This is the second book I’ve read by Alma Katsu. The first one I read was The Hunger, and I loved this one just as much as that one. This novel is marketed as horror, but it’s not so much scary as it is atmospheric. Good historical speculative fiction involves a lot of research, and this author definitely does her research! There are no weird moments where something is off and it pulls you out of the setting.
The Deep reads like a really good gothic horror. Not a lot of blood, guts or violence, but plenty of uncomfortable creepiness. There is a mystery that isn’t solved until the very end. It’s a ghost story. And we already know the ultimate end of the Titanic and the Britannic, so it adds a bit of a sense of urgency to the story. We know this isn’t going to end well. I highly recommend The Deep to anyone who enjoys reading.

A beautifully written ghost story - loved the historical aspect so much! This was very obviously well-researched, and I love the author's dedication to the topic at hand. If you're into the tragedy of the Titanic & learning about historical events from a fictional perspective, this should be one you pick up for sure.

Set against the tragic maiden voyage of the Titanic and that of her sister ship the Britannic, a weaving of the paranormal and historical fiction. The eeriness centers on Annie Hebbley, a stewardess and later a nurse, and the her relationship to passengers and their collective haunted pasts.

So, this was very unusual historical fiction as it was also a ghost story exploring how the characters are haunted by their pasts and possibly by people they’ve lost. The story flashes back and forth between two tragedies four years apart - the sinking of the Titanic and the sinking of its sister ship the Britain’s four years later.
Inspired by the true story of a woman who survived both ship trips, the author created an imagined story of two characters who were both on those ill-fated cruises and implies that only something supernatural and sinister could explain such a coincidence. I love historic fiction because I always learn something and this was true of The Deep. However, I wasn’t in love with the characters in this book. Even the portrayals of real famous historical figures who died on the Titanic seemed to cast them in an unfavorable light portraying spoiled rich people who hurt others. I liked the author’s writing And the premise but the story felt a little flat.

Spooky and haunting. Lavish descriptions transported me to the time period. Will recommend to patrons looking for paranormal historical fiction.

I really enjoyed this book simply because it was different than typical mystery book. It’s a story about Titanic and a survivor of this historical crash. The story is hunted and unexplained things keep happening in it. Very well written and interesting book.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair review.

I really liked this book! Gothic historical fiction at its best and adding anything to do with titanic I am here for it.

I really enjoy reading books that speak to mental health and what can happen to someone after a horrible tragedy.

Um also that twist !!!!! I also really loved the ending!

Highly recommend!

This book grabbed my attention right away...Titanic, Horror, Paranormal! Once I started reading it though I realized that there wasn't much horror. The story could have benefited from more of that. Otherwise, it just didn't keep me that interested.

I had high hopes for this book. I stopped about 100 pages into this book and will not be finishing at this time. I will review up to the point I read. This book has the most interesting promise, and started very strong with letters about a young girl. Then we switch to the girl's perspective where she is going on a new ship. I was expecting a horror historical story and 1/3 into the book, I felt like nothing at all had happened. We had barely been introduced to any characters, and I wasn't connecting with Annie. The writing style is strong, and I was enjoying the prose. I might try again some day far in the future or try another book of theirs at another time.

So, full disclosure, I wanted to be on this book tour so badly. I’m a big fan of Alma Katsu. If you’ve hung around here long enough, you’ve probably seen me mention her writing once or twice, but if not then I am excited to introduce the two of you. Readers, meet Alma Katsu: the absolute master of historical horror fiction.

I read The Hunger, my debut into Katsu’s work, a couple of years ago and have been a fan ever since. The Hunger follows The Donner Party on their doomed journey, while adding an entirely new facet to the mystery along the way. I was riveted throughout the whole thing. This being said, I had a lot of high hopes for The Deep once I got my hands on it.

The Deep may follow a different time and story than her first novel, but they share so many of Katsu’s strengths: research, creativity, and the spookiest atmosphere. The Deep re-examines the story of the Titanic and Britannic and Katsu does what she does best from page one: uses history to infuse life, color, and delicious fear into her incredible stories. I never know how she is going to twist a story or tease out its secrets, but the way she writes about these historical moments always surprises and delights me.

This book is also told in two parallel storylines, and in this case I enjoyed that a lot. Watching and waiting for things to happen in one story, only to know that they were going to rear their ugly head again years later in the other, created a sense of tension that I think a lot of writers yearn for. The Deep isn’t “scary,” per se, but what Katsu does here is to create a cold, foggy, unsettling atmosphere that both the characters and the reader must traverse with only faith to guide them.

Another thing that I always appreciate about Alma Katsu is that, despite writing in time periods where diversity was even more of a challenge than now, she manages to make room for it in her novels all the same. Whether its diversity of color, class, or faith, Katsu’s characters range between them and I appreciate the spectrum of views that are provided in her stories. I like reading a historical piece that doesn’t ignore that humanity is not a monolith. She does this so well and I think it bears special mention, because that can’t be easy.

The Deep is a great read and I highly recommend it to all of you. It was an eerie, slow-burn of a novel, and also a fascinating and creative new take on a story that we’ve all heard before. I will continue to check out Katsu’s work as she writes more, and I recommend you keep an eye on her too. Her work is only getting better.

I am not sure why I have been on a Titanic kick lately but I have. I just finished the non-fiction Ship of Dreams which was outstanding btw and then reached for this title. This allowed me to see Alma Katsu does her research carefully. This attention to detail makes the “ghostly” aspects of the story all the more chilling and yes I read my kindle with the light on! . I also loved the details relating to the Brittanic and her character development in relation to the aftermath of the tragedy. I recommend adding this to your list.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Eerie and a little odd, but enthralling nonetheless.

The Deep by Alma Katsu is a haunting tale of madness and spirits and tragedy. It will creep slowly into your soul and leave you breathless with a sense of trepidation and sorrow. There are characters in this novel that will wonder the darkened hallways of your imagination long after you have turned the final page.

SUMMARY -

"...
October 1916
Morninggate Asylum,
Liverpool

She is not mad.
Annie Hebbley pokes her needle into the coarse gray linen, a soft color, like the feathers of the doves that entrap themselves in the chimneys here, fluttering and crying out, sometimes battering themselves to death in a vain effort to escape.
She is not mad.
Annie's eyes follow the needle as it runs the length of the hem, weaving in and out of fabric. In and out. In and out. Sharp and shining and so precise.
But there is something in her that is hospitable to madness..."

Annie Hebbley was a very young girl when she took the position as stewardess aboard the greatest ship ever built. It was sure to be an adventure of a lifetime, a voyage that she would share with family and friends and tell her children about for years to come. But in those four days Annie would meet millionaires and laborers alike and the voyage would be plagued by disappearances and death until the night the Titanic struck the iceberg and began to take on water.

"...Out of the corner of her eye, Maddie saw the stewardess Annie Hebbley. The sudden appearance when she'd been thinking of her only an hour earlier sent a chill through Maddie's veins. The fantasy of showboating around with the blond boxer evaporated into thin air: Maddie's attention was riveted on the pale wraith in the gray uniform making her way through the crowd. That searching, empty face with hungry eyes was like something in a mausoleum frieze. No one else seemed to pay any attention to her. It was almost as though no one could see her but Maddie. Like she wasn't really there.
There was something else, too. The stewardess was passing in front of a row of windows that looked out over the promenade, and yet she cast no reflection on the glass. Maddie blinked and strained to focus as hard as she could, and yet she saw no trace of Annie Hebbley. Not a streak, not a ripple. Not a wisp of the strange Irish girl.
She went cold all over..."

Aboard the Titanic Annie is party to seances and secrets and there she meets a man who will change who she is forever. Mark Fletcher. A man who married a very well off wife and child. Only the secrets Mark Fletcher has about who he is and who his wife is become part of the burden Annie must carry and that night, as the great ship slid beneath the waves, Annie became convinced of something else. That something else made it off the Titanic that night with her. Something that only lived in her childhood nightmares.

"...She thought she'd escaped all this. Escaped all the fear and confusion of the Titanic. That had been her solace during those four years in the asylum. The conviction that whatever had been haunting her had gone down with the ship itself. But now, here she is, alone with the whispering and the horror, the certainty that it isn't over after all..."

It has been years since the Titanic sank and the world is at war. Annie has joined the effort as a nurse aboard the Titanic's sister ship; the Britannic. Here she hopes to erase the past and the dark fate of the nights aboard the Titanic. But one of the injured soldiers looks too familiar to her as she makes her rounds and the whispers begin again.

REVIEW -

Alma Katsu is a terrific writer of the paranormal as the worlds between our lives and the spirit world intersect and blend seamlessly. With Annie she has created a character who is the same time haunted and sliding into madness. Annie tries to keep herself from losing her grip on reality but she feels the tug of the vengeful spirit inside of her crying out for justice.

The pacing of the novel is slow at times, but that is needed to build these characters and to have them evolve into the events unfolding around them. We all know what is coming. The Titanic will hit the iceberg and it will sink and many will die and some, some will live. Katsu has written a novel that makes this historic event simply a moment, a happenstance in the grand scheme that is the lives of her characters. The tragedy is not the sinking of the ship itself, but the secrets of the hidden lives led by the passengers. Lives that impact our main character so deeply that she loses complete sense of herself and falls under the will of another. Or does she? Is it possession or is it madness.

The reader is teased about the true state of Annie. Is she under the influence of a malevolent spirit or did the events aboard the Titanic unhinge her sense of reality.

Katsu does a masterful of storytelling and The Deep works in several genres. It is a historical novel, a tale of tragic romance and a ghost story. Tense and dramatic, the Deep will take you in and hold you under.

I've been dying to read 'The Deep' for months and now that I've had the chance to experience it, I have a surprising array of feelings that I wasn't expecting. There were a ton of things that I absolutely loved and a couple that bothered me a little. Here's a breakdown:

Loved:

Writing: The author never fails to disappoint with her writing. It's so descriptive that it immediately drew me into the story and the setting. It felt like I was alongside the characters experiencing everything they did. The attention to detail - even the tiniest of things - made it obvious that the author did extensive research before writing to make it all as real as possible. That dedication and truth shines through on every page and really sets the author's books - especially this one - apart from anything else like it. I could rant on forever about how much I loved the writing style and how incredible it was, but I think you get the point. It was nothing short of amazing.

Story:

Stories about the Titanic always fascinate me, so that's part of what initially drew me to this book. The part that made it a must read? The paranormal aspect. I'm a huge fan of anything paranormal, so a haunted Titanic was a no brainer for me. The story feels very authentic mostly due to the author's writing style (see above) and it was unlike anything I've ever read before. There were certain aspects to the way the story was told - from different periods of time, from specific dates and places, and several perspectives - that also really impressed and enthralled me. I loved getting to know all of the characters and their personal stories throughout the book. I also enjoyed watching their relationships with one another begin, change, and grow as the story progressed. The plot was fascinating and I loved the way the author blended historic facts with fiction and added a splash of the paranormal for good measure. It was truly an amazing book and one that I intend to reread.

Cons:

Writing Style: I know that I have writing style listed as something I loved, but there were definitely aspects that I wasn't the biggest fan of. First of all - point of view. If you've read my reviews before, you know how incredibly important POV is to me. It can make or break a book for me. I basically always prefer the first person POV because I feel it lets the reader have a deeper connection to the narrator. The author chose to write this story in the third person POV from several different perspectives. I can understand the reasoning behind this and it makes perfect sense. But for me personally, it was a big negative. Like I said, I love the first person because the reader gets to know the narrator on a really personal level and I don't feel the other writing styles allow this to happen. Sadly (for me), that's exactly what happened with this book. Although I got to know the main characters pretty well, I didn't get to connect with any of them on the level that I wanted. Without that connection, it makes it harder for me to get lost inside their world - inside the story itself. And the fact that the story is told from four different perspectives only made it that much harder for me to connect with each one (or any of them) on the level I love and also made it harder for me to get lost inside their stories. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, but it did take away some serious points in my book. Please remember that these are my own personal opinions and feelings and not every reader is going to feel the same way as me. I'm just sharing my thoughts honestly. I don't mean any of this to reflect poorly on the book or the author at all - again, it's only my opinion.

Overall, this was a creepy historical fiction novel that lets readers travel to the past to experience both the Titanic and the Britannic as if they were there themselves. The writing is beautifully done and I very highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction, paranormal, and readers who love anything related to the Titanic.

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most notorious disasters in human history. It has permeated our collective consciousness so much that one could easily find several books about the disaster, a few dozen documentaries concerning the doomed ship, or Google the millions of times it has been referenced in popular culture, and that was even before Rose promised Jack that her heart would go on (I admit I never watched the entire Titanic movie). To take the well-known disaster and example of humanity's hubris and try to make it the backdrop of a novel is therefore a brave undertaking. How does the author avoid doing what has already been done before? Alma Katsu, pioneer of the historical horror genre, has managed to create something new and interesting with her latest book The Deep.
One of the things she does differently is add into the narrative Titanic's sister ship the Britannic, which was recommissioned as a sort of floating hospital and met a similar fate to her sister ship. Katsu's narrative not only jumps back and forth between the maiden voyage of the Titanic and the final voyage of the Britannic, there are also many characters that she reveals to the reader, from two boxers/grifters/starcrossed lovers to a woman whose relationship with her much older husband is more like a business merger than one born of love, to the stars of Katsu's drama, mysterious nurse Annie Hebley and Mark Fletcher, a father with a new baby girl and a dark secret.
Katsu's biggest strength as a writer is her ability to research. Stephen King once said that he needed just enough truth to lie convincingly when writing fiction, but Katsu gives plenty of facts, from people to early 20th century nautical trivia, to create a very real historical setting. Readers will come to the book knowing about the Titanic, which already creates a sense of looming disaster/tension from the first page, but Katsu's level of knowledge makes sure that readers can stay immersed in that setting for as long as they wish. Another strength on display in this book is Katsu's knack for character development. The book jumps around to different people and different perspectives but managed not to make them all feel one-dimensional. The two boxers Dai and Les were easily two of my favorites that I was honestly rooting for. Katsu managed to do this character juggling act throughout the whole book, right till the tragic ending of both ships. The perfect book for fans of historical horror who like a little of the fantastic, The Deep is a book into which you'll happily immerse yourself.

Katsu's fantastical horror tale deals with the real life disasters of the Titanic and the Britannic, combining real life characters with a creeping horror lurking in the deep. A great read if you like your horror with a historical background.

I'm a big fan of the story of the Titanic and enjoy historical fiction, but The Deep wasn't the perfect combination of the two for me.
I can tell Katsu did her research and loved that I learned new things about the Titanic and some of her passengers. I definitely appreciate that she took the time to check all the facts, but with more of the story had been about the Titanic timeline than the after story.
The paranormal element could have really been interesting, but unfortunately, the execution wasn't quite enough for me to be a fan. That said, I do not regularly read paranormal fiction, so if that is a genre you love or you're extremely interested in stories about the Titanic, this may be a good choice for you.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

➝ Sum it up in points!

✔ Inspired by the Titanic & Brittanic tragedies
✔ past & present timelines
✔ multiple perspectives on the sea
✔ filled with paranormal incidents
✔ mysterious, horror atmosphere

The Deep dives head-first into unusual happenings aboard a ship and historically accurate recounting of the perspectives around such incidents. With a setting that pulls you in the mysterious mist and subtly scares, the narration pulls off well through the multiple characters' and split timeline: one in the past on the Titanic and one in the present on the Brittanic. In the middle of a vast sea, the story even showcases hints of women empowerment in a factual historical setting. The romance is a surprise among the dark clouds but definitely essential for making this story more emotionally driven. A slow pacing to understandably build more silence chaos but personally not a favourite aspect which is reflected in the rating.

➝ Trigger Warnings

✔ almost drowning, water sickness
✔ gambling, drug use, adultery
✔ accidental disaster - sinking ship
✔ gore war, suicide, injuries
✔ sexual content

I don’t usually read much historical fiction, but supernatural twists on historical events always seem to draw me in. This is a retelling of the voyage of the Titanic with a supernatural twist. There are a few characters to remember as one reads, but all tales are twisted together at the end. The tale doesn’t end with the sinking of the Titanic but with the date of her sister ship, the Britannic. A fantastic cast of characters with a surprising twist at the end.

Okay for me this book fell flat. I thought it had a lot of potential but it was lacking in many areas. I really had trouble connecting with the characters. I felt there was too much focus on the supporting characters and not enough focus on the main players of the story. The plot of the story was okay, but to me was lacking in the scary department. Overall this one gets 2 stars from me.