Allowing for some minor lack of originality here and there – the Cronenbergian wormlike creatures inside their human hosts are not completely new, and one set piece felt to me a little like Gollum protecting the Lord of the Rings in his cave, albeit an infinitely more horrific version – I can highly recommend the novel. It’s fast paced, full of scares, humor and pathos, and the plight of the scoutmaster and the troop of five boys on their weekend island excursion feels very realistic. What’s more, the insights into how the worms were developed – dietary aid or biological weapon, as the debate goes – gives it a plausible science fiction edge.
Two things are great about The Troop. First, the writing. Cutter has a precise, but genuinely original style. He never over-writes, but his prose positively sings. When he describes anything, you can see, feel and hear it – and, in some cases, smell it! Second, is the way he draws real human emotion out in response to the nightmares played out on the island. Unlike too many horror novels and thrillers these days, there is moral complexity here; when something bad happens to one of the characters, you truly feel for them. Even the most unpleasant creature in the book (not the worms, you may be interested to know) has an element of pathos and a dreadful humanity to him.
But, to the story itself. As he does annually, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. An inexplicable horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival pits the troop against the elements, the infected … and one another.
Some of the most harrowing moments of The Troop, however, don’t involve the awful evolution of the worms and what they do to their hosts, but rather the fear and distress the boys experience. Once scene in particular brought me close to tears when two of the boys, desperately hungry, try to kill a turtle they find on the beach. The protracted killing, and both the turtle’s and the boy’s torture throughout is truly distressing. Upsetting as the scene was I wanted to applaud Cutter for what he had achieved here: an illustration of humanity reduced to desperation yet being profoundly affected by an almost spiritual pain at what they are forced to do. Bravo, Mr Cutter!
And the master Stephen King himself has given Nick Cutter an accolade of his own. He says: “The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn’t put it down. This is old-school horror at its best.”
As the old Mowtown song goes, I second that emotion.
And if that isn’t recommendation isn’t enough, what is?
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Article by John Dodds
John Dodds is the author of The Kendrick Chronicles crime novels (Bone Machines and Kali’s Kiss ) and is currently completing the third novel in the series, Babylon Slide. Under a pseudonym, JT Macleod, has written a collection of historical/paranormal/erotic/romance stories called Warriors and Wenches, as well as the first novel in YA steampunk superhero series which he is shopping around agents. You can hear some of his short stories on podcasts such as Tales to Terrify, Starship Sofa and others. John also blogs for Amazing Stories Magazine.
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