I want to be frightened when reading horror and this certainly didn't disappoint. I didn't mind spiders but, after finishing this, I'm terrified of them. If you have arachnophobia, then definitely avoid this book! It's exactly what it professes to be so I'd recommend it.

Unfortunately, this book was archived before I got chance to read it.

The first third of the book was endless set-up. Short chapters with a new POV in every chapter, with little plot, no discernible story arc or much of a development of any kind, hints at something and mini cliffhangers at the end of the chapters. At about 28% into the book I was rolling my eyes very hard.... Lucky for me (and the author, I was close to tossing the book) I finally met a repeating character at that point. And some small progress in the plot.

Think popcorn fiction. End of the world/horror 101, every clichee and trope there is. Almost no character development, plot fits on a cocktail napkin. Movie script. Frantic pace without much content. Filler chapters, trying to create suspense by waving something creepy at you from the distance.

Funnily enough, after almost tossing the book, I couldn't put it down and read half of the night. After that I slowed down again, because the hectic jumping around without resolving anything and hinting at bad things to come got not exactly boring, but a bit tiresome. I was looking forward to the end of the book and some closure. Man, was I annoyed when I figured out that the darn book ends in the middle of the story.

Argh, why did nobody tell me that this is a trilogy? Now I have to get the next book to find out what happens to the characters that I did eventually develop some interest in. Plus I want to know how it works out for the world domination plan of the spiders. Sigh.

Oh, for those of you that read the book, here is my Independence Day cast nomination.... I know, it's more of an Alien/Jurassic Park/Arachnophobia-kinda plot, sort of Michael Crichton for poor people, aka without any science, but that's what started playing in my head...

Melanie, the scientist: Jeff Goldblum
Mike, cop guy: Will Smith. Yeah, doesn't really fit.
POTUS: Bill Pullman
Her sidekick Manny: well, Jeff Goldblum's ex, obviously
Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid as the survivalist dudes
They can have Will Smith's dog...

On second thought, Sigourney Weaver would be a good Melanie. Why did nobody in this book have a flamethrower? Napalm?

And yes, the book made me twitchy. My apartment is now completely free of spider webs of any kind. Usually I catch and release spiders I come across. Right now, immediate annihilation.

So, rating.
Writing, plot and character development, 2 stars. Seriously.
Entertainment level, 4 stars. I got a lot of mileage ranting about this book and I did spend a night reading it.
Annoyance factor over the endless build-up and abrupt ending, unmeasurable!

I guess that makes it 3 crispy, venomous, eight-legged freaks...

I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

Man, what a let-down. I accidentally read the sequel first before reading this one which made me realize that this guy likes giving us bland one-dimensional characters. I ended up skimming through it just to see what these spiders would eventually get up to and to find out what other mysreries might come bubbling forth.

Suffice it to say, I feel robbed.

So spiders. They're great, right? Or just a little scary? Whatever you think, they're abso-bloody-lutely terrifying in this book. It's essentially a plague/apocalypse story, if you like those kind of things (and I do), only with spiders rather than a hot virus.

Nb. I'm not really keen on horror stories as a rule, but I like plague/end-of-the-world type affairs because they're really about (if they're any good) two things - how humanity survives, on an individual and group level, and how they defeat the illness/plague/apocalypse IF it's still going. The Hatching definitely ticks the first box, and the characters are very much focused on the second element.

It starts in Peru, with a small group on a tour, soon devoured by a torrent of flesh-eating spiders. One of the party escapes, getting on his private jet to the US, unaware he has been infected, that his own body is now incubating even more spiders. It escalates in China, where they use nukes to attempt to end the threat quickly. In India, readings suggest there's an earthquake on the way - but no, it's more spiders...

We follow a wide range of characters as they wrestle with a spider-swarming world. Melanie Guyer is an expert on spider behaviour. Manny, her ex-husband, is President Stephanie Pilgrim's right hand man. FBI agent Mike Rich is one of the first in the US to see the spiders, as he investigates the plane crash above...

There are so many characters they can be drawn a little broadly and their chapters often end just as you want to find out what happens next - then it can take a while to cycle back to them. But they're generally sympathetic, nearly always engaging, and I thoroughly enjoyed the read, even if I did have to skim some of the more gruesome death-by-spider bits.

This is book one in either a series or a trilogy (not sure), so they don't resolve the threat entirely in this book.

If you've got Arachnophobia you might want to avoid this book at all costs.

All around the world strange unexplained events are occurring and the rest of the world starts to take notice. Sadly it's a bit too late for what is about to engulf the world. En masse.

The plot rolls out gradually and by the time you've noticed the horror of what is going on it's too late. Brilliant yet disturbing at the same time.

If you think you know spiders then think again.

Absolutely loved this book, though it made me cringe at times.

Well written with a flowing storyline and some likeable characters which kept me interested but at the same time horrified, by this invasion of mutant spiders, which is possibly my worst nightmare.

The story focused on different characters from around the world and what they were doing when the proverbial hit the fan.
If you're an arachnophobe, maybe give this a miss but then again, what's on the page can't hurt you.......

Just like sharks, snakes and teenagers who wear hooded jackets, spiders generally have a (largely undeserved) bad reputation. The way they skitter about on too many legs and hide in places only to jump out and scare the bejeezers out of you can make the little blighters hard to love. But the spiders in this book aren't like that. Oh, no, they are much, much worse.

This book is sooo creepy and addictive but you need to know that it is only the beginning of the story. The book ends with a massive, knicker-gripping cliffhanger. Luckily I have the next book, Skitter, all ready to go :)

Not often do we find books that successfully blend the horror and apocalyptic thriller genres in such a way that has us craving more. The Hatching is everything. You will have that on the edge of your seat feeling as your adrenaline peaks and you start to wonder whether you, yourself would survive these carnivorous spiders. Will the human race survive? It is such a high-stakes adventure that I truly could not get enough of. There is an enormous cast of characters with a variety of backgrounds. They are from different locations with different role titles such as FBI agent, marines, scientist, etc. This helps to give us a well-rounded take on the global invasion. Now unlike other apocalyptic thrillers, if you have arachnophobia you can expect a level of fear throughout. If a spider crawls on you while reading, you might not be able to handle it. This is all in the fun! And trust me, I had a blast while reading. If you enjoy apocalyptic thrillers with a healthy dose of horror, do not hesitate to check The Hatching out. You won't regret it!