Spider Brains

by Susan Wingate

After her father’s death last year and, now, in the throes of a gnarly teacher’s whim as she thinks ahead to college, a small black arachnid bites fifteen-year-old Susie Speider gets bit on the finger and sends her nights into fantastical dreams about taking revenge on a teacher–a one Ms. Morlson–who, ultimately, holds Susie’s college aspirations in the sweaty palm of her cold calloused hand. But, after Susie figures out the dreams are real, she ups the ante and visits the teacher regularly but… as the spider. And, oh, by the way! Who is that boy spider munching on flies, hiding over there in the corner?

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction

292 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2012

About the author

"My love of books is largely due to the Sevilla Elementary School librarian. I ran to her to tell on Jeff Sloggins who, after slurping spinach around in his mouth, gagged, choked, then barfed on our table in the school cafeteria." ~Susan Wingate

Susan Wingate holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lindenwood University. Her poetry, short stories, and essays have been published in journals such as the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Superstition Review, and Suspense Magazine, as well as others.

Susan's novel, How the Deer Moon Hungers received eight book awards. Susan is a proud member of PENAmerica.

Susan Wingate writes about big trouble in small towns and is the primary caregiver of her husband who suffers from frontotemporal dementia. They live off the coast of Washington State on San Juan Island.

Reviews

[J.E. Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A problem with her science teacher, Mrs. Morlson, makes life completely miserable for Susie Speider (the ‘e’ is silent), and she wants to get even with her somehow, in any way possible. When a bite from a spider in her bedroom brings on dreams (or are they), of Susie becoming a spider and traveling out at night to visit and bite Mrs. Morlson, the plot begins to thicken.
Susan Wingate has written a multifaceted story that will touch all of us in some way. A broken family, past pain that won’t go away, mother daughter relationship, just to mention a few. Wingate has given voice to Susie Speider, and it is right on point. Susie is a bit of a miss-fit high school girl, and we can hear this sassy teenager come right at us as we turn the pages. You will laugh with her and cry with her. You will cheer her on and feel her heart breaking as she comes to terms with her mother and their past.
Oh, and let me not forget to tell you about the super informational report that Susie writes about spiders! For real! This is certainly a must read, and I highly recommend it.

[Amelia M.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susie Speider may talk and act like your typical teenager, but there's something humorous, albeit disturbing, about this out-spoken, non-conforming, imaginative girl. If mourning her father, getting hassled by her teacher, taking strong prescription drugs, and dealing with a new weirdo neighbor weren't enough to have her in a sticky situation, turning into a spider may be the highlight of Susie's issues. Despite the numerous legs, web-spinning, and shrunken body, Susie's arachnid transformation is more enjoyable than it seems.

For readers who are not accustomed to the teenage mindset, Susie Speider is a large pill to swallow. Seeing the world from her point of view forced me to put back on my young adult shoes to understand this girl. Most of us can remember feeling as jumbled as a box of unsolved puzzle pieces during our teenage years. Readers experience Susie's thoughts thrown together in rants against her mother, as well as in her diary. For a girl who describes herself as "the empress of geeks," she certainly is judgmental of her poor new neighbor, who just wants a relatable friend.

As both human and a spider, Susie is dealing with boy issues. There's the boy across the street, who obviously likes her, but falls short of Susie's expectations in a crush. And then there's the boy spider, who is oddly cute and charming, in his spidery ways. The parallelism of the two love interests in Susie's different forms act as a great window into what this confused teenage girl really feels, and what she's scared of.

When life becomes hard to bear, who wouldn't want to transform into someone or something else? For Susie Speider, being a spider at night isn't such a bad escape.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susie Speider is an almost junior at Ronkonkoma High School, whose grades were pretty bad, but are now on the upswing thanks to new glasses and new meds for her ADD.Only problem is her teacher seems to hate her, and that certainly is a problem. At home Susie lives with her mom Willa and her pussy cat Deliliah. New neighbors moving in next door could turn out to be something interesting.As if all this isn't enough, ever since Suzie was bitten by a spider she's been having dreams that she turns into a spider at night. Are they dreams or perhaps reality???

All I can say is WOW! I loved this book! The author authentically captures what I consider to be teen speak, which goes at high speed.Honestly at times I forgot that the book wasn't written by a teen. I must admit it's been several years since I was a teen, but this book had me thinking about those days,when teachers were the bane of my existence,and feeling like a dork was the norm.

With catchy chapter titles and an interesting cast of characters I found this book an un-put-down-able read. Susie's character was so easy to like and understand. I found myself enjoying her immensely, and while she provided several laughs there were some serious moments as well.I loved her nightly adventures, especially her descriptions of her mode of transportation, which happened to be her cat Delilah. "Spider Brains" deals with several topics that teens will certainly relate to. Overall a book geared toward teens but anyone who enjoys a great coming of age story will enjoy this one as well. Highly recommended!

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spider Brains is a cute coming of age story about a girl who endures serious abuse from one teacher at school and teasing from her peers due to her ADHD. However, when a spider bites her she gains control over her ADHD and her ability to do well in school improves in all her classes but one. Through it all she learns lessons about friendship, loyalty, and coping with loss.

This is a cute story, kind of Spiderman meets Charlotte’s web. It is a smooth read with beautifully descriptive language and many laugh out loud moments. My 13 year old son read it and thought it was “cool, but would have been better if it was about a boy instead of a girl. And she should have been able to poison the teacher.” My son is still in the boys are cool and girls are gross stage. And since I already have a 16 year old girl with boy crazy friends I’m good with waiting on having a girl crazy boy.

I give this book 4 out of 5 clouds.

This product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.

[Denise Melone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book from a GoodReads contest.

Well, actually my 13 year old just read this. Only took him 3 days to read and he really enjoyed it! This is a kid who is not the greatest lover of books but he said this book was funny and entertaining. Right up his alley!

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For starters, let it be known that I received this book as a First Reads Giveaway.

I entered the giveaway because the blurb and review made it seem really interesting. I was very excited when I got the book in the mail as it is the first book I've ever won.

Upon opening the book I was surprised to find that the pages aren't justified on the right which made me think that it is either a proof copy or that it's self published and wasn't formatted properly. This wasn't that big of a deal though because I've read and enjoyed a few books that were this way.

Now to the review itself.

I gave the book an "It was okay" two stars rating even though it was really in between that and "Didn't like it" On a scale of 1-10 it would be a 3.

For me the biggest problem was the execution in telling the story. I know that YA novels tend to be in the first person pov, but I really feel that third person would have been better. I really don't think a teenager when recounting a story would describe themselves acting completely immature, which is what Susie does throughout. Teenagers think they are acting mature, or are acting consciously immature on purpose. The problem is that Susie seems to be smart, or at least when it comes to words, but acts like an eight-year-old a lot of the time. The book reads like it's a mix of a diary/journal (there actually is a chapter that is a diary entry,) as well as a spoken recounting of what happened to the reader. There are actually quite a few little clip art pics throughout which also makes it seem like a diary, but doesn't really help the story. I think the book might be better as an audiobook but I'm not entirely sure.

Here is an excerpt which shows how Susie acts:

"Mom, I have homework." I did this thing with my body that I do when I'm totally disgusted by a situation. It's like my whole body goes limp but I'm still standing on my feet, and then I let out a gigant-mo, "Gaahhhh!"

Another excerpt which is on the following page, shows why this would be better as an audiobook, but is still poor execution:

My hair looked nothing like mom's. I'd gotten dad's genes. NO! Not his Calvin Klein's! LOL. His dark-haired genes.

Susie talks to the reader a lot and acts like you're stupid and can't follow along which gets annoying. And if I read one more Gahhh I'll shoot myself.

I'll be honest in that I didn't finish the book. I read to the 1/3 mark and just couldn't connect at all with Susie. I understand that her dad died recently, that she is a teenager girl, that she has A.D.D. and is on meds, but she is overblown. In my opinion she acts like every extreme stereotype of a teenage girl, and I work at a school so I kind of know what I'm talking about even though I've never been a teenage girl.

I was hoping that her turning into a spider would be more interesting, but what does she do? She visits the teacher she doesn't like night after night and decides to bite her. That's it, or at least until I gave up reading.

I actually want to read one of Susan Wingate's other novels just to see if she really can write since it kind of feels like she took the easy way out of not having to edit by making her main character have A.D.D. and tell the story, making it jump all over the place.

Overall though, the writing isn't that bad and with some tweaks and edits I think there could be a much better story, but as is, I just couldn't get into it.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think that the main reason that I didn't enjoy this book was because I'm the wrong audience, I'm not exactly sure who the right audience would be. Some of the jacket blurbs maintain this is a book for all ages but I have to disagree. It's almost like going back and reading old journal entries from middle school or high school and feeling embarrassed at the immature thoughts and language of your younger self. The language of this book is specific to a certain type of teenage girl and for that reason I don't think that it is something everyone would enjoy. It seems incredibly immature for a fourteen or fifteen year old girl and sounds more like an eight year old girl. For someone with a 4.0 and a self-proclaimed love of words she sure doesn't seem to put the effort into whatever this is supposed to be. I thought that this was a diary because it reads as though it's directed at a reader but at certain points of the story there are actual diary entries so I remain confused. Maybe the author shouldn't have put so much effort into sounding young. The same principle applies when authors write novels from the perspective of the opposite sex: keep it simple. Don't delve too deep in uncharted territory because unless you're incredibly gifted or insightful you're not going to get it exactly right.

They story tried to say something important about the different ways that children and spouses cope with the loss of a loved one but there were too many cliches for it to be successful. The characters felt more like caricatures than real grieving people. The main characters melodramatic outbursts constantly felt forced and unnecessary which I know is how most normal teenagers function but it didn't feel authentic. And the villainous teacher had no real motivation in her victimization of Susie. I am able to believe that a teacher is capable of this type of behavior but a mumbled explanation of "menopause" is not an acceptable reason.

I will re-iterate that it is completely possible that a younger audience may really enjoy this book. I can't relate to Susie's specific experiences but I can see that some of her actions and perceptions don't feel genuine. My problems may also stem from the fact that I myself never went through a full-fledged 'terrible teen' phase which makes it hard for me to understand her treatment of her mother. If nothing else it may be an effective mirror for other "terrible teens' out there to see what their behavior looks like from the outside. Or it may genuinely help someone struggling with the same loss and confusion, that is my hope.


*A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher through First Reads.

[M.A Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say the book is quirky. Written as if the teenager is sitting telling you the story in first person you follow her through her constantly changing thoughts, troubles and exaggerated imagination. If being a teenager wasn't bad enough how would you like some of your more wild imagination thoughts to come true? Susie Speider turns into a spider after being bitten by one and a long thought process of turning into spider man herself.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into the story at first as it is not something I am use to reading nor did it really seem to connect with me. However, after pushing into the story more I really found myself lost in Susie's adventures of dealing with growing up and having super spidery morphing powers.

A cute funny and fairly easy read for older children and above. I'm not sure morphing into a spider is really the bed time story you need to be telling your 3 year old.

[Darlene]

This is actually Kindle Version ASIN B007KDAS0C

[Miki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupid.