Deep in the jungle of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Kanpur, India earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. During the same week, the Chinese government “accidentally” drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. As these incidents begin to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at a Washington, D.C. laboratory. Something wants out.

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake.

“She didn’t know how many of them there were, but they were frantic. Dozens of them at least. They’d been packed in the egg, and they came out in a swarm, their bodies unfolding, alien and beautiful. Big and fast, black apricots thundering against the glass. Skittering.”

Oh my gosh, I did not think a book about spiders could be so thrilling but wow this scary and creepy as hell. Thinking about the events in this book alone makes my skin crawl. I am actually shocked by how spooked out this has made me because I do not get scared easily but the way this story of the carnivorous spiders was wrote was terrifying so I applaud Boone for creating a horror gem! Now let me tell you a little bit more about The Hatching.

Our book begins with an egotistical rich guy who is trying to impress his lady friends with a hike through the forest. He soon takes a detour into the woods and soon sees something which he thinks is a river of black… however I am sure you can guess by now that it is not. Soon news of these spiders – which are nasty little things – spreads across the globe from India to China and America and so on. There are reports of rivers of black all across the world and people are horrifically dying. Will humanity be able to survive these previously dormant creatures? You will have to read the novel to find out!

After the events in Peru, we are introduced to our main protagonist Melanie. Melanie is a divorced scientist whose life has been consumed by her love of all things science. One day a suspicious package arrives at her laboratory from Peru and she soon notices that it’s pulsating and warm (which is creepy as hell no?). Soon this object begins to crack and well…chaos ensues!

To say The Hatching chilled me to the bone is an understatement! It crept the hell out of me and made my spine tingle and skin crawl. Boone has done a fantastic job with his writing that he installed true horror inside me. The telling of the story switches back and forth between characters from around the world (which shows how widespread the problem is) and the character’s chapters are smartly short so that it makes for a compulsive, quick read. There were many unimaginable moments in this novel which really made me gasp and shocked me to my core and I have to say I haven’t experienced this from a writer in a long time. It is a brilliant piece of work from an accomplished writer and I enjoyed it so much; however, it is a very haunting and chilling one also so you have been warned!

To summarize my points I would say that if you are looking for a horror novel, which will genuinely keep you on the edge of your seat, keep you terrified to the end but also give you an enjoyable reading experience then read The Hatching. However, if you are afraid of spiders then yes, I would advise you not to read this because there are a lot of them in this novel and they are not the moderately cute animated Disney kind but horrible nasty, vile spiders! This wonderful book gets Four Stars from me!

Thank you so much for reading book lovers! Please do comment below what you think of this novel and whether you could see yourself reading it. Also, let me know if you are fearful of any animals, I find it all so interesting! Let me know also whether you read much horror, I would love to know. Thank you so much as ever for reading!

Goodbye for now book lovers,

P.S. Here is a preview of the book for all of you lovely readers to enjoy! If you have loved what you have read and want to buy the wonderful novel then you can click the buy on Amazon button and it will take you straight to Amazon U.K.! If you are international then click the Book Depository link underneath it! Thank you so much again for reading!

Amazon U.K. / Goodreads / Book Depository / Publisher; Orion – Gollancz

Thank you so much again for reading!