Happy book birthday to Scorpion Deep by CG Drews! I’m always excited when a new Drews book comes out, and the sea horror elements of this one sounded so fascinating. I just couldn’t say no to an ARC! What did I think of it? Read on to find out!

CG Drews, New York Times-bestselling author of Don’t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorn, weaves a disturbing and intoxicating siren-call in Scorpion Deep, about a lonely boy who accidentally awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god.

The only thing Jonathan Covey wants from the gloomy, moldering isle of Kelcarrow is to leave it. Summer is ending, and his friends are looking forward to college on the mainland, unaware that Jonathan was not accepted to join them. He’ll be left behind with nothing but the ocean’s haunts and a rising dread of being abandoned.

In an act of wild desperation, Jonathan pays a tithe to Scorpion Deep, an eldritch sea god who many of the locals have dismissed as myth. He wants to forget the past, he wants to follow his friends, and most of all he wants to finally escape.

To his shock and horror, the ritual works—Scorpion Deep awakens. And despite his terror, Jonathan can’t help but feel drawn toward the ageless entity that seems just as mutually obsessed with him. As scales start growing down his spine and Scorpion Deep’s adoration of him turns bloody, Jonathan realizes the only way to end the nightmare is to destroy the monster one way or another.

But once a god has awoken, the only way to be free is to pay a price of blood.

***Thank you to Feiwel & Friends for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

I just love the way that CG Drews writes SO MUCH. It feels like it scrapes my insides raw while reading but in the best possible way. lol. The emotion. The horror. The beautiful yet disturbing descriptiveness. The way Drews uses words to bring life to some of life’s hardest experiences and feelings is nothing short of breathtaking. All of the things I love about how Drews weaves stories were on full display in Scorpion Deep coupled with the awe-inspiring mystery and power of the sea.

Jonathan was such a fascinating and complex character. The trauma he endured was heartbreaking, and it forged him into a lonely person plagued by self-deprecating thoughts. He struggled to communicate his thoughts and feelings with others, which drove a wedge between him and everyone else. His rage was buried deep for a long time but came roaring to the surface as he descended further and further into madness. The body horror in this story was such a compelling way to visualize how Jonathan’s thoughts about himself turned him into the “monster” he believed he was. While I did sympathize with him, it’s important to note that I didn’t find Jonathan to be a particularly likeable character. Being inside his head was tedious to say the least, but I’m fairly certain that was the point. His struggles with mental health and identity were difficult but felt authentically represented.

Jonathan’s relationship with Scorpion Deep was obsessive, intoxicating, and more than a little co-dependent. Scorpion accepted, and more importantly, WANTED all of Jonathan, even the parts of himself that Jonathan didn’t like. He didn’t want to fix Jonathan or try to fit him into a box. Instead, he seemed to revel in all of Jonathan’s worst qualities and impulses. That feeling of being wanted completely was intoxicating to Jonathan because he’d never experienced it before. Their dynamic was incredibly destructive while at the same time providing Jonathan with an escape from his troubles. It was an explosively toxic mix that had things going off the rails in spectacular fashion.

This leads me to my one gripe about Scorpion Deep: the ending. I really wanted to see more growth for Jonathan. He didn’t seem to change all that much by the end, and the ambiguous way the story wrapped up left me wondering if he learned anything from his experience at all. I do like ambiguous endings, and Drews does write some great ones. It just didn’t really work for me in this story. Jonathan spent the whole book pushing his friends away because of his negative thought patterns and his inability to communicate his feelings. I really wanted to see him make some progress on letting other people in, but it never really happened. It didn’t ruin the story for me, but I do think making Jonathan a little less stagnant would have made the whole thing more meaningful.

All in all, Scorpion Deep was another brilliant story from CG Drews. If you’re squeamish, this is one you’ll probably want to sit out, but I was absolutely enthralled by the horror of it all. The use of sea monsters (including sketches!) was really cool, and the teenage angst was off the charts. If that sounds like your cup of tea, I definitely recommend picking this book up. Therefore, I rate it 4.75 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! My thoughts on Scorpion Deep by CG Drews. Do you plan to pick this one up or have you already read it? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!