This book was truly terrifying with everything that’s going on in our world today you could actually think this could happen, which makes it even more terrifying. It was a great read couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it.

This one is definitely not for the feint hearted. I can still feel my skin crawling. It is horrific but disturbingly addictive. A great horror book.

At first Buzz Kill reminded me of some of my favorite movies from the days of the Saturday Creature Double Features I watched as a kid…only with the graphic gore turned up to 11. Seriously, the scene where the wasps first appear is brutal with a capital B! And from there things get really crazy as the swarm grows sowing chaos and death. The first half of the novel had me completely hooked, with the main focus being on two groups struggling to survive the swarm in a semi-serious fashion. However, at about the halfway mark it stopped being so serious and honestly began to feel more like a SyFy movie of the week, with things going more than a bit over the top. Not totally crazy like say Sharknado, but it definitely deviated from the tone the had been set early on, with some of the stuff (I’m looking at you quasi-Nazi militia storyline) seeming to come out of left field. That being said, it was still a fun adventure…and honestly if the SyFy channel did make this into one of their movies of there week, I’d definitely be watching it. If you like your creature flicks a bit over the top and with plenty of gore you just might want to check out Buzz Kill. 3.5 stars. I’d like to thank Kensington Books, Lyrical Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Buzz Kill.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/buzz-kill-jeff-jacobson/1141487703?ean=9781601834942&bvnotificationId=a1f94ebd-393a-11ed-bef0-0ab9318ed523&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/217603753

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3Q9Q7YIUGEW97/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

If you know me at all, you know that I love books like this! Skin crawling, chompy and with a sense of humor. This is just pure fun!

Yes, the situations are over the top, but so entertaining!

And, yes, some of the characters are a bit silly, but they're a blast to read!

I devoured this one (sorry) so quickly and I was just sorry that it was over.

A blast of an entertaining read!

This is schlock, but it's well-written schlock! You're not going into a book about giant killer wasps for great philosophic insight - you're going for a good time.

And this book will give you that good time. It's one crazy thrill-ride from beginning to end, a non-stop rollercoaster of mayhem that will grab you hard and drag you along.

4 Stars!

I am a fan of monster stories as well as tales of animals creating mayhem, so I was immediately drawn to Buzz Kill by Jeff Jacobson when I saw the book. I am not familiar with his work but a story about killer wasps is right up my alley so I knew I had to jump in and give the book a read.



The missionaries lived to spread the word of their religion to the natives in Honduras. Little did they know they would spread much more back home in America. When a child falls ill in the jungle, the parents rush home to seek medical help. The baby was not just sick, though. It had been stung by a new species of wasps that begin to hatch on the flight back to Florida. The wasps quickly swarm the airplane and the passengers and crew are quickly killed and pumped full of eggs. Not realizing the danger, the bodies are brought back to Florida to receive a proper burial. The true horror is soon realized when tens of thousands of eggs begin to hatch, and the wasps begin to take over.



As the wasps grow in size and number, they begin to take over Southern Florida. The military scrambles to find answers. A group of military prisoners make an amazing escape from the wasps streamed live on the internet. They are quickly recruited by the government to run rescue missions in what amounts to a public relations move while the government figures out how to respond to the threat. While “The Exterminators” are taking on the wasps, a group of scientists is sent to Honduras to try to figure out where the wasps come from and how they can be stopped. Nature, however, will not be so easily conquered, and the threat continues to grow. Will humanity be able to respond in time or will the wasps become the new rulers of the world?



Buzz Kill had me from the first page. Jacobson does a great job of setting up the story with the wasps taking over the plane with sufficient cringe factor. The transition to the recovery of the bodies from the ocean was a bit surreal as it was morbid but also leaves the reader cringing in another way as it is clear this is going to be the cause of the infestation. Then the novel shifts some when the wasps start attacking and all hell breaks loose. The novel kicks into high gear early on and the pages just flow by as the wasps begin to take over. The momentum keeps up with the emergence of The Exterminators and I found myself tearing through the book as quickly as I could read. It was just a fun, fast read and I was eating it up.



The novel shifts in tone when The Exterminators finish their mission to the retirement home (which was probably my favorite part of the novel) and I think the novels loses some steam in the final part of the story. It felt as if Jacobson was trying to bring in a couple too many themes in the story at once and the love story (which had been brewing as a distraction through much of the novel) and the conspiracy theory took too much of the story’s focus at the end. It worked much better as a B-movie horror story and bogs down a bit toward the end of the novel so that it reads almost like it was a little too long. With that being said, Buzz Kill is still a very good novel overall and is sure to thrill fans of the genre. It is a action packed read and quite simply a fun read overall. Jacobson crafts an entertaining story and does leave the door open for a sequel at the end (although I do not know if that is a good idea) that is recommended for horror fans and those who enjoy stories about nature going wild.



I would like to thank Kensington Books and NetGalley for this review copy. Buzz Kill is scheduled to be released on September 20, 2022.

This story starts off with a bang right from the beginning. A rare wasp from the Amazon has entered a plane headed for the United States. They lay their eggs in human flesh, killing their host and are multiplying at an alarming rate. Soon, a group of military convicts and a entomologist are fighting to save the human race from this plague. A mash up of genres, science fiction and suspense that is a riveting thrill ride. The story had me engrossed in the plot and I was excited to get to the ending. It was quite the ride.

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Lyrical Press for this ARC, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Buzz Kill

I’m a big fan of creature books, so I was so happy I as able to get this gifted copy from Kensington Press, in exchange for an honest review!! Buzz Kill comes out September 20, 2022!!

Buzz Kill was a 4.25/5 ⭐️ for me! Oooof, just the first chapter alone had me closing my kindle down because I was feeling so queesy (in a good way 😅). This book is beyond gory with very graphic details in gigantic wasp attacks. One thing I wasn’t a fan of was that I thought that the romance was way too quick and not realistic or necessary. Also the book abruptly ended and I wasn’t expecting it! If you like gory creature horror this one is for you!!

Read the first chapter and that was enough. Killer wasps wrecking havoc is an interesting concept but I hadn't bargained on the violence. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

WHAT AN OPENING CHAPTER.......

My mouth took about half of this book to actually close because boy oh boy was that one hell of an opening chapter.

Wasps are some of those terrifying creatures. You can just look at their beady little bodies and know they are meant for evil. Jeff Jacobson has done a great job capturing how evil and relentless an insect attack could be. And from the parasitic laying of eggs to relentless swarms this book easily captured a very real fear. Check this out!!

I love bugs and insects. And I love a good horrific story about arthropods out of control and running wild. And, for the most part, this novel succeeded in that.

We're talking a mutated form of wasp that kills anything in their path and mates incredibly fast making any attempt at escape near impossible.

This is the meat of this book and it's terrifying and effective in that regard.y issue was with the characters. They mostly felt uninspired and one dimensional. There really wasn't one I truly cared about and they seemed to be there for the sake of having side stories in between the killer wasp goodness. Which is a shame because, without those asides and an improbable love interest angle, this book could have been the next big thing for the killer insect sub-genre in horror.

However, if you want to read something that will make your skin crawl every time you hear a buzzing sound, it's worth the read for that!

New to me horror author, and after reading this I can't wait to read more,
As soon as I saw the cover I was like yes ,just what I'm in the mood for a good monster book where natural vs us humans, it it definitely didn't let me down, was hooked 100% as soon as I started it . And remin that way though out the inter book. It had everything I wanted , deadly bugs, Blood and gore, terrifying to the point I will never look at a wasp the same way ever again.

Wasps Kill More People Than Any Other Pest, Yet Are Arrested Only 5% of the Time

Jeff Jacobson is a terrific thriller writer and I loved his new book. The action hits the ground running and his relentless pacing makes it hard to catch a breath. I'm glad I read Buzz Kill as an e-book and not in a physical format because, as quickly as I turned the pages, I surely would have set them on fire.

The title is clever. I shuddered when I thought, “murder hornets,” and immediately snapped it up from NetGalley. If you use fiction to battle the psychological effects of real-life terrors beyond your control like I do, you’ll definitely want to check out what these invaders do to the people of Miami. It’s a cathartic misadventure.

All of Jacobson's characters are vivid. Some disgraced soldiers begin the story as violent, murderous prisoners, but as they fight their way through this catastrophic situation, they evolve. Those who survive find a sense of redemption they perhaps once found when they were in combat, as they save civilians and each other.

Andy, in particular, introduced as a bitter criminal, becomes worthy of compassion, if not forgiveness. These kinds of transformations may seem hackneyed, but I never get tired of characters who’ve really screwed things up yet get a second chance. Punishment, no matter how deserved, is a useless tool without the chance of reformation and the opportunity to make reparations. Whether it will stick is another matter, however.

But in this dire cataclysmic emergency, every available defender is needed against the massed attacks of these horrifying wasps. They are a never-before seen species with atypical size and habits, not murder hornets. The government’s response to the ensuing chaos is dynamic but not very effective. This gives the prisoners usefulness and sets a group of scientists on a dangerous mission.

If any of the desperate characters, the prisoners or the scientists, hadn't been able to think on their feet and outside the box, the story would have quickly ended for the entire state of Florida. The scientists quickly learn that credentials don’t lend any advantage in this kind of emergency. The prisoners' visceral reactions not only save lives but make them heroic figures.

Jen, a graduate student, is a perfect combination of brainy and brave. The way she became love-struck while helping Andy added a humorous sense of serendipity to the story, as did Andy’s rapturous bewitchment by Jen. Both the mysterious prisoner Carver and Dr. Araminta Ross, a scientist, brought attitudes to their roles that made them standouts. Even Dr. Fletcher, lacking traits possessed by heroes and having tendencies that make him just the opposite, performs an essential role.

It's true that this book isn't for everyone. I'm not going to give any spoilers, but there are a plethora of shocking triggers that are offensive and potentially devastating. Terrible, mind-searing action probably ensures that Buzz Kill will become one of Hollywood’s major motion pictures.

Reading the book was an escapist's pleasure and despite the frenzied bloodshed, it was gritty, satisfying thrills. It's terrifying enough for this adrenaline junkie to rave about, plus the science and political scenarios, though only broadly sketched, feel authentic and current. If you have a dark sense of humor and love creature-feature disaster porn, this book is for you.

I'm grateful for the free advance reader's copy I received courtesy of the author, Lyrical Press, and NetGalley. This review is my honest endorsement, given without any obligation.

BUZZ KILL is an action-packed, gore-suffused, enthralling, Creature Feature. These "creatures" have got it all: an evolved ecosystem that puts paid to almost anything human technology and industry can invent. When Nature strikes back, it's with a vengeance....and if these Insects expand their hunting territory farther than overpopulated South Florida, then sooner, not later, Earth will become a mightily empty planet.


You can read this for the Creature Horror, you can revel in the gore. But Author Jeff Jacobson doesn't stop with that. We've got political commentary, human evil, human Bigfoot, social and cultural riffs, and an ongoing thread of wry sarcasm running throughout, gently mocking today's politics, society, Internet culture [and we all need to laugh at it now and then]. Additionally, he builds a Villain so evil my hair stood on end and my heart nearly came to a standstill.

Caution: extreme gore, violence, evil, injury and death involving children, adults, elderly. Deaths of animals. Obscenity.

Well I’ve read about killer worms, hordes of spiders, and now murderous wasps (not to be confused with Murder Hornets).
The book starts off strong with exploding abdomens and doesn’t stop.
The gore and violence only amped up as people become more desperate and the wasps became more destructive (and bigger!!)

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & Kensington Books for a copy of this creature feature!

I really enjoy nature run amok titles but try is didn’t really do it for me. Most of the characters weren’t very like-able so it was hard to care. Not enough focus on the creatures.

Buzz Kill by Jeff Jacobson is a brash, over the top, offensive novel about giant wasps killing a bunch of people.
If the Sci-fi channel hired Rob Zombie to make a movie about murder hornets it might be a little like this. A low budget monster movie of a book that somehow captures if-y CGI on a page. I couldn't look away for some reason.
In all seriousness though the book seems to relish in being in your face and tasteless.
It starts with an exploding baby and goes from there.
One of my biggest complaints with the book is the fact that it seems to fall back on the old "everyone is a jerk so it's okay if they die" trope. In one scene a main character kneels on the neck of a villain who is suffering severe head trauma, stabs her in the eye with a Giant stinger, and then gauges out her other eye with his thumb, a little later as a group is chatting she is described as still twitching, but no one cares because she is a racist. The President is shot in the head but is able to serve his last two years missing 1/3 of his brain without it changing things much.I
Speaking of brains for some reason I feel the need to wash mine now.
Thanks to #NetGalley, #KensingtonBooks and Jeff Jacobson for the ARC of #BuzzKill.