I Just Finished A Hell Of An Audiobook Lately

I just finished a Hell of an audiobook lately

Its name is The Troop, written by Nick Cutter, narrated by Corey Brill,

And it has proved one of the most intensive experiences with literary media in my entire life.

Listen… listen here as I try to contextualize that. I’m a person who enjoys doing chores while Wayne June’s voice serenades me with the writings of Lovecraft, Poe, and Red Hook Studios. I grew up on a Little Shop to John Carpenter’s The Thing horror pipeline. I’ve played I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream at least three times to myself by now.

There were points where I laughed my ass off. Points where I yelled either in cheer or anger. A point or two where I almost cried. Many points where I gagged, physically gagged several times while driving down the road because of Cutter’s linguistic assault. I took needed breaks off and on and yet I still kept coming back for more. It’s… where do I actually start? With that Stephen King review where he mentions that The Troop scared the hell out of him?? With this?

TL/DR: This shit makes “Lord of the Flies” look like an episode of Rugrats.

I picked up this story working on no more knowledge than what I suggest anyone else interested in the roller coaster experience also start from: This is a story about a handful of Boy Scouts encountering a very hungry, very sick guy in the woods while on a camping trip.

I was hoping for something like World War Z, which is a phenomenally written work by Max Brooks. This was not much like WWZ in content, but in terms of the quality, pacing, and amount of thought put into the writing itself, I can’t think of a better comparison. Every scene is tapestried with descriptions and immersive detail to make sure you understand the full pov of its characters. You will know exactly what they hear, what they smell, what they taste, in ways elating and in ways that will make you lose your appetite.

The themes themselves share more spiritually with… Kitty Horrorshow, if anything. I can’t elaborate much on that without spoilers, and I honestly don’t encourage a jump into this text any less blind than this.

All that said, this is a true disturbing work in the sense that it is sure as hell not going to be for everyone. I don’t think it’s really even for most people in its entirety. There are several scenes dedicated to the quite graphic portrayal of childhood bullying, body horror, parasites, violent harm done to animals domestic and not (extreme emphasis on this one), and the general etc. that comes with the territory of this being a horror novel with primarily 14 year olds as main characters. Be merry and be discretionary with this knowledge. I’m going to hope the nightmares about eating wallpaper and worms settle down as the days pass, as I still thank this book for adding them to my garden.

crispy (dib) quality of these wonderful frames

Because Sly makes this exact gesture when he falls off a ledge in-game and, honestly, I can’t take it seriously.

Call me a nostalgic soul but one of my most beloved running gags they used to sprinkle into older cartoons was the one where whenever a character was being an absolute douche weasel or a weapons grade idiot, to start playing stock audio of a loudly braying donkey in the background, indicating a “jackass” moment

You know even if Zim ever gets a lucky shot and actually kills Dib legit dead, I don’t think it’s gonna feel like much of a victory for him if it turns out the kid was right all along about the existence of ghosts

I’m not sure if Invaders have any solutions on hand for vengeful obsessive hauntings