A "Sure-Fire" Tale that Fizzles Out Like a Match Tossed into the Ocean (review)
The basic plot has promise: young(ish) married couple goes on vacay on a remote Malaysian island, in hopes of repairing and rekindling their floundering relationship… only to find themselves kidnapped and carted off to the jungle by a band of pirates. Not inherently original, but surely the sort of action/psychological-terror vehicle to provide ample—and satisfactory—escapim, right? Unfortunately, not so much; despite having the makings for a suspenseful low-budget movie, the premise of Kirk Kjeldsen’s The Depths is far better than its execution. How does it all go so wrong, then? Believe it or not, even at a miniscule print length of 143 pages (listed as a “novel”, by the way, though to me it would be more-aptly described as a “novelette”)—the very definition of “tight” writing and editing(!!)— The Depths still feels a good ( or bad, yeesh ) 90 pages longer than it needs to be. (Yes, really .) The problem, in all those excess pages, is that very little ever...