Mitchell’s Musings- The Troop by Nick Cutter

Hey everyone. Haley is going hard, finishing up school and helping me prepare for a move so I figured I would write some of my musings down. I still haven’t read much outside of my usual repeats, but I do have one title I’d like to tell you about.

On recommendation, I’ll leave you to figure out from who, I read “The Troop” By Nick Cutter.

I probably have the most generous rating system ever. All books I pick up can sorted (not rated sorted) into four categories: 

😞 Didn’t finish 

😶 I was entertained 

🙂 That was a damn fine book 

😃 Has been added to my offical cannon

This book entertained me. It reminded me of some horror films that get released over the summer, which I sort into similar categories.

If body horror is too much for you as it is for me sometimes perhaps pick up something else. Or perhaps not read further. I would rate the rest of this post PG13.

I first realized what being squeamish even was in 7th or 8th grade. A well meaning school administration got parental approval to show the student body a very grafic safety presentation to dissuade short sighted children with too much time on their hands from doing stupid things over summer break. 

I began to feel, …different…ill perhaps, about halfway through the slides of various lacerations, broken bones, split corneas, punctures, tears and fractures, all with accompanying tales of how the individuals came to find their bodies modified in the presented fashion. I got up to go ask the gym teacher if it would be ok if I went to see the nurse for a moment.

I walked all the way down the bleachers and across the gymnasium. I was just about to explain to Ms. G and Mr. N my peculiar symptoms when I woke up in the nearest possible place that wasn’t in full view of 200 middle schoolers. The two gym teachers and maybe someone else were all giving me as much space as possible while basic first aid was performed in the cramped stairwell. 

And it came to pass squeamishness and I became old bedfellows. I’m not sure how unique this is but when I have severe reactions to things and pass out, throw up, gag, cough, ect. my reactions are mostly devoid of emotion and thought besides quick checks to make sure me and those around me are safe if I’m going down, or desperate prayers to make the vomiting end soon. 

Body horror in books and, to a degree, visual media too, does something different to me. One of the characters in “The Troop” is a sadist in the literal, nonsexual sense of the term. He likes to inflict and see pain inflicted. As I was laying down listening to a description of him killing a crustation instead of my analytical nausea, I had the most acute emotional reaction. I’m not sure what my body did, I was about 15% asleep when the scene started, but my mind reacted like a small child jumping up and down screaming, “Yuck! Dear lord, no. That’s gross. My goodness, it isn’t over yet….”

And that visceral reaction all but sums up my feelings about The Troop by Nick Cutter.

What About You?

Do you enjoy reading/watching body horror? Have you read The Troop? Share your thoughts in the comments!