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So, The Troop by Nick Cutter. Where do I even start? I’ve had this book on my TBR shelf for a while, knowing vaguely that it was about a group of scouts stuck on an island with something… unnatural. However, I definitely underestimated just how visceral and intense this story would be. Let me just say: do not read this while eating. Or maybe do, if you’re made of sterner stuff than I.
The set-up is classic horror: five teenage boys and their scoutmaster head to a remote island off the coast of Prince Edward Island for what should be a peaceful wilderness retreat. That illusion is shattered pretty much straight away when a skeletal, starving man turns up at their cabin, and everything spirals horrifically from there. No spoilers, but if you’ve got a thing about parasites or body horror, consider yourself warned. This book goes there.
Cutter’s writing is lean and brutal, which really suits the tone of the story. He doesn’t flinch away from the grotesque—if anything, he leans into it with glee. There are pages that made my skin crawl, moments that had me wincing, and one particular scene involving a turtle that I wish I could scrub from my brain. But despite all the gore, it’s never just shock for shock’s sake. The horror feels grounded in the characters’ fear, desperation, and complete loss of control. That’s what makes it effective.
What I appreciated most is how Cutter uses horror to explore the dynamics between the boys. Each one has their own personality, their own private demons, and when things start falling apart, those differences explode into brutal conflict. There’s one character in particular—no spoilers again—who is just pure nightmare fuel, and not because of anything supernatural. He’s the kind of villain who’s terrifyingly realistic, and that might be what stayed with me the most. The Lord of the Flies comparisons are well-earned.
One thing I didn’t love was how the pacing dipped in the middle. The story starts strong and ends with a punch to the gut, but there’s a stretch where it starts to feel a bit repetitive—more gore, more fighting, more infections. I get that part of it is about the relentlessness, but I think a tighter edit could’ve kept the tension higher. Also, while I enjoyed the interspersed documents—interviews, news clippings, etc.—sometimes they pulled me out of the immediate action. That said, they did add a sense of scale and hinted at some wider conspiracies, which was a cool touch.
I’d recommend The Troop to horror fans who aren’t squeamish and enjoy survival stories with a psychological edge. If you liked The Ruins by Scott Smith or Lord of the Flies with added body horror, this will be right up your alley. It’s not perfect, but it’s absolutely memorable.
Gareth Ellis - Author 