The Troop by Nick Cutter - Book Review

What do you get when you mix Stephen King style characters and drop them into a trail mix of The Thing, The Hot Zone, and The Goonies?

A lot of hype.

Let’s discuss.

I remember picking up Clive Barker’s Books of Blood series when I was a kid and being amazed that the cover had a quote by Stephen King on it. The original master of horror exclaiming that Clive was the new face of horror. It was a rarity to see such a big literary star shouting out another, even more so in the Eastside / Westside war zone of genre fiction. You just didn’t see it that often back then because everyone was out for #1. So, seeing the Stephen King quote on Nick Cutter’s book must carry the same exciting pop, right?

It would, if Stephen King didn’t give dozens of authors and movies quotes for their bylines every year. God bless him for helping out new artists and authors, but the gesture just doesn’t carry the same power it once did. It’s a case of Over-saturation killing the magic, but that’s the way of the world now. Hype turns to annoyance in short order.

Speaking of hype…

The Troop is a coming of age horror novel by author Nick Cutter. It was a breakout success and topped many best-of lists on various platforms in 2014. It was almost immediately optioned for film with the current project being produced by Conjuring and Insidious mastermind James Wan. This book personifies hype. By the time I finally got a chance to read it, I had high expectations.

Surprise, I was disappointed.

I hate criticizing books, because it’s a dying art. I want to say it up front, this isn’t a bad book. I think if you like body horror, coming of age stories, and ultra violence. You might really enjoy this.

Body horror is my favorite sub-genre right alongside Action Horror. Good body horror requires a few things to be successful in my mind. The first is believable, lovable characters. You need to care about someone in the story in order to be invested enough to push through the grotesquery of the narrative. David Cronenberg is a master at building up a character for the eventual nastiness. Think Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in The Fly. Their love story is the crux of the horror. It’s a visualization of being in love with an addict. They fall apart, but a spark of the person you loved might still be in there. It’s the emotional impact that stays with you, that and the melty arm scene.

This is the first issue I have with Nick Cutter’s book. The only character that is actually likable is killed off in short order. The majority of the characters are the eponymous Boy Scout troop. They are all shitty characters. There isn’t a likable one among them. Everyone is a spiteful dickhead. Even the nerdy kid is too weird to root for. I had no one to latch onto to pull me through the story. Maybe this was intentional, to get the reader to root against the kids, but as annoying as teenagers can be—I don’t actively root for them to die in brutal fashion. This style of character writing reminds me of Stephen King’s books.

King’s universe swirls around a bag full of assholes that are wholly unlikable. The difference with King’s writing is that the characters are layered human beings. They’re nuanced, three dimensional beings. Even still, there are many King books that I just can’t read because the people are so detestable.

Cutter’s book feels like an attempt to write a Stephen King story. I’m sure Cutter grew up reading King, what horror writer didn’t? He’s the most ubiquitous horror author of all time. His work ethic and prolific output is commendable, but I would never recommend modeling your career off his. Case and point, Cutter’s book almost feels like fan fiction. It’s a slow, overly wordy thrill ride that could easily have been cut down to novella size. It almost feels like he presented a novella to the publishers and they had him bulk up the word count for full release.

The book is grotesque, unrelenting, but I just didn’t care by the time the fun stuff started. I was checked out.

A lot of people LOVE this book.

I’m definitely the outlier.

In my opinion, skip this one and read Summer of Night by Dan Simmons instead.