I'm a sucker for anything Titanic related so of course I had to get my hands on Alma Katsu's The Deep. I enjoyed her previous novel so I was excited to see how she would weave the supernatural into the historical narrative like she did in The Hunger. However, I was disappointed in the lack of spookiness or suspense and in the storyline as a whole. The plot was lacking in substance and pace, the characters and their interactions were bland and inauthentic, and the atmosphere nonexistent.

I've realized that when it comes to the Titanic, I'm better off reading non-fiction than someone's fictional attempt at injecting new life into a historical event that can stand by itself.

Didn't finish this book, was supposed to be a horror book but turned out to be historical fiction. I love titanic stories but this one wasn't what I expected and the storyline and characters was bland.

I liked this book a lot more than I expected to. I am generally not a fan of horror/ghost stories but this was not too scary and left me guess until the end about which characters were mad/possessed.

As with The Hunger, Katsu interweaves menace with a deft hand. You feel like you are on these floating palaces with Annie, and yet with all of their space and grandeur, all you want is for the ship to reach port.

I've been a Titanic enthusiast for the major part of my life, so seeing this title was a natural choice to read. The premise seemed like an interesting spin.

Reading this quickly turned into a slog. I can't say I liked any of the characters. For the longest time, I assumed that there wasn't any supernatural happenings at all. It felt like the characters were crazy, no ghosts needed.

The supernatural plot was far too convoluted for my taste. So much was left unexplained and unaccounted for, I really can't say it was enjoyable. What killed the little boy? Was Madeline Astor actually cursed by her husband's ex-wife? Did Anne have a corporeal body she shared with Lucille? If so, they why didn't she cast a reflection, but could touch and be touched? What was with the random fire on the Titanic? Where did the map of mines in the channel come from? You expect me to believe that a mother would willingly poison her child to death in order to win back her ex? And what the heck happened to Ondine?

As a side note, I'm not sure if relations of Violet Jessop would be thrilled at seeing their ancestor as an accomplice to criminal activity who also plays strip poker.

What if the Titanic and Britannic sank because they were haunted? This novel jumps back and forth from one ship to the other, raising more and more questions until you reach the sinking of both ships and secrets are revealed. It’s told in rotating points of view but it is most definitely, Annie Hebbley’s story. Fairy tales, history and fiction are intertwined effortlessly. Whether you prefer an epic love story or an epic haunting, you'll be satisfied.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm fascinated by all things Titanic, and I had no idea her sister ship also faced disaster!

The twist at the end was sufficiently spooky, but I'm not sure if I understood it completely. Once we got to know all the real-life "characters", I became invested in their stories. The main characters were sort of interesting, but the real life people were most interesting to me as a history buff.

It was a great read for anyone who is fascinated by the story of the ship and of the people who inhabited that life.

I am unsure if adding the supernatural to already terrifying and tragic historical events lessons the horror or if it's brilliant (see also The Hunger by Alma Katsu, which is about the Donner Party tragedy). I thought I would like this book, being a Titanic nerd in my younger days, but it was a not very spooky melodramatic ghost story. Still, the book was very readable (even in spite of the constant POV jumping) and it is a good premise that had promise.

I thought the premise of this novel was intriguing, but in the end I think that the paranormal element interfered with the narrative more than it enhanced the story. I also think the characters stood in the way of the story a bit too much. This just wasn't an epic story, and maybe attaching the name Titanic to this novel is where the author went wrong - if I hear Titanic, I expect something big and epic.

But even if the story hadn't been set on Titanic (and to a lesser extent, Britannic), I think there were too many characters who were just not relevant. This gave us less time with the three main characters and made them feel less important than they should have (in my opinion). I understand that if you're writing about the Titanic and the Britannic, you've got two big ships to fill, so it must seem natural to introduce a large cast of characters - but in the end, the big ships were both just bystanders to the story, so they should have remained as such.

I also keep thinking about some of the liberties that the author took in using real people as side characters. Violet Jessup surely never let con artists from third class roam around in first class cabins, just as Madeleine Astor never tried to drown anyone to break a curse. Why attach real names to bizarre actions when a made-up character would do just as well? Those specific names didn't need be used at all.

This was an easy read, but I am not sure I would recommend this novel. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me an advance read in exchange for a review.

I thought it was just okay. Not nearly as gripping as The Hunger. Not sure I’d even call this a horror novel.

I read this 400+ page book over the course of three days AND in the midst of the Christmas holiday. I just could not get enough.

Katsu’s scholarship surrounding the Titanic and the Britannic is deep and evident throughout the novel. It isn’t heavy-handed or boring, rather the details are carefully woven throughout in a way that puts the reader squarely in the time period. The Titanic movie came out when I was in high school and I got that same sense of envelopment and awe while reading this book.

While this book is definitely historical fiction, this horror lover was pleased to find that the supernatural elements delivered as well. Creepy, foreboding, and at times just WEIRD, I love how the author was able to seamlessly integrate these happenings within the dual timelines.

I also loved that this read like a suspense/thriller soap opera. Complete with trysts, mystery, and just everything I love in a great binge read.

I previously read The Hunger and liked it, but I LOVE this book. I’ll show up for whatever Alma Katsu writes next.

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. There were several things that worked. I have read Katsu before and I like her writing style. She did a lot of research for this novel and it shows--a good sign for a novel like this. I really liked the inclusion of Violet Jessop, a real woman who survived the sinking of both the Titanic and the Britannic. There's some fascinating Irish mythology and folk tales incorporated into the larger story that I found very interesting.

What didn't work: I felt like some parts of this slowed down a bit and lost momentum. More difficult for me was trying to make sense of some of the plot in regards to class at this time. Without giving anything away, it was a little hard for me to see some of the story as realistic due to the class constraints and expectations for people in different classes at this time. It's not that this story couldn't have happened (an American heiress who befriends a British working class woman and her middle class professional barrister boyfriend) and Katsu does give some explanation for how this played out; however, it didn't feel authentic to me, and continued in some of the exchanges between 1st class passengers and staff on board the Titanic--though this might just be me being too sensitive to class in the long 19th-century, since this is a scholarly area of mine. Finally, the end--while interesting--seemed a little messy. There were some plot lines introduced that weren't followed through that I was hoping to see resolution on.

Overall, I think this is a decent book and I'd recommend it. I also think a lot of people will love it. For me, it was an okay read but with some bumps along the way.

I was lucky enough to win an e-galley of THE DEEP through a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you so much to the publisher, I can't wait to dive in! (pun totally intended)

This 📓 riveted me. As someone entranced by the horror that was the Titanic disaster, I immediately was drawn to the storyline. The main character serves as an employee on the Titanic and later becomes a nurse on the sister ship, the Britannic. If you know of the disaster of the Titanic, you know that many different stories about what occurred on board will enthrall and lead you down different rabbitholes, so this was an absolute wonder to read. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about both ships but also 😍 some good old fashioned ghost stories as well.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC.

Book started out strong, got bogged down in the middle, and ended in a way that left me scratching my head a bit. Over all an interesting read that I know others will enjoy it.

History already tells us the tragic ending of Titanic and her sister ship Britannic. This book takes it to another level of horror. Imagining if the Titanic was haunted by a sinister presence that will stop at nothing to take innocent lives. We get our ticket to ride the Titanic by following Annie Hebbley. She is working as a maid in first class. After surviving the sinking she is also on Britannic when it meets it's tragic ending.

I really enjoyed this one. I have always been fascinated by the tragic story of the "unsinkable" Titanic and the stories of the survivors and those that lost their lives in those frigid waters.

The Deep is an engrossing, entertaining, tragic, detailed work of historical fiction with just enough of the supernatural to make it delightfully interesting. It weaves us through several timelines and several characters. The main character is Annie. Four years prior she was a stewardess on the tragic Titanic voyage, and in the present, she is a nurse on Titanic’s sister ship, The Britannic, which is now being used as a hospital ship during World War One. Katsu is a gifted storyteller who seamlessly weaves together the real and the surreal, the facts and the fiction, the earthly and the paranormal. This is a very beautifully written heart wrenching book. I recommend it. I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of this book.

I am a sucker for books about the Titanic and thought this one was especially intriguing because of the paranormal elements. I first stumbled upon Alma Katsu when her novel The Taker came out and having read that and now this book I can definitely say she writes a story quite unlike anything you will read elsewhere. The Deep takes the well known story of the sinking of the Titanic and adds in a mystery, ghosts, seances and other odd occurrences. The story revolves around Annie and flip flops back and forth between Annie's time on the Titanic and years later when as a survivor she ends up on the Titanic's sister ship Brittanic. Katsu does a great job of telling the story in both timelines while casting enough doubt on Annie's credibility to keep the reader guessing whether the strangeness is real or imagined. I really enjoyed this book almost until the end but then the big reveal came and it went from paranormal to a bit too weird for me to completely enjoy the ending. I think this may just be me though.

This book was just not interesting. I only got halfway through before I decided that I had absolutely no interest in the characters, plot (was there a plot?), or the writing style itself. I'm sorry, but this was not for me. I was interested in the horror/supernatural aspect, but this was not well done, at least not in the first half of the book. And if you don't have me by then, I'm out.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Delicious ghost story that place via flashback aboard the Titanic and then in real time 1916, her sister ship the Britannia.
Poor Irish girl Anne is hired on a steward for 12 first class cabins on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. Annie is there to escape a tragic past. Doing this voyage we meet the famous characters- the Astors, Guggenheim, along with some fictional characters- everyone has a dark secret. etc. The author pains a vidid enthralling picture of life at the turn of the 20th century- part Agatha Christie, part Stephen King and part Dowton Abbey.
The main characters of the story all sense that something is not quite right about the Titanic, and share a sense of foreboding. A series of mishaps occur- is the occult at work, or is it the doings of deperate people?
During the flashbacks we learn that Annie survives the shipwreck of the Titanic only to land a mental hospital to recuperate from PTSD. Four years later WWI is waging and she gets an offer from a fellow Titanic survivor to be a nurse on the Britannia, ferrying the wounded back and forth in Europe. It appears that the sea calls to the survivors and they feel compelled to set sail once again. Aboard the ship Annie is surrounded by the wounded, half men half ghosts, as her past comes back to haunt her once again.
Really enjoyed this book and how layer by layer mysteries were revealed and resolved. Highly recommend.