Hard to review without giving away any spoilers but what I can say is OMFG! Giant spiders that will be giving me nightmares for days to come whilst doing a sweep of the room before I can even close my eyes!!

Unfortunately for this book I couldn't relate to the main character, and so the story itself, while sounding SUPER interesting and creepy, lost a lot of its appeal to me. I am sure a lot of the people I know will LOVE this book, it's so weird and spiders are so creepy and agonizing, I was scratching my ear from time to time because it was really agonizing!! But I didn't warm up to the book and thus could not finish it.

You don't like spiders and fear they will be crawling all over the pages of this book? Don't let that keep you from reading it, though, as it is much more than just an arachnid creature feature. Though the story does start with an unfortunate incident, leading to an eight-legged lodger in Clive's head, it soon turns into kind of a psychological thriller with a dose of humor.

The characters are multi-layered and not too likable, which makes it much more interesting to follow them along. As it turns out, at the end the spider was one of the characters I liked most, simply because it was the most honest in both its intentions and actions (the other was a little girl).

While Clive, the main character, seemed decent enough at first, just your regular shy and unremarkable guy, I couldn't shake the feeling there was also something off about him that made him not so nice at all. Same could be said about his friend Morgan.

At the end I recognized that the title may not only refer to the arachnid resident in Clive's head, but also to the secret thoughts hidden within each of the characters. Once revealed, they turned out to be pretty creepy as well, reminding me once again of one of my favorite sayings: the real monsters are mostly human.

I'm a huge fan of horror fiction and loved how the element of the gore and the gothic came through. The use of Chester was ingenious and she was the one character i actually wanted to follow. I think she was the one that was the most fleshed out even though she was also the mysterious one out of all of them. I liked Clive at the beginning and was hooked on what was happening to him but there were some moments were he just felt flat in comparrison to the other array of characters.

I found this novel fresh and quirky. I loved the idea behind it- a spider living in someone's head and interjecting its own thoughts to Clive who is slowly driven demented by it. It was well written and descriptive with a dark humor interwoven within the tale. I enjoyed this and it is definitely a different type of horror which I haven't came across before but I would definitely read more of this author's work.

What a creepy read. Loved it! I don't think I'll ever look at a spider the same way. Near the end it gets a bit drawn out but still a great read. I will look for other books by this author.

Inside all of us, there is darkness. Inside Clive, it's tangible, and it's aching to get out.

What Hides Within tells the story of a man held captive by an unknown evil. Clive Menard is a spineless slacker leading an ordinary existence. But when Chester enters his life, it becomes far from ordinary.

A disheveled Clive stands alone in a hospital waiting room. A series of incidences have led him to undergo unnecessary neurosurgery. A voice inside Clive’s head nags him to kill the doctor.

Weeks prior, a murder investigation and an unrelated kayaking excursion set the story’s interlocking events in motion. When a remorseful killer, a bomb-happy psychopath and a mysterious widow spider converge upon Clive, they bring with them destruction and death. Clive must discover who or what is steering his very existence before he, too, is consumed by the carnage around him.

With a driven detective following his every step and a vicious killer hiding within his circle of friends, Clive must walk a narrow and dangerous path, teetering between salvation and damnation. He must confront Chester and his own demons. But is he powerless to overcome them?

This is a well written story, personally I found this more thriller than a horror story ( but saying that I wouldn't want to have Chester live in my head!)

To storyline with lots of twists though I did feel as if it dragged slightly midway through the story.

I must be honest up front, for a moment I wasn’t so sure that I was going to able to finish What Hides Within, Jason Parent’s first published novel recently re-released by Bloodshot Books. While the book kicks off with some interesting set pieces, it really takes it’s time gaining momentum, a slow-burn if you will. I was finding it super difficult staying involved and interested in the meandering narrative and off-putting cast. The biggest hurdle I found was finding my way into a cohesive partnership with Clive, our main character. Unlikable characters are great but you as a reader have to be able to jump on board with them, to take a bit of morbid fascination in their path and what makes them unlikable, in order to enjoy their journey. I couldn’t make that happen, try as I might. Which would have been fine if there happened to be a member or two of the supporting cast to sync with, no luck there either (three doctor characters and every one a buffoon? Really?). There was just enough horror in this “genre-twisting dark comedy” to keep me turning the pages, and I’m glad I did. There is some solid gore & graphic scenes peppered throughout and the back third hooked me quite a bit harder than every thing that came before it.

Which brings me to my second hurdle. When I go into a book described as a Dark Comedy I have a certain expectation. And yeah I get it, like the label Horror, Comedy is a very divisive and interpretive style, a wide spectrum of delivery that people are going to view with narrow eyes. Everyone has a different style that they’re receptive to. I would absolutely say that I am a fan of Dark Comedy. But I define that label a certain way. When I see that particular label I’m expecting, I’m wanting, to find humor in situations not traditionally funny or socially acceptable. I expect to laugh at things I shouldn’t and to feel super guilty for laughing, causing me to laugh harder. The bulk of the comedy in What Hides Within is juvenile, frat boy jokes, mean spirited barbs about another’s looks or physical attributes. Sort of a “Two Broke Girls” kind of humor. If that’s your thing then more power to you, I won’t judge. We just happen to look through the comedy spectrum at differing angles. Different strokes, man, different folks.

Third hurdle, Chester. The feminine arachnid that the synopsis makes out to be an important cog in the machine doesn’t really have a whole lot to do other than trade quips with Clive. Minus one particular, effective scene, Chester (an overplayed gag) could be an afterthought. I rather feel that if Chester is scrubbed out of this book completely, a far more streamlined and entertaining story could be delivered as a very large bulk of Chester’s “screen time” is spent arguing with Clive over various aspects of their relationship. There is too much Yes I Can. No You Can’t. I’ll Do This. No You Won’t ‘Cause I’ll Do This. Their interactions become repetitive pretty quickly.

Damn. I really don’t want this to be overly cynical or negative, but minus the sparely integrated albeit solid and entertaining horror elements, the negative really outweighs the positive. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate this book. I just didn’t particularly enjoy it. This is my second consecutive non-positive Parent review and I hope I haven’t burnt a bridge. I know that it’s not the writer, because he has wowed me in the past, it’s the material. I honestly believe that if you can jive with the humor then you will get much more out of it than I did.

WHAT HIDES WITHIN, by Jason Parent, was originally released in 2012. It is now being re-released by Bloodshot Books, with revised content and an all new cover design. I enjoyed this book immensely the first time I read it (my first novel by Jason Parent), but I must admit that this new edition is a much smoother, more professional quality book overall. I caught several key moments that really added to my understanding of the characters here.

We begin with Clive, an unmotivated man without any real ambition, his reclusive roommate, Kyle, and his "friend", Morgan.

"Clive was complacent in his complacency, his life without waves . . . "

After a day of fishing--when Clive accidentally paddles himself into a massive nest of spiderwebs--he begins to notice some changes . . . The one major change begin a voice that talks to him from inside his own head.

"If I was the devil, would I tell you that I was? . . ."

Through their everyday banter and sarcasm-laced interludes, you begin to know and feel for these characters. Aside from Clive, we have "Chester" (think Charlotte's Web gone horribly wrong), the over-protective "friend", Morgan, and the young but so-much-more-mature than the adults around her, Victoria. These characters come alive on the page through their actions, inactions, and dialog.

". . . He wasn't alone. He was never alone."

Once Clive's head becomes a home to Chester, the novel takes off in all directions, making this a complex narrative that crosses over into several genres. Besides having his "best friend" talking to him from literally inside of his own head, Clive has to contend with a bomb-weilding psychopath, an overly friendly boss, a no-nonsense detective, and his neglected eight-year old niece.

". . . It wasn't that . . . given up. Rather, . . . recognized that the fight was no longer winnable . . . "

There are enough twists in this book to keep you guessing up until--and even after--the very end. The action is virtually non-stop, and the scenes laced with dark-humor give the story some comic relief, without letting up on the intensity of the overall novel. This is one tale that will keep you on your toes all throughout--particularly if you suffer from Arachnophobia . . .

"Some things should stay buried."

Highly recommended!

The blurb of this book instantly captured my attention. Just what could be more interesting than a talking spider living inside someone's head? I happen to love the little eight-legged critters, so believe me when I say I didn't hesitate to request this novel. Think of my delight when my request was accepted, and I was thus introduced to Parent's world, and more specifically, Clive's rather uneventful, mundane life; a life we can all relate to in some way. I liked Clive, despite him being a very negative and oftentimes selfish person. His inner monologue mostly consisted of insulting people, which added a nice touch of humour. I always appreciate when something I read makes me smile, and What Hides Within definitely did.

Other characters included Reilly; a detective with detachment issues, Morgan; the love struck best friend, and a questionable amount of perverted men. Okay, so there was two, but Derek was more than enough for me. Each and every one had their own very apparent flaws; selfishness, narcissism, the list goes on. I think they were intentionally depicted badly, to enforce Chester's motivation.

Speaking of Chester, she was the star of the show. The she-spider fascinated me in the way she was written; remarkably intelligent, manipulative, and deliciously deceptive. I admit, I had no clue of her intentions until the last half of the book. I consider myself perceptive - more often than not I can predict where the plot is going, but with Chester I was kept guessing with a multitude of questions coursing through my head. She certainly wasn't the typical baddie, and whilst she possessed obvious abilities and wasn't quite normal, she still only had the physical form of a small arachnid. Her weaknesses were made known throughout; she could just as easily be crushed like any other household spider, and that aspect so clearly fuelled her bitterness.

Naturally, I found myself wondering about her origins - where'd she come from? Just what, exactly, was she? She offered so little to Clive throughout, it nearly made me insane. That is, until this luscious morsel:

"In truth, I don't have a name. I am very old, descended from divinity. My kind was cast aside by a hateful ruler, before our fathers could name us and before our mothers could nurture us. Even so, we were giants amongst men, beings worthy of great reverence. But our creator had no use for us, and we were exiled, wrongly punished for our parents' sins. He chose not to destroy us, instead transforming us into these insignificant specks, forgotten by humanity and the omnipotent themselves."

You've no idea how many times I've read over that paragraph, in an attempt to decipher it. There's so much information in that small piece, and it's the most we get. My thoughts turn to Arachne of Greek mythology (Chester did mention this name), and my assumption is that Chester and her kind are descendants of Arachne, whom was cursed by a God and turned into a spider. The story of myth and Chester's description doesn't quite add up, however, so perhaps Parent added his own take. Either way, I took pleasure in trying to figure her out.

The plot was a slow burner - it focused on acquainting the reader with the characters and the relationship between man and spider, whilst sprinkling some mystery elements into the background. Despite not being action-packed, the build up to the explosive climax was no less exciting. When it came down to it, I wasn't expecting the last twist involving Clive.

In conclusion - I found it very enjoyable. The horror was subtle, yet superbly weaved. Considering the ending, is Chester's antics really done? I don't think so!

Notable Scene:

Had Clive been capable of even sporadic coherency, he might have feared the hideous being perched on his snout. The minute animal protruded like a wart no more than a third of an inch off Clive's skin. Despite its size and his heavily medicated state, Clive could easily make out what it was; a spider, but unlike any he'd seen before.

© Red Lace 2018

What hides within by jason parent.
Dr Landenberg performed surgery on Clive Menard to remove a tumor. But when he opened his skull there wasn't one there. Now clive wants to kill the dr for his mistake.
Timothy and alexia loved playing hide and seek. Timothy runs to hide from her. When she catches him he is just standing there face in shock horror. When she cuddles into him and looks to where he was looking she screams. A ravaged body of a girl around Timothy age. Who did this? Will there be more bodies? Detective Samantha reilly is on the case.
A very enjoyable and refreshing read. Couldn't put it down. 5*.