TPA 83

I think I might have to uninstall Palworld. It's taking too much of my time and I've got other games to play and books to read. King says you can't be a good writer if you aren't a good reader and I believe that he's right. I brought back a bunch of books from my folks basement and now my house is filled with boxes. I found two of my favorite horror books by Nick Cutter, The Deep, and The Troop.  Let's start with The Troop. I found this novel back before I was working for Walmart. Nick Cutter wastes no time getting under your skin as he tells the tale of four boys and a scoutmaster who have a strange encounter with an extremely thin man. The scout master and the boys soon fight for their lives as whatever is affecting the man affects them. I'll just come out and say it, worms. The man was invested with a home made parasite and escaped the lab. And while it doesn't sound scary at first, the way the characters react to the events are horrifying. It reminds me of The Lord of the Flies mixed with Stephen King's Carrie. Between chapters are articles and interviews with people who've worked on the worm project or had to deal with the consequences. It's not so much the monster in the book as what the monster reveals about the boys as they go through the trials. One of them has anger management issues and talks with his friend about how he feels like a light goes off in his head. Another boy is a bit of an outcast (I think because he's overweight). The third boy is the son of the local sherrif and tries to take charge of the situation without concern for the other's feelings. Then we have the psychopath boy who's true nature is slowly unraveled in the story. And then we have the scoutmaster and the sole survivor boy who serves as our main POV. I know, I've given too much away but I wanted to discuss how the monster could have been killer clowns from space and the story still would have been great. Nick Cutter digs into the psychies of his characters and throws them down from their heights to smash them as they subcomb to the horror. It devistates you as you see these characters pass on in misery. It's a beautiful horror and tragedy that sunk into me. So much so that I had to pick up Cutter's next book, The Deep when it came out. I think I was working in the electronic section at the time at Walmart and the book section was right next to me. I saw the name on the cover and thought it looked familiar. The Deep occurs in a world where a good chunk of the population has a disease called "The Gets" as in they forget something. It seems to be a neurological disease and the protagonist's brother has decended to the depths of the ocean to find a cure. What occurs next is interdimensional horror at the bottom of the world as Cutter lets loose with his imagination as he describes his character's experiences. It honestly makes me wonder why Cutter isn't more well known as a writer because his work is fantastic. I plan to read his other works after I reread his The Deep.