4 Stars!

When I first read The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone, I was excited for the sequel to the book. I got a review copy and was ready to read it and then life happened. I had to wander away from the book for one reason or another but it was finally time to get to it. I picked up Skitter hoping that it would carry the same thrills as the first novel and dug in.

Millions of people around the world are dead as the flesh-eating spiders continue to march through the streets of every major city. The humans have tried everything to push back the wave of eight-legged destruction that has erupted around them. Nothing has worked, not even the most powerful weapons in the world. Half of China is a nuclear wasteland and the spiders are still coming. Always coming and there seems to be no end in sight.

Melanie Guyer is trying to tell the world that there is hope, that the tide is turning, but no one wants to hear her. It seems as if all hope is gone. Things get even worse when a new egg sack appears in Japan and an all new wave of destruction starts. There are riots in LA as the survivors break quarantine. Time is running out on the human race and no one seems to have the answers. As the reign of the spiders begins to set in, US President Stephanie Pilgrim decides she has no choice to enact her last resort: The Spanish Protocol. This possible solution, however, could be even worse than what it is aimed at fighting.

Skitter is the second book in a trilogy and that second book historically tends to be a bit slower and that wa th case with Skitter Now, slower is to say that it is not all-action every page like the first book was. It is more all-action two out of three pages with some strategy and planning thrown in. This story is not just about the spiders currently working to take over the world but what can be done to stop them once and forever as well as address the new threats that seem to be developing. There are some meetings and strategy sessions throughout the book that slow down the mayhem at times. Honestly, though, that is not a bad thing because these chapters are still interesting and give the reader time to take a breath while looking forward to the carnage to come.

Skitter is not just a book of mayhem and gore. There are plenty of those in this novel, to be sure, but there is more here as well. There is some strategy and soft science. There is character building (and often destroying). Boone gives the book a heart and just enough of a head to elevate it beyond simple B-move madness. It is pulp-esque but not true pulp. Readers who are just looking for a book in which there are spiders on a rampage and looking to kill everything in sight, then this is a book that will appeal to them. But there is enough substance in this story that it has appeal to a broader audience who are interested more in science fiction than in just flesh-eating spiders. This book is highly recommended and I definitely need to get my hands on the third installment.

I would like to thank Atria and NetGalley for this review copy. Skitter is available now.

This book, along with Book 1, The Hatching," brought all my arachnophobia roaring to the surface. So creepy & scary.

The second novel in Ezekiel Boone's The Hatching series.
I really enjoyed the first novel in this fast-paced, horror/thriller series. SKITTER picks up after the momentous ending of THE HATCHING. Things are going *really* badly for the world right now. As the growing horde of vicious, flesh-eating spider-creatures swarms across the planet, a discovery in Japan suggests that things are about to get much, much worse.

Boone's writing is great. The story and plot move quickly, but don't feel rushed. It's intense, creepy, and gripping. I enjoyed the characters, and can't wait to read the third novel, ZERO DAY.

Recommended if you're looking for a great horror/thriller.

I tried to read this after disliking THE MANSION because I give every author a second chance but this one suffered from the same problems. The author has a tendency to drone on and on about unimportant information. He fails at making even the most intriguing topic interesting. Reading him is like listening to a zombie give a lecture on Canadian politics.

The Hatching was absolutely fantastic so my expectations were quite high for this book. Unfortunately this book suffers a little bit from second book syndrome. There were just too many unnecessary characters and storylines that kind of slowed the story down and detracted from the main plot. It was still good though and definitely worth reading.

I enjoyed The Hatching but this one just really felt like a filler novel to get us to the last one where I am hoping some sort of action occurs because this was just freaking boring. We get glimpses at those people from the last book that are still alive and kicking plus some I didn't remember.

The government is screwing over the people pretty much by pulling out their people and not letting the population know there is still something to be scared about. Then the President decides to pull some sort of thing and bans travel but I guess it's better than nuking them like China did.

There is not even any spiders until about 65% in and then that wasn't even anything. Though the author does know how to leave us with a cliffy and the threat of those very spiders right at the end. So even though I didn't like this one much I will probably get Zero Day just to see what happens!

I just could not get into this book. I tried multiple times but was just bored by the plot. It seemed to drag on for me.

Skitter (The Hatching #2) by Ezekiel Boone continues the tale of an ancient breed of spiders that surface and begin to take over the Earth. Nations fall, flesh is eaten and overall, Skitter just revs up the creepiness factor in this horror tale.

"...Melanie rubbed her eyes. So tired, but she didn't have time to sleep. She didn't want to sleep. She was afraid of falling asleep. She knew what she'd see if she fell asleep: Bark, her graduate student and former lover, cut open on the operating table, his body shot through with silk and egg sacs. Patrick hovering over the surgeon and the nurses, taking photos with the lab's camera. Melanie standing on the other side of the glass. Julie Yoo running down the hall toward her, too late with the information. And then, so quick: the spiders hatching from inside Bark's body..."

Millions are dead across the world. China has become a nuclear wasteland and the spider invasion seems to have come to a stalemate. Renown scientist Melanie Guyer believes that the spiders have somehow gone dormant, back into hiding. With outbreak zones quarantined by the military, the deadly invasion seems to have come to an end. Now there is only finding a safe way to rebuild the country.

Until the video. Until a group of scientists in Japan gives everyone a glimpse of what is to come.

"... In front of him, the glowing light came from a singular, giant egg sac. It was the size of a pickup truck. Ten men could easily have fit inside the silk cocoon. It was pulsing, almost like it was breathing, and now that he was closer Koji could see that the light pulsed too. He couldn't see what was inside the egg sac, but that wasn't what terrified him. What made him want to scream, what made him want to vomit inside his isolation suit, was what was outside the sac: spiders. Thousands of them. Some of them were black, and some were red-striped spiders, but all of them were skittering up and around the giant egg sac, crawling on the normal-sized sacs arrayed in piles and columns and hanging from the ceiling above. The rest of the room had been quiet, a cemetery made of egg sacs instead of tombstones, but here, in the corner, surrounding this giant pulsing embryo, there was life..."

But it not only the spiders that threatened the country as the President, herself, is resorting to a plan that in her mind will save the country. A plan that demands, that she sacrifice half of it to do so. The Spanish Protocol. All highways and bridges are bombed by the military, isolating a good portion to certain death at the hands of the spiders, but even that stem the tide that is coming live a wave across the country.

Okay, I get it. Spiders. This is the stuff of B movie horror flicks. Or even the old Saturday morning science fiction black and white television shows. This is the stuff of childhood creep spook tales. But that is just what makes this so good. It is the stuff we were terrified of as children and have never really ever outgrown. In our bones, we know, spiders are to feared.

Book three is on its way and its going to be great!

I really enjoyed The Hatching so it was a no brainer to continue with the series.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The spiders have died. Could it be over? Is it time to rebuild and get back to life as they know it? Not so fast.

Scientists and experts have been studying the spiders and the egg sacs discovered hidden across the planet. They find some horrifying indications that the worst is yet to come. When it all starts falling apart again it’s every man for themselves as countries are devastated and drastic measures are taken to contain the threat.

I was super excited for this book. I met some great characters that survived the first book and wanted to know what would happen to them. One group in particular, hiding in a luxury fall out shelter, were among my favorites. I could almost see them and had to laugh at some of things they said and did. And they had a dog too. Always love the furry companions. And worrying if it would be eaten by spiders sure added to my worries about the stories outcome.

Even though the book had me jumping from one place to the next and one scenario to the next, it wasn’t hard to follow and I enjoyed the scientific parts. The only thing lacking was spiders. I wish there were more attacks. Sure, there were some, but I missed the endless hordes of spiders creeping and crawling, unstoppable and hungry.

I didn’t realize the series didn’t end with Skitter. There’s an ending of sorts but lots more to be told. I’ll be waiting for what comes next.

I am really enjoying this series. I have had a copy of this book for a long time. I had planned to read it around the publication date but for some reason it didn't happen. I am glad that I was able to get to it now because it really is a great story. This is the second book in the Hatching series which is a series that really does need to be read in order since this is a continuation of the story from the first book. I ended up enjoying this book just as much as the first book.

I really like the way that this story is told. I don't think it would work for every book but it does work well with this story. We get to see the outbreak from a lot of different points of view instead of following only a handful of characters. Sometimes we get a point of view and never encounter that character again. Other times, we get to see a point of view at various points in the story. All of these points of view helps to really paint a picture of the outbreak across the globe.

The spider outbreak in the first book was bad and many had hoped that would get better. It looks like it might be getting better. The spiders seem to have died off a bit and the pods are being taken care of. Unfortunately, things can get worse. Much worse. The spider outbreak takes a turn that is truly frightening and it was really interesting to see how things were developing and how the key characters would deal with it.

This was a really exciting story. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next with the spider outbreak and was also eager to find out what the authorities would decide to do to handle things. I couldn't imagine being responsible or having people look to you for answers during a time like this. Whenever I had a guess about how things would go, I would quickly find out that I was wrong so I just kept turning pages to enjoy the story.

I would recommend this series to others. This creepy crawly story was very original and entertaining. I ended up most of the book in a single evening because I had to see how things would work out. I am really excited to start the next book, Zero Day, very soon.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Atria/Emily Bestler Books via NetGalley.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books and Ezekiel Boone for the opportunity to read Skitter - the second in the series about a spider apocalypse!

Now that the world knows about the flesh-eating spiders, mankind is at stake. China has nuked half the country and LA is quarantined and a wasteland - but people being people they found a way to break through zones and start moving across the country. While Melanie, the spider scientist, continues to work on an understanding, the president is faced with a nightmare decision.

I am so hooked on this creepy, crawly series and so glad I'm reading them in a row to get full enjoyment from the books. There are so many different characters that this is definitely the way to go. I can't wait to read #3 - Zero Day!

Excellent second book in the Hatching series. The thing I like most about this book (and series) is how the author uses short vignettes with non-characters across the country and in several nations to create an incredible amount tension and move the plot forward, all without losing the viewpoint of the main characters.

Good stuff!

This book (series) is hard for me to read. I hate spiders---which is why I chose to read these in the first place. It had been awhile since I had been properly scared of something. This series has certainly given me the heebie-jeebies that I craved. I struggled a bit in the beginning getting back into the story, but then fell right back in. The idea of it - the idea that spiders can infest and literally not only threaten your life, but human existence as we know it - is just terrifying. This book - starting right where the first left off - continues to lead us down that path of dread and doom. You find yourself darting your eyes at any tiny movement---and even leaving the lights on. This is GREAT fun with an actual power to scare!!!! Bravo--can't wait until the third!

Skitter

4/25/2017 0 Comments

Title: Skitter
Author: Ezekiel Boone
Publication date: 04/25/2017
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: Yes
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Amazon blurb
Tens of millions of people around the world are dead. Half of China is a nuclear wasteland. Mysterious flesh-eating spiders are marching through Los Angeles, Oslo, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, and countless other cities. According to scientist Melanie Gruyer, however, the spider situation seems to be looking up. Yet in Japan, a giant, truck-sized, glowing egg sack gives a shocking preview of what is to come, even as survivors in Los Angeles panic and break the quarantine zone.
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Picture
Out in the desert, survivalists Gordo and Shotgun are trying to invent a spider super weapon, but it’s not clear if it’s too late, because President Stephanie Pilgrim has been forced to enact the plan of last resort: The Spanish Protocol. America, you are on your own.
My Review
As regular readers of Knockin’ Books may remember, I was a huge fan of The Hatching, The Hatching Series Book 1. It was my introduction to author Ezekiel Boone and I was so impressed, I even talked about adding him to my very short list of top tier, “must read everything they write” authors. Still, I didn’t feel right about adding him alongside legends like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Justin Cronin based on a single book. I needed to see more of his work to determine whether this first book was a happy fluke or if Boone is the real deal. After reading Skitter, I’d like to announce that Ezekiel Boone is now an official member of my top shelf, sure bet, never disappointing authors. Welcome to the club, Zeke!

While Skitter picks up right where The Hatching left off, there isn’t a ton of time wasted with annoying recaps for people who didn’t read the first book or need to be reminded of details. Personally, I appreciate this a great deal. There’s nothing more annoying than having to spend the first 20 pages of a new book in a series reading a synopsis of everything that’s happened in previous books. I know authors are likely encouraged to do so by their publishers but I strongly prefer the method used in Skitter with brief mentions of previous events are seamlessly woven into the normal course of the story. Bonus points for the effort.

Skitter builds on the intertwining storylines and characters introduced in The Hatching by introducing several new and interesting characters throughout the book. More than anything however, I really enjoyed how this book dives much deeper into the complexity and mystery of what these spiders are, where they came from, what’s coming next and how they might be stopped. Of course, all of this is going on while people at the highest level of government are wrestling with some of the most difficult decisions possible while attempting to save the country and potentially all of humanity from this threat.

Boone includes an exceptionally realistic storyline of how some people would take advantage of the fear and panic in a crisis of this magnitude to manipulate people for their own purpose. If history has taught us anything about human nature it’s that people are capable of both extreme heroism and extreme evil when they are gathered in large numbers and faced with a life threatening situation. Examples of both are on vivid display as some do whatever’s necessary to protect their loved ones and others are willing to sacrifice lives to protect themselves.

Bottom line, Skitter is a fantastic follow up in a superb series. I can only hope there are many more editions in the future. That being the case, you may be wondering why I gave Skitter an odd rating of 4.5. Fair question. My perfect rating of 5 out of 5 for The Hatching was partially based on my enthusiasm for having discovered such a genuinely incredible talent in Ezekiel Boone. Now that he’s been elevated to my upper echelon, the grading scale gets a little tougher simply because I’m now comparing his work to other that of literary legends.

The upside is that even with the higher degree of difficulty, Skitter still managed to score very high. In my opinion, it actually reached a slightly higher overall level than The Hatching. Needless to say, I’ll have very high expectations for book 3 but I’m confident Boone will meet and possibly even exceed every one of them.

The second wave begins!!

I loved this book just as much as I loved the first and I'm sure I will love the final book just as much as both the first and the second one. Now I've been confusing I just want to talk about why I love this book, the characters are thoroughly thought out and written well, there's spiders, the story twists and bends but stays true to the plot, spiders, there's action, spiders, adventure, spiders, violence, maybe a little bit of romance a going on and did I mention the spiders at all?

I urge you to read this, to pick it up and give it a go, the spiders won't jump off the pages at you, they'll be chilling out in your bathroom or waiting to say hello to you at inopportune moments which are usually when you've just seen them on tv or read a book about them.

It will always get 2 huge thumbs up from me and Aragog is trying to raise his legs but he keeps falling over and doing his massive raisin impression. He does actually agree with me though.

Skitter is the second novel of the creepy-crawly-infested Hatching series, and in many ways it is a textbook sequel. Ezekiel Boone is clearly striving for bigger, better, and bloodier—and for the most part he succeeds. That said, while things are definitely moving along as far as the main story goes, there’s still a sense that we’re in a holding pattern. Mostly, we’re seeing a reiteration of many of the same themes found in the previous installment, following the characters as they deal with the fallout from the spider apocalypse while the threat of something even worse to come is hanging thick in the air.

Needless to say, it would be wise to complete The Hatching first before tackling this one (not to mention it’s possible that this review may contain spoilers for book one if you haven’t read it yet). The story picks up from the end of the first novel, after a deadly wave of spider attacks have crippled communications and travel all around the world. These are, after all, not your average arachnids. For one thing, they travel in massive carnivorous swarms, capable of stripping all your flesh from your bones in seconds. For another, they simply love laying their eggs in human bodies, turning their hapless victims into ticking spider bombs. For this reason, the United States has chosen to combat the spider problem the same way it would an epidemic disease—with quarantine zones and the clearing out of infected areas. Once bustling cities like Los Angeles have been given up for lost and now lie in ruins.

But just experts are fearing the worst, there comes a brief respite. Having reached the end of their life cycle, the spiders in the initial wave seem to be dying off, leaving behind blankets of their black lifeless husks. But is the danger really over? Dr. Melanie Guyer doesn’t think so. As a spider researcher now working for President of the United States Stephanie Pilgrim, she believes the great spider die-off could be a precursor to a second wave of attacks, one that might be bigger and even more deadly than the first. Now President Pilgrim will have to face a difficult choice: stick it out and save as many lives as possible while hoping to ride out the next wave, or make a terrible sacrifice now tear the country apart in order to guarantee the survival of humanity?

If you enjoyed The Hatching, chances are you’ll also enjoy Skitter. Boone is sticking to a formula that works, employing all the creature horror genre tropes you’d expect by upping the terror and making his spiders even ickier and more disturbing. Once again, we have a number of different POVs showing how things are unfolding around the globe. In Japan, a scientist makes a gruesome discovery, capturing on camera a gargantuan glowing egg sack that spells more disaster and death to come. Panic in Norway lets us see just how far the spider menace has spread. And in the southwestern United States, terrified refugees fleeing from L.A. are forced to watch as their loved ones are torn away from them at military checkpoints if there is even the slightest chance they are infected with spider eggs. The fates of those taken away are unknown, leaving the reader to draw their own awful conclusions.

Luckily though, not every new face we get to meet is a goner. The cast has been expanded, but the author has also started bringing those characters we’re already familiar with together so that the overall story is still manageable. Some of the more random POVs and plot threads from the last book are now beginning to make sense, as Gordo and his survivalist friends from Desperation, California (my favorite characters from The Hatching!) are finally crossing paths with the group in Washington D.C., which is made up of President Pilgrim and Dr. Melanie Guyer’s teams. Even so, some of the connections are still a mystery, such as Angus and his fiancée and grandfather in Scotland. Only time will tell, I suppose, but for the most part Skitter does have the feel of a “bridge book” attempting to start tying all the disparate threads together.

My only disappointment is that this book felt too short, and despite the greater horror and chaos, it felt like very little actually happened. Instead, we retread some old ground—though to be fair, I can’t complain too much since the stakes are much higher this time around—and everyone seems to be holding their breath for the moment of truth, which presumably will be the focus of the third novel, suitably titled Zero Hour.

Still, overall Skitter was a fast read and fun, and I also enjoyed it for its entertainment value, making it the perfect book to slip in between some of my heavier reads. I’ll be looking forward to see how this trilogy concludes!

Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on May 2, 2017

I read Skitter without realizing that it is the second novel in a series, following on the heels of The Hatching. Maybe I should pay more attention to book descriptions, but Skitter is quite easy to follow, even without reading the first novel. It cannot be read as a stand-alone novel, however, because it ends in mid-action, leaving the plot entirely unresolved.

Skitter starts as an amusing “the apocalypse is coming” story and morphs into an amusing “the apocalypse is here” story. The apocalypse involves an invasion of man-eating spiders. This is the kind of apocalyptic novel in which people respond to a crisis by engaging in ridiculous behavior. In other words, it seems realistic.

The president, Stephanie Pilgrim, needs to make some hard decisions about the spread of the spiders, but she has the support of presidential adviser Manny Walchuck, with whom she is cheating on her husband. She has less support from the military, with its inevitable “nuke ‘em” advice, but there are no easy choices.

At the NIH, Melanie Gruyer has become the most important woman in the world. She knows a lot about how spiders move, although she doesn’t know why millions of them have started eating people. Melanie is the novel’s touchstone of normalcy.

In quarantined Los Angeles, Bobby Higgs has set himself up as a prophet, ranting against the government and enforcing order with an army of thugs. Of course, his true agenda is to get out of LA before he’s eaten by spiders.

Mike Rich is an FBI agent in Minneapolis until the FBI abandons Minneapolis. He frets about keeping his daughter safe in an unsafe world. The spiders have made that more difficult.

A group of intelligent misfits think they have a solution to the spiders. Their idea needs some refinement, to say the least.

There are a bunch … and I mean a bunch … of other characters. Some die. Some survive, presumably to reappear in the next novel. One or two survive but probably wish they hadn’t … or they would if they were still capable of thinking like a human. Most of the action takes place in a decimated America but spiders are also a problem in Japan, Peru, Berlin, Oslo, and other places the reader at least briefly visits. Me, I’d grab a parka and head to Alaska in the hope that the spiders will become dormant in the permafrost.

There are some very funny background moments in Skitter, such as the description of a truck stop that is emblematic of Midwestern fast food Americana. But like many amusing novels, Skitter makes a serious point. The excrement may well hit the fan (the world seems to be moving in that direction, doesn’t it?), but it won’t be the nutty survivalists and preppers who save us, because (1) they only care about saving themselves and (2) you can’t plan for everything. Rational thought and a willingness to work together offer the best hope for enduring a crisis. Arming yourself with shotguns and nutrition bars and retreating to a shack in the woods won’t stop the spiders.

Since apocalyptic fiction is seriously overdone, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Skitter. The story isn’t particularly deep, but it isn’t shallow. It is populated by lively characters and it features a number of unexpected moments. It also left me wanting to read the first and the next book, all of which is enough to earn a recommendation.

RECOMMENDED

https://lynns-books.com/2017/06/13/skitter-the-hatching-2-by-ezekiel-boone/
Skitter is the latest instalment in Ezekiel Boone’s spidery apocalypse. I may have had a few reservations with Hatching but Skitter definitely knocks those on the head. I really enjoyed this instalment, for me it had a much creepier feel and at the same time just nailed the whole disaster theme. This is a fast paced story with multiple POVs that sweeps us relentlessly around the world from a remote island in Scotland back to a scientific laboratory in the US and everywhere else in between. There were spiders a-plenty causing panic and terror but more than that an ever pervasive sense of worse yet to come, that awful feeling of dread that the clock is ticking, counting down the minutes until something even more nasty bursts onto the scene.

The story picks up pretty much where Hatching left off. After an initial wave of killing and causing havoc the Hatching spiders seem to have run out of steam and have died off. It’s too soon to breathe a sigh of relief though – egg sacs seem to be popping up everywhere and some of them are far from your basic egg sack – they’re almost as big as trucks – which really doesn’t bode well imho. Melanie Gruyer, the spider expert/scientist from the first book is working tirelessly to find out more about the spiders, where they come from, how they’re evolving, what might be next and the pieces are starting to slowly come together but it’s still a puzzle with missing elements.

At the same time, many of the characters from Hatching make an appearance and are developed further. The characters from the underground shelter seem to have a bigger part to play as do the people out on the remote Scottish Isle. In a separate note our FBI guy has become stranded at his holiday home out in the wilds along with a colleague, his ex wife and her new potential husband and their daughter. Things are starting to turn a little nasty – and it’s not the spiders this time but would-be marauders. On top of this people in states where the spiders struck are mass panicking and tryng to flee to other parts of the country. Of course the army are trying to contain the situation and prevent possible infections from spreading but the order of the day is chaos really.

Boone introduces plenty more characters in fairly short order giving them all a quick outline, I don’t advise you to become too attached too soon thoughas a lot of people are simply fodder for hungry spiders.

What I really enjoyed about this is the aspect of ‘invasion’ that really comes across. The chaos and panic from the first book is still there but there’s now an underlyng sense of menace. This is not simply a freak spider attack from an unknown species of spider that seems to have suddenly been disturbed or awakened. If feels like something much bigger is actually taking place here – there is a sense of intelligence and co-ordination and a horrible feeling that things are going to get a helluva lot worse and that first wave of spiders was merely a preemptive strike with a possible tidal wave to follow.

I thought this was a great second in series to be honest. Boone has nailed the disaster theme and I look forward to seeing what happens next because this surely does conclude on a creepy vibe.

I received a copy through Netgalley courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I don't know what it is about this series. It's this mixture of boredom and fascination that's hard to explain. There are times I just want it to quit, but at the same time I can't because I'm actually into it. It's weird.

It's kind of the same thing with the multiple perspectives. I like getting so many that show what's happening in different parts of the world, especially now that they're coming together and starting to connect. I do find them interesting, but also find myself want to skim parts.

I actually started to feel more of a connection with some of the characters, like Shotgun and his group, in this book, so hooray for that.

Maybe I would feel different about everything if I found it more creepy and intense, but that isn't the case. Yet. I think there might be potential in the next book, though.

I'm a little annoyed that we're going into a third book, but I'm still looking forward to it.

Obviously my feelings about Skitter are all over. *shrugs*

I didn't think the sequel could be as good as the first book. It was. Once again, the author seamlessly tied in multiple events and characters in a way that worked. Every single person was important in depicting the mass destruction and chaos wrought by these spiders. It was spectacular to see this large-scale disaster being orchestrated so beautifully by the author .... while also creeping me out! The author kept the tension high and raised the stakes with new revelations about these spiders and the way they attack people. What I loved about this book was that the author managed to tease out various emotions while also writing such a fast-paced novel. I could literally see various different characters going through so many complex emotions and I was really able to connect and live this experience through them. The novel ends in a cliffhanger and I seriously need the author to write the next novel ASAP because I HAVE to know what's going on! If you are looking for a fantastic thriller with loads of adventure and spiders, then please please please do yourself a favour and give this series a try! It's definitely worth the effort!