Scorpion Deep by C. G. Drews: A Deep Sea of Psychological Unease

“He has no idea if he’s being eaten or being loved.”– Scorpion Deep by C. G. Drews

---

C. G. Drews has been on my TBR for a while now. Give me alllll the gothic horror stories, please. So snagging a copy of Scorpion Deep was the push I finally needed.

I came for the gothic atmosphere, I left with the desire to nurture a newborn Kraken.

This post could contain affiliate links, which means I would receive a small commission at no cost to you should you shop using the links.

Scorpion Deep by C. G. Drews: Summary

Jonathan Covey is desperate to escape his isolated island and the traumatic life that has left him feeling unloved and unwanted. While his friends are preparing to begin their lives away at college, Jonathan (rejected from college) will be left behind with his painful past and uncertain future.

When he awakens Scorpion Deep, an eldritch sea god thought to only be a myth, he finds himself drawn into this dangerous and obsessive connection that leads him to question if he is finally being loved or just being consumed?

Scorpion Deep by C. G. Drews Review

This story had A LOT of trauma and this overall desperate human need to be loved. Jonathan is just a boy who has been hurt over and over again by the very people who should have loved and protected him unconditionally.

And that’s where the baby Kraken came in for me. It’s not just a tiny cute baby creature, it actually creates this incredibly interesting mirror for Jonathan.

What Worked for me:

Jonathan has spent his entire life experiencing love (or, rather, not experiencing love) as something conditional or completely absent. He has been physically and emotionally abused and made to feel unwanted. But then he encounters this completely vulnerable newborn creature, holds it for six minutes, and immediately thinks I would die for you.

There is something just so heartbreaking about that moment. Jonathan has never experienced unconditional love, yet he recognizes it immediately when he has the opportunity to give it.

The baby Kraken feels like a symbol of that desperate human need to be loved AND our need to love something.

Jonathan is willing to give the Kraken the unconditional love he has never truly known himself. (cue my tears)

And for me, that emotional connection was everything… it’s the kind of emotional connection I wanted so much more of from the entire story.

What Did Not Work For me

I could see what C. G. Drews was doing here, I recognized the ideas, I just never felt connected to Jonathan to truly care and experience the full emotional weight of it all. I wanted to care about him and understand his need for someone to love him and to become emotionally invested in his connection with Scorpion Deep.

But the story felt so slow and boring at times that it made it difficult to stay invested, especially because I never formed that emotional connection to Jonathan.

I felt immediate affection and connection to a baby sea monster while remaining emotionally detached from Jonathan… I don’t know what that says about me and the story overall, but it has to say something.

Audiobook Review

I listened to the ALC of Scorpion Deep narrated by Mark Sanderlin, and the narration was an enjoyable experience. Even though I struggled to connect with the characters and found the pacing slow, the narration itself worked well for me. The audiobook wasn’t the problem.

Had this been an ARC, I could see myself giving this a DNF for the pacing alone. I just wish the story had pulled me in as much as the narrator and baby Kraken did…

Final Thoughts: Scorpion Deep by C. G. Drews

I finished Scorpion Deep understanding its ideas more than I felt them. However, I still want to continue on my C. G. Drews TBR journey (next up: This Is How You Lie).

If you enjoy dark fantasy stories that blur the line between the monstrous and the beautiful and explore trauma and obsession with a deep sea psychological unease then this could be worth adding to your TBR.

Still, I will be thinking about the Kraken.

⭐⭐⭐ Thank you MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for this ALC!