The Troop

Title: The Troop

Author: Nick Cutter

Genre: Horror

Pages: 355 pages

Synopsis:

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

“How could you hide from a murderer who lives under your skin?”

The Troop is a horror story about a group of Scouters who are at a camp. Everything is okay, until they are visited by a very hungry man. Little did this group realize this man is infectious with killer tapeworms created by an evil scientist in an experiment gone wrong. The story becomes one of survival as the Scouters try to survive this contagion.

So this book was kind of personal to me. When I was younger, I was in Scouts. I remember having weekly meetings, trying to get badges, play some games. And yes I did go camping. I mostly prefer to go camping in the summer. With the warmer weather, I felt the time was right to give this a read. What I found was a very scary Horror Story.

One of the reasons for why I found this terrifying is that it was all about containing a disease caused by killer tapeworms. And considering the fact that we are still in a Pandemic, the idea of a very contagious disease is still terrifying. This book also covered some important themes: the worse fears of biological warfare, loss of innocence, and what does it mean to really be alive?

One of the things I liked most of this book is that we got to go into the heads of all the main characters. We understand who these people are, what they are and, how they are reacting to the events around them. Shelley, one of the scouts who is a psychopath is truly a terrifying villain. The newspaper articles, the court transcript, interviews, etc. were also nice touches giving some more context as to what the hell is going on. It also does help make this scenario feel a little more real to me. The book was one of those books where I couldn’t put it down, as I had to know what happens next! Lastly, I find it cool how this book takes place on Prince Edward Island. I did visit the Island once and I think it’s a very nice place to visit.

My main criticism of this novel is more of a nitpick. While I do like the articles etc. for helping add to the realism. They did get some details about Canada wrong. In one article they referred to a “Canadian Criminal Charter”. As a Canadian myself, I almost shouted: It’s called the Criminal Code of Canada! Lastly, as a person who was in Scouts, we don’t use the term “Scout Master” for our Scout Leaders. We either just call them “Scout Leaders” or “Scouter”.

Overall, this was a scary novel that feels pretty relevant especially, with the Pandemic. I highly recommend this if you are looking for a good Horror story to read. Although I do want to warn you: this book can be very graphic, gory, disturbing, and it can make you squirm. I do not recommend this if you have a weak stomach, and please do not eat while reading this novel!

Rating: