of a troop of older boys, all of whom have stayed involved in the Scouts, even as they’ve gotten older (they’re all about 14 here). And each year, they’ve taken a trip to an isolated island to work on their camping skills, accompanied by their Scoutmaster, who’s a doctor in his day job. But this time, a man arrives on their shore in a boat. He’s terrifyingly, unnaturally thin, and he’s eating anything he can – and he’s obviously horribly sick. And so, our Scoutmaster decides to help him. But what this man has turns out to be horribly, incredibly contagious – and far more dangerous than he expected.What follows from there is an absolute nightmare read, as the boys begin to realize just how isolated they are, and just how dangerous this infection really is. More than that, though, they realize just how little they might know each other, and how people change when the rules and boundaries of day-to-day life have lapsed. And it’s there that the horror really starts to seep in.Let me be very clear on this one: this is not a book for the faint of heart. Cutter goes for the jugular whenever he can. That’s not to say that he doesn’t know how to get under your skin (heh); trust me, the mind games in this one are unreal, as characters fear infections, worry what’s going on internally, and start cruelly manipulating each other for their own gain. But for all the constantly ratcheting tension (something Cutter only exacerbates through his clever decision to intercut the story with articles and reports about the aftermath of the incident, which help us understand just how bad things are going to go), Cutter’s smart enough to realize that for real, pure terror, sometimes you have to go visceral.And man, does he ever, delivering some of the most nauseating, physically upsetting descriptions I’ve read in years, and only getting more and more intense as the book – and this disease – gets worse and worse. Without giving too much of the game away, what’s unleashed on this island is breathtakingly fast, absolutely unforgiving, and viciously dangerous, and Cutter uses that to prevent our characters from ever getting their bearings or a moment to think. The time’s too short, you see.Even so, he does a brilliant job immersing us in those characters, making us care about them and keeping the book from simply being a cavalcade of horrors. No, we want these boys to survive, and Cutter keeps us wanting that, even as we rapidly realize that this isn’t a book that many of these boys are going to walk away from. This is old-school, take-no-prisoners horror, and its plunge into the moral darkness of Lord of the Flies is matched only by its willingness to viscerally disturb on every step along the way.The short version is, I loved this book, even as it upset me, turned my stomach, kept me anxious, and knotted me up. It freaked me out, it disgusted me, and it kept me riveted to every single one of its pages. Cutter’s pacing won’t let you go until the bitter, vicious end, no matter how much you might dread where you’re going. And the result is one of my favorite – and most effective – horror novels I’ve read since I don’t know when, and one that I can’t recommend enough.But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This book has so many different and original elements that I wasn’t expecting, it’s 500 pages of horror, suspense, sci-fi, friendship, survival and gore. There’s a moment in the beginning you think, “Eh, it’s a little weird,” but you keep going and it’s definitely worth it. I loved that this book is from the POV of children/young adults. It has a different vulnerability to it, rather if it had been from an adult’s POV. I enjoyed the psychological and survival aspects in this book immensely- the little things that people might do under pressure with high stakes. Who would crack first and why? What would you do if you lost all hope? How far would you go to survive? I enjoyed that the “contagion” wasn’t the only dangerous killer on the island and I liked that there was an “outsider” POV from the characters that were involved from off the island during the trial. You get a better look at what you’re dealing with from this POV, making you realize that anything can happen and needing to know exactly what that will be. This book was well written with good pacing, and the plot was solid. All avenues and potential plot holes I may have thought of were covered in the story. The dialogue between characters was engaging and even character development was fantastic, considering that these kids are fighting a losing battle, I hadn’t expected character growth- but it was there. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I’ll never look at worms the same ever again!! This book is definitely worth a read!

A group of Boy Scouts encounter a man infested with a biochemical weapon, what could go wrong? Everything.The Troop is easily one of the best horror stories I have read in a very long time. Cutter perfected the slow build of terror and the descent into madness and chaos that made this read even better. The emotion of the characters was raw and it was easy to become invested in their collective fate.One thing that I appreciated most about The Troop is that the author did not sacrifice good writing for cheap scares. The horror genre is full of poorly written novels; this does not hold true here. Cutter’s descriptions of the island and the sea were beautiful, while his scenes of horror were enough to make you want to turn the lights on. The plot was perfectly paced and he did not leave gaps of holes that left you wondering. Overall, a great read that you won’t likely forget anytime soon.

I've been reading a lot of horror / thriller novels lately, it's my current hyperfixation. I've got a number about contagion that are really good, and the topic doesn't usually hit me very hard thanks to the zombie craze of the 2010s that desensitized me... But this book unsettles me so hard, I currently have to take a break and read a "lighter" book to recenter myself lol.There's only one book I never finished because it messed with my head so badly - Uzumaki by Itou Junji - but this is getting there very fast, and I mean that in a good way. It's well written, it strikes just the right tone to get into your head and cause anxiety, and just built up really well into the conflict that I physically felt the fear settle into me.Maybe it's the setting - I live in Canada and I love books that are set here. It feels more "close to home," and like it could actually happen. Maybe it's seeing an adult acting out of such deep fear that even kids can see it, and feel the need to start taking matters into their own hands. Maybe it's the mix of news articles and evidence peppered between the chapters to add just enough context and side information for you to realize - these characters are super realized and very believable, they could step off the page and bring their terror with them.As I mentioned, I haven't finished it, so maybe that will change (I read some of the reviews here), but I'm excited / scared to keep reading when I'm able to handle the next ten chapters.

A hell of a book. I simply couldn't put it down, even to eat... even if was very very. . . hungry.

The Troop är galet bra. Trots dess sjuka scener som ibland känns onödigt groteska är den omöjlig att sluta läsa. Psykopatkaraktären Shelley är involverad i de absolut värsta, och han är verkligen den som höjer boken flera nivåer. Fantastisk.

Slow start, to much information that wasn’t to the point.Not scary at all. Not for me I didn’t get to half the book

Great book