Yes, it is a spider apocalypse. With nuclear weapons. And a coup. And I loved it.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Solid 4 stars

The writing level is maintained in this third book, as in the first two, and the tension level is somehow maintained at a high level, as well. It's not often a series hits a peak early on and maintains that level of excellence throughout the rest of the volumes.

The plot was well-thought out, albeit with a couple eye-rolling moments, but those didn't really detract from the story, and in fact, probably helped it along.

I don't know if I'll ever read this series again, but I would definitely recommend it!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2179181280

4 stars

This is the third book of Ezekiel Boone’s trilogy about spiders running amok in society.

This book is made up of several vignettes illustrating the conditions of people trying to survive all over the United States and in other countries. What they are afraid of, hiding and running from are spiders. Huge, people-eating spiders. Nuclear hits in the major cities have turned the country into a wasteland. While the spiders are currently “resting,” they are becoming active once more.

People are moving east, hopefully away from the rapacious menace. They’re afraid, desperate and in a hurry to escape. The United States’ only hope now is to rely on the scientists to come up with a plan to eradicate the spiders for good.

The novel is a brilliant finish to the series. I enjoyed the first two books more because there was less political er, ah – stuff and more creature feature action. The suspense continues throughout the book. It is both well written and plotted and I must say a very credible scenario of what might happen if we were really invaded by such creatures. Dare I be tacky enough to say…the book was fun! (Oops?) The series was action-filled and adventurous. Ezekiel Boone is a remarkable writer and I very much look forward to reading more of his novels.

I want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for forwarding to me a copy of this great book to read and enjoy.

I've followed this creepy-crawly series from the first book, and thrilled there wasn't a full year in between each novel.  It's so much easier to remember the characters.

With all the horrors these characters have experienced, there are more to come in Zero Day.  Without a doubt, the president has the best storyline this time around.  There are some intense moments, and battle lines are drawn over differing opinions on actions to take with the spiders.  

All the plot lines are wrapped up by the end, but admittedly, I thought the author played it a little safe.  As with the first two books, I have to wonder why so much backstory is given about characters who only appear for a few pages and aren't pertinent to the plot.

If spiders aren't your kryptonite, this is a fun series to read.  Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

The last in the trilogy, Zero Day, keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Spiders taking over the world is a realistic scenario,as are the reactions of the humans involved. The third wave spiders have evolved yet again, there's still not a plan to successfully eradicate them, and all hell has broken loose. Wonderfully written characters, a suspenseful page turner that never loses its edge. I highly recommend all three books.

Arachnophobia aside, I've loved -almost- every second of this series so I'm sad to see it end. That being said, if it has to end Zero Day makes for a fantastic conclusion.
Following the events of Skitter tensions in the White House have escalated and President Stephanie Pilgrim is once again faced with a difficult choice. The spiders are evolving and this third-wave could be smarter and deadlier than the first two putting Melanie and her team of scientists in a race against the clock to find a way to eradicate the spiders before its too late...
If you haven't picked up The Hatching or Skitter yet than you should. And then you need to go and pre-order this!

I'm kind of torn on how to rate this book, because the story as a whole is fantastic, yet I was a bit let down on book 3. My problem was with how safe Mr. Boone played it. I don't want all the main characters to die..ever./Well, maybe sometimes. But, I do like it when an author doesn't play it safe and kills off at least of few of them! It ups the stakes. Makes me worry a bit more when I know that anybody could die horribly at any moment. There were few tense moments in this book. All the same, the trilogy as a whole was excellent, and there were some characters that I genuinely enjoyed. So, I guess I'd rate this third book as a "beach read," and give it 3 stars, but the trilogy is a definite 4 star. My thanks to Atria/Emily Bestler and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

The United States goes to war against the queen spiders that threaten to overtake the human race forever in this thrilling and horrifying finale of the “captivating, engaging, and completely terrifying” (My Guilty Obsession) internationally bestselling Hatching series.

The world is on the brink of apocalypse. Zero Day has come.

The only thing more terrifying than millions of spiders is the realization that those spiders work as one. But among the government, there is dissent: do we try to kill all of the spiders, or do we gamble on Professor Guyer’s theory that we need to kill only the queens?

For President Stephanie Pilgrim, it’s an easy answer. She’s gone as far as she can—more than two dozen American cities hit with tactical nukes, the country torn asunder—and the only answer is to believe in Professor Guyer. Unfortunately, Ben Broussard and the military men who follow him don’t agree, and Pilgrim, Guyer, and the loyal members of the government have to flee, leaving the question: what’s more dangerous, the spiders or ourselves?

My thoughts
This is at least for me a five star read , it's the last book in what is a really good creepy story , in fact if you haven't already read books 1&2 then you have to, for me reading this series was great because it kept me up all night reading, and kept me pulled into the story , and also reminds me of the old black and white Syfi mounters movies from the 50s and 60s ,so with that said I want to say thinks to NetGalley for giving me a chance at reading and reviewing the last book in a series I love to read

It ends how it starts, boombastically (yes, I know, but this spelling just seems more appropriate) and it's just as much fun. Kudos to Boone for maintaining the quality of this trilogy so evenly. Nice timing too, didn't have to wait too long, the third book came out while the others were still relatively fresh in my memory and I didn't have to try to figure out who's who. And this novel has such a cast of characters, that who's who is really important. With Zero Day Boone picked up all the pot threads, saw them through and tied them up all neatly with a bow. Now the story is complete. This one is definitely action driven, since the character building was pretty much done and now the world needs to be saved. Very entertaining, silly at times like a huge SGI movie, but tons of fun. It would be very interesting to see what the author does after this. Thanks Netgalley.

Zero Day by Ezekiel Boone

I had been waiting for months for this book to come out! Since the moment I finished Skitter I was anxiously awaiting the finale of this series. I loved the first two books of The Hatching series. I thought they were intense, full of action with an interesting plot and just enough gore to make me audibly squeal and cringe in my seat! I hate spiders so I was really intimidated with the first book but could not put it down. I was happy to continue with the second book which kept up that high energy and intensity. Then I finally got Zero Day and I am unbelievably disappointed in this finale. I’m not sure what happened. The other books had me hooked within the first few pages while this one was a struggle to read.

There is very little action and honestly not much of the presence of spiders that the reader was taught to fear in the first two books. We know they are there but the center of the story rest on the interactions of the humans struggling to figure out what to do next, and honestly, they weren’t very interesting. I feel like the plot fell apart where it had once been so structured and well thought out. Boone poured over the smallest details causing the story to drag. Miscellaneous characters that he introduced in the previous books were brought back but they served very little purpose in propelling the story forward. There was a military coup that was supposed to make the reader struggle with right vs. wrong when there was a solution to the problem the entire time. The spiders finally resurfaced near the end of the book, but that was problem was solved almost instantaneously.

This was not the end I was expecting from this series. It took quite a lot for me to even finish this book. I was tempted to put it to the side while reading the first third of the book and pushed through because I genuinely thought that Boone could still pull it off. I’ve reached the end of the novel and am sad to say that this story simply was not pulled together to make strong conclusion. This series limped to the finish line, with an unexpected and unimpressive ending.

I was originally told that the Hatching series was going to be a series of about 5 or 8 books. Much as I like the series, that’s way too much. I mean, there’s only so much you can do with hungry, hungry spiders.

Well, I’m happy to say that somewhere in the publishing universe, the message was received, and we now have the third and final book in what was an excellent series. (A dreaded trilogy is much better than a dreaded octology.)

Honestly, as I read the first two books, I simply had no clue how our author was going to solve this multi-legged problem. I mean when your enemy is legion and completely overwhelms you with venom and fangs and sheer numbers, how do you fight that?

Well, the author manages to come up with something with a very satisfying punch!

I did think he took it a little easy on our characters. Love ‘em as we do, realistically, more of them needed to be spider chow. But I did love meeting them again and if I’m ever facing down millions of hungry arachnids, I know who I want on my side!

However, the ending is very satisfying!

I’m looking forward to whatever chompy goodness the author throws at us next!