The Breach by Nick Cutter builds upon the mythology of a supernatural tale – one that may be familiar to you – most often referred to as The Philadelphia Experiment.
Not to be confused with the 1940 romantic comedy, The Philadelphia Story starring the wonderful Katharine Hepburn and the delicious Cary Grant (woof!), in which no ships were harmed or mysteriously teleported. Also not to be confused with Philadelphia, the 1993 Tom Hanks flick that made all of us normal people cry. Although…
… the Navy connection is there… sort of… when Hanks and Antonio Banderas attend a costume party in white Navy dress uniforms. Hmmm…
What was the real story of the USS Eldridge?
Anyway, the USS Eldridge was a real US Navy ship, commissioned into service in 1943. That’s about it, as far as the facts go. Everything else in the lore about this ship and “the Philadelphia experiment” is pretty bogus, because it was based on the writing and communications of a man who turned out to be a known nutjob. There is no evidence that the supposed disappearance, teleportation, and reappearance of the ship from Philadelphia, PA to Norfolk, VA and back again, with crew members being turned inside-out, missing, or fused to the ship’s structures ever happened. Knowing some of the weird shit that the US attempted throughout the 20th century – MK Ultra, anyone? – I suppose there’s always room for skepticism… but in this case it seems highly unlikely that there is any truth to the wilder elements of the story.
The Philadelphia Experiment has made a name for itself as the subject of many movies, tv shows, and books, further obscuring the dubious nature of how the story originated. Entertaining, for sure. Real historical occurrence? Nah.
The Philadelphia Experiment and The Breach
In The Breach, shit goes from weird conspiracy podcast subject to horrific body and brain slurping creature feature that will make us normal people cringe and avoid mysterious holes in the ground and wasps’ nests for the rest of time. From some uber-disturbing records made following the bizarre events of 1943 where the USS Eldridge got a bunch of sailors all twisted up and messy, to present day where a single-minded university professor has decided he’s going to use the old tech from that botched incident and improve upon it to reveal some hidden truth about the nature of the universe – well, we have a live one here, folks! Or wait. Maybe we actually have some dead ones. Damn.
If you learn anything from listening to this audiobook, I think the overarching lesson is this: Do not go headfirst into weird tunnels, and do not listen to the insect-like pretty lady calling to you from the fresh air grate in your house. You heard it here first!
Check out The Breach by Nick Cutter, only available on Audible, and if you have a gang of like-minded sidekicks interested in comparing their horrified reactions to the story, then feel free to use the noises above’s book club discussion guide to get the party started!
Food and wine pairings for this book club selection:
- A lovely wheel of double- or triple-cream brie, baked to the melting point and sprinkled in brown sugar, served with sweet potato wheat thin crackers
- Any Wolf Blass Yellow Label chardonnay or riesling
Avoid:
- King crab legs
- Any juice cleanse
About the author
Nick Cutter is a writer of some pretty intense horror novels, sometimes with uncomfortable levels of body invaders in the form of bugs, worms, and/or infections <cue intense cringe-shivering>. I would read anything and everything this dude puts out. I’d even read his grocery shopping list, and would expect to find horrors there too – pumpkins, whole milk, gluten-free bread. You get the picture. The best part is that Nick isn’t even a real boy. Nope.
He’s Craig Davidson, one of the nicest writers in civilization. I know this, because he was the first bona fide author who ever “liked” one of my Tweets, and I will cherish that memory foreva! Craig is a Canadian writer who hit the Canadian Big Time (yes, Canada has a big time) when his novel, Precious Cargo: My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077, was a nominee in the annual Canada Reads contest.
If you’ve never heard of Canada Reads, think of Miss America, but for Canadian authors whose distaste for the limelight is so severe, that other high-profile media personalities get on TV to promote and defend the books of each finalist in a cutthroat there-can-be-only-one-Highlander fight for glory. Alas, Mr. Davidson was not the Canada Reads victor, but he will always be Miss America to me. You know what I mean. Of the titles published under his own name, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is my personal favourite. Craig has also written under the pseudonym Patrick Lestewka, but I don’t even know him (yet).
