The Troop: Tiktok’s favourite horror novel!
£2.80
‘THE TROOP scared the hell out of me, and I couldn’t put it down. Not for the faint-hearted’ STEPHEN KING
He felt something touch his hand. Which is when he looked down.
For the scouts of Troop 52, three days of camping, hiking and survival lessons on Falstaff Island is as close as they’ll get to a proper holiday.
Which was when he saw it.
But when an emaciated figure stumbles into their camp asking for food, the trip takes a horrifying turn. The man is not just hungry, he’s sick. Sick in a way they have never seen before.
Which was when he screamed.
Cut off from the mainland, the troop face a terror far worse than anything they could have made up around a campfire. To survive they will have to fight their fears, the elements…and eventually each other.
Winner of the inaugural James Herbert Award, THE TROOP is a novel that will not fail to get under your skin…
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Additional information
| Publisher | Headline (25 Feb. 2014) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 4708 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 370 pages |
by paul nelson
The Troop is a gripping mix of psychological and parasitic horror that will leave you wincing at some of the descriptions and rooting for some of the protagonists faced with overwhelming odds, my skins crawling just thinking back to those little f**kers at the guts of this story.
Five boy scouts and their scout master head of too Falstaff Island for a weekend of camping, sleeping in a cabin, earning their badges, the usual stuff but for the unplanned arrival of a boat and a man who is barely a skeleton, desperate for something to eat, suffering dementedly at the hands of something unthinkable.
Pretty soon the man’s dead, the scout leaders showing similar symptoms and survival rests in the hands of five young teenagers.
This is all about what the fourteen year old stereotypical boys do when faced with an unseen disaster, how each of the different personalities respond to extremely disturbing circumstances and the realization that no one’s coming to rescue them.
Kent is the jock with a mouth to match his athletic ability and self-elected leader, Ephraim or Eff, is the short-tempered rebel, the only boy in their grade who smokes and he hangs out with close friend Max, who finds himself dragged along in his wake. Max has a remoteness that sets himself apart from the others, a cool self-control that will see him spring to the forefront when adversity slaps them in the face.
Newton is the overweight nerd with a superior intellect, who attracts the boy’s torments like a wasp homing in on your ice cream and Shelley is the loner, a budding sociopath who has an uncanny ability to open doors in people and manipulate them, he soon finds the perfect opportunity to realise his darkest dreams.
Events on the Island are entwined with news reports, evidence logs and sworn testimony from various sources, leaking information about the horror’s that the boy’s face from the viewpoint of the outside world.
My favourite part of the story was the character development of the two boys Shelley and Ephraim, Shelley shows all the makings of a serial killer in training, a psychotic individual who homes in on Ephraim, subtle at first, sowing seeds of doubt in the fellow scout’s mind, festering, playing with his temper and worming deeper, exploiting his psyche, his weaknesses.
The Troop is a disturbing read, the horror elements are done exceptionally well and the pace is consuming and I’ll end on one of my favourite quotes from the book –
‘He couldn’t get a grip on his sudden fear: it slipped through the safety bars of his mind and threaded—wormed—into the shadowy pockets where nightmares grew’.
Recommended
by Sarmor
OK so I nearly didn’t read this book! I saw some of the other readers had likened it to Lord of the Flies which instantly put me off. I hated that book as I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and spent most of the book wishing that they would all die. Harsh I know! This book is TOTALLY different to Lord of the Flies; OK so there are a group of kids stranded on an island without adults but that’s pretty much where the similarities stop. I am pleased that I decided to read it despite my initial trepidation as I really liked it.
The characters are really well developed and there are a nice mix of personalities. I particularly liked how their back stories were weaved in to the story line in little snippets which helped to firm up their characters.
In the author’s acknowledgements at the end, he mentions King’s Carrie and how it influenced this book. Obviously, the story is nothing like it but the similarity is that he uses newspaper articles, lab reports, therapy journals and court hearing details at the end of each chapter to help fill in the reader on the chain of events prior to and after the main thread of the story. These additions also gave the reader little hints at what might be to come which obviously made me want to read on to see.
The book was pretty descriptive and there was a lot of guts spilled, people eating bugs, and cutting things open etc. so if you have a delicate stomach you might not enjoy this book very much. It isn’t just a gore-fest though. As I’ve already mentioned, the characters are well developed, the plot and suspense throughout is good and I loved the ambiguous ending.
I read it in fits and starts though while reading other books and I think it detracted from the experience. When I got in to it, I wanted to keep reading but then when I put it aside, I wasn’t overly fussed about coming back to it. Overall I liked the book.
by TheseHauntedPages
*TW Animal Abuse, Gore*
Troop 52 are on a weekend excursion to the secluded Falstaff Island, all five boys and Scoutmaster Tim soon come into trouble when a mysterious stranger shows up on the island.
This book is very gory and descriptive which really sets the tone. I felt like there needed to be more banter between the boys (aged 14) to highlight a bit more innocence in them before facing the real terror that lies ahead.
This isn’t necessarily a book where you can pick a favourite character but there’s definitely one of the boys that you’ll hate!
by alex grist
Cutter takes some of our most primitive fears and puts them in the one place we can’t get to, under our skin and burnt into our minds. This will have you itching for days.
by C. Gault
Trigger warning – animal cruelty. Too much detail.
Horrific in a way that makes your skin crawl. Well described and enough interaction with the characters that you get to care for them.
A quick read, but I’m feeling somewhat sad after the ending. Disliking humanity and wanting better outcomes for survivors.
Need to go read something happier now
by Kevin gardner
Having read Nick Cutters The Deep and enjoying it, I dived into the Troop expecting more of the same, how wrong could I be, this is horror writing at its finest I don’t do
spoilers, but this will make you feel uncomfortable as you read it, it’s the best horror book I have read so far this year and comes very highly recommended.