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For many people, the sight of a skittering spider stirs up some kind of a reaction—from mild aversion to downright panic. But even if your feelings toward spiders tend to fall on the milder side of the scale, author Ezekiel Boone’s thriller The Hatching is sure to give you a whole new fear of the eight-legged creatures.
The story begins in the jungles of Peru, where an American billionaire and his traveling companions come under attack by a terrifying dark mass. Around the same time, the Chinese government drops a nuclear bomb in a remote part of its country—a move that they claim was just an accident. Soon after, shaky video footage from India shows people becoming victims to what appears to be spiders. And as the president and her advisors attempt to figure out what’s going on—and how to respond—nearby, a researcher and her team study an ancient species that seems ready to unleash new terrors on an unsuspecting world.
The first book in a chilling new disaster series, The Hatching is a fast-paced nail-biter with a creepy-crawly twist. This isn’t just the far-fetched story of a zombie outbreak or a terrifying epidemic; it starts with something that many of us already fear (or at least dislike), capitalizing on readers’ fears and taking them to extremes.
As the threat builds and the tension grows, the action skips around to various places around the world, introducing key characters while tracking this terrifying infestation. The frequent jumping from one story to another doesn’t really allow readers to settle into the story, but it does add to the novel’s sense of urgency. Around the world, scientists and governments and soldiers and even crazy conspiracy theorists are bracing themselves for the worst, often forced to react on impulse. And through one frantic chapter after another, some of the characters step up as stronger, more developed characters, while others tend to come and go. Some of those side characters are sure to play bigger, more important roles in upcoming installments—but their minor (and often seemingly unconnected) roles in the first novel can be distracting. And, in the end, this may not an entirely cohesive—or conclusive—read, but it’s a clever, creepy story that’s sure to have readers eager to pick up the next book in the series, to see where the spiders end up next.
The Hatching is more of a series introduction than a standalone novel, but it is a pretty gripping introduction. A word of warning, though: if you’re packing up some books to take on your summer camping trip, you might want to wait to read this one until you’re safe and sound back at home.
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