Let's Talk About Books

It's late and I'm sleepy so let's keep this brief, shall we?

In Pressure, the sea floor is falling apart and something has awakened. Something hungry. As diver and oceanographer Carrie Anderson tries to figure out what's going on, she must contend with a super predator from someone's nightmares, ex-boyfriends, sassy companions, and corrupt business conspiracies. All the while, she's got to be aware of something cold that's only growing colder. And hungrier.

I liked this one a lot. It was totally ridiculous and read like a B-movie but I appreciated it. The creature itself was fantastic and just thinking about it hunting the characters made me uneasy. There were many parts where, despite telling myself the famous last words of "just one more chapter", I wouldn't be able to stop reading because a) I had to know how Carrie escaped and b) I was too terrified to go to bed. The scares in this are great, especially if you're like me and are uneasy around open water and  giant monsters. This is the creature feature I've been craving for a while and I loved it. 

The characters were also terrific. I loved Carrie. I thought she was fun and enjoyed following her journey. I would have liked to have seen more of the conflict between her and her family play out and feel an opportunity was missed with that but overall she was satisfying. I adored Abhi. He was a great character, super humorous, and just a nice, light addition to the cast. The other characters were nice as well, if not a bit more shallow. I didn't mind too horribly though. The action was more than enough to keep me interested.

Major spoilers, so be aware.

The biggest issue with this book is that after part one, the story just becomes slow and about corporate espionage. I wanted to read the book because I wanted a good creature feature and I got that for the first hundred and fifty or so pages. Then Keene kills the creature off. I thought for sure it would pull a 90's Godzilla and come back or the eggs would hatch and there'd be a bunch of new baby monsters but no. Just even agents chasing after Carrie's crew. It was definitely a let down. Still interesting but not what I was wanting to read. The explanation for the source of the creatures was also underwhelming. The book felt like it needed to be another hundred pages OR just have ended after Carrie crashes the ship into one of the creatures. That would have been more satisfying. Ah well. 

Final rating: 4 out of 5 stars. It's very good and fun, I'd read it again, but the second part is definitely underwhelming.