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A coworker recommended I read The Troop. He told me it very much reminded him of Stephen King’s style of writing and he couldn’t put it down. How could I resist that kind of a recommendation?

I’ll admit, it took me a while to engage with The Troop. This is definitely a book you need to sit with in order to become immersed. Once the holidays arrived and I could give it 30 or 40 minutes at a time, I became engrossed.

The story follows a small troop of boy scouts and their scoutmaster on a remote northeastern island. The scoutmaster happens to be a doctor, and so when a deranged, sickly man somehow appears on the island, he must uphold his Hippocratic Oath. Unfortunately, this altruistic act unleashes a horror upon him and the boys that could literally topple society as we know it. 

Make no mistake, this is a horror book. However, Cutter added a few things that made it especially enjoyable. In true Stephen King fashion, he periodically inserted news articles, reports, interviews, etc. in order to add to the mystery, build suspense, and provide context as to what was happening at that moment in the book. This is nothing new, of course, but he did so proficiently that really did enhance the story. 

Furthermore, the boy scouts at first seem to be the fairly routine archetypes one would expect in a horror story. Once the true horror starts, though, Cutter delves more deeply into their psyches and rounds them out as very flawed boys. Most of them are quite relatable in most aspects. However, some of them may be as horrific as the blight infesting the island. 

If you’re a fan of horror based on science fiction, I think you’ll find The Troop worth your time. Just be aware that this is not a book to sit down with for five or ten minutes. To truly engage with it, it demands your dedication.