Book Reviews
Vis Calami
The Troop
First published on February 25, 2014, The Troop by Nick Cutter is a grotesque, pulse-pounding survival horror so intense you deserve a merit badge just for finishing it.
The Plot
When a group of teenage Scouts head out for a weekend camping trip on a remote island off the coast of Prince Edward Island, they’re not expecting body horror, grotesque parasites, or psychological meltdowns—but that’s exactly what’s on the menu. Cut off from help, the troop must survive not only what’s hunting them from the outside, but what begins to surface from within. It’s gory, it’s grim, and it pulls zero punches.
It’s like Lord of the Flies wandered into a Cronenberg nightmare.
More Than Just Gore
This isn’t just gore for gore’s sake. Cutter’s writing is concise, unflinching, and emotionally powerful. He masterfully captures the secret thoughts and lives of adolescent boys—their insecurities, loyalties, and desperate, unspoken need for acceptance. Each boy’s backstory is seamlessly woven in, revealing how their unique emotional wiring determines who cracks and who endures.
The Troop is more than a horror novel—it’s a brutal, brilliant character study wrapped up in a monster story. Equal parts gripping and grotesque, this story will leave you shaken, haunted, and grateful you made it out alive.
Should You Read It?
This is a must-read for hard-core horror fans, as it’s destined to worm its way onto every “scariest book” list for years to come.
QUICK WARNING: If you struggle with animals in distress, give this one a miss. 😳
From My Perspective
While I can’t say I enjoyed this book in the traditional sense—thanks to my aversion to body horror, phobic paralysis around anything worm-adjacent, and extreme empathy for animals (yes, there are children in peril too, but… meh)—I will say that Nick Cutter’s writing enthralls me. Luckily, he also writes literary fiction and not just the most demented nightmare fuel imaginable.
About the Author
Nick Cutter is a pen name used by writer Craig Davidson for his horror fiction. Davidson is the author of several short stories and novels, such as Cascade, Rust and Bone, and The Saturday Night Ghost Club, which deals with ghosts and the occult, but it’s more atmospheric and eerie as opposed to scary—I call this “diet horror.”
Cutter has published a few more horror novels since The Troop, starting with the follow-up novel, The Deep, published in 2015, and, according to most reviews, it’s just as terrifying as The Troop.
My favorite review of The Deep on Goodreads by Kat reads: “i hope nick cutter is prepared to pay for all the f@#*ing therapy im gonna need bc of this book.”
Maybe someone else can read that one and report back—because I need a few years to recover before diving into something that disturbing again.
The Troop is available at bookshop.org, a site that gives independent bookstores the tools to compete online and the financial support they need to maintain a presence in their local communities.