Sinister Spiders of Saginaw

Michigan Chillers #9

by Johnathan Rand

Something sinister lurks beneath the city of Saginaw, Michigan. Leah, with her friends Conner and Angela, don't have much time before these giant spiders put their evil plan into action.

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Young Adult

265 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Christopher Wright is the author of dozens of horror fiction books for children and young adults. He writes under the pseudonyms Johnathan Rand and Christopher Knight. Almost all of Wright's books (save American Chillers) take place in his home state of Michigan.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sinister Spiders of Saginaw was a nice bounceback for Johnathan Rand's Michigan Chillers, probably the best book in the series since Aliens Attack Alpena. I especially looked forward to it because the protagonist, thirteen-year-old Leah Warner, is already familiar to those of us who read the author's American Chillers. In the first book of that series, Michigan Mega-Monsters, the main character meets two girls at summer camp: Sandy Johnson (from Mayhem on Mackinac Island, Michigan Chillers book one) and Leah, whose supernatural arachnid powers come in handy against the swamp mutants stalking Camp Willow. Sinister Spiders of Saginaw is Leah's origin story, a high-stakes adventure in which she unwittingly discovers an alien conspiracy to take over the world, a plot only she, her friends, and a few well-positioned allies are capable of thwarting. By the time the drama is finished, Leah will never look at spiders the same way.

Readers who suffer from arachnophobia will empathize with Leah's dislike of spiders, but her discomfort elevates to titanic proportions on the day she and her friends Conner and Angela go out searching for Leah's dog, Grumpy, near the old, dark drainage ditch. A maze of tunnels crisscrosses Saginaw underground there, and it turns out that more than water travels through them. A species of gigantic spiders has made its home in the pipe system, spiders vastly larger than anything native to Earth. Hunted down and backed into a corner by one of the creatures, Leah and her friends are shocked to see it change into a humanoid, a boy named Jarred they know from school. Jarred fills them in on the entire incredible story. He is part of an extraterrestrial race called arachno-sapiens, peaceful aliens who fled their planet for Earth to get away from a predatory spider race chasing them. The evil spiders followed the arachno-sapiens and have developed a plan to conquer Earth, first by tainting the water supply with a toxin engineered to turn humans into spiders like them, and second by hatching a secret reserve of egg sacs they've hidden somewhere. With millions of massive, carnivorous spiders crawling over the face of Earth, the end of society as we know it will be at hand. Humanity's only chance is to temporarily shut down Saginaw's water supply and destroy the spiders' eggs, and that responsibility primarily falls to Leah and her friends. How long could even benevolent oversized spiders like the arachno-sapiens walk around in plain sight without causing mass panic?

It's a race to save mankind from alien overlords, but at least Leah, Conner, and Angela have the arachno-sapiens on their side. The arachno-sapiens are as big and strong as the hostile aliens, and can fight them on equal terms. As the plot intensifies and danger rises, our three protagonists must place their lives in jeopardy repeatedly, bravely interceding on one another's behalf when the enemy closes in for the kill. That nobility of spirit is the one major advantage Leah and her friends have over the invading arachnids. As Sinister Spiders of Saginaw puts it, "(B)est friends help their best friends. Always." Even when the terror is greater than they could have imagined. Will the arachno-sapiens and their human allies restore order on Earth before most people have any idea how close they were to extinction? Or will the nestling spiders usher in the apocalypse for our modern world?

The writing is eccentric and the story structure is extensively similar to other Johnathan Rand juvenile novels, but Sinister Spiders of Saginaw makes better sense than most Michigan Chillers, and there are exciting moments in it. The action at the water plant is fairly unpredictable, wicked spiders and skeptical security men making things difficult for Leah and her cohorts as they work to shut off the city's water. There's also a twist ending along the lines of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series, and that's rare for Michigan Chillers. But to me, the most agreeable surprise is how the end of this book links to the next. Michigan Chillers ordinarily end with the main character meeting the protagonist of the next book, who begins telling their own scary story. But this time, Leah doesn't meet Josh and Robyn from Mackinaw City Mummies. Instead, she makes the acquaintance of Parker Smith from the Adventure Club, a new book series by Johnathan Rand. That unexpected change of habit is refreshing, as Sinister Spiders of Saginaw is overall, and the author deserves kudos for it. I think I'll give this book the full two stars. It's one of the best Michigan Chillers, so if you love the series, don't miss it.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely scary in every single chapter Leah and her two friends help mr. Emerson kill the octogores with acid-ice that are invading the city of saginaw.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leah, who disappears through the book halfway searching for her dog, in what she thinks is a fantasy. Her two friends Angela and Connor come to help her find her dog. Angela disappears in the swamps of Saginaw, and instead of searching for Grumpy, Leah’s dog, they switch to looking for Angela.

The plot of the story is Leah, who is deathly afraid of spiders, gets lost searching for her dog and friend in the sewers of Saginaw. Leah and Conner get attacked by two gigantic spiders and wrapped into their web and carried down into the depths of Saginaw. Personally, if I was attacked by two enormous spiders I would just give in. It’s not like you can escape a spider that six feet tall and shoots the web that you can’t get off yourself. Although desperate to find their best friend Angela in the sewers, they search for her in the spider-infested area. They someone manage to find her caught in the web of another spider. What even are the chances that in the whole sewers of Saginaw you find your best friend, apparently pretty good. Then as they are trying to walk out the-the sewers to go home, another ginormous spider comes at them. They are terrified and the only weapon they have is Connor’s little knife. Turns out that the other giant spider was their friend from school. How they knew that was he morphed into his “human body” and just casually said hello. I don’t understand how Leah, Conner, or Angela didn’t pass out, because I know I would. After all that goes down, they realize the whole town is in trouble. Why, because the bad spiders are going to dump bad water into the tower and transform everyone who drinks it into one. My question is why did these spiders even come to Saginaw in the first place? Maybe, Saginaw has the best sewer system for them to live in.

I actually enjoyed the book more than I thought. At first, I expected some cheesy make-believe story about kids fighting giant spiders. Until the fact, Johnathan Rand incorporated the facts of Saginaw and made it seem realistic. There were a few parts I did not enjoy. One of them was about Leah sliding down the air rafters and magically appearing down into the spider’s nest. How in the world did this girl get so lucky? First, she magically finds her best friend in a huge sewer system. Then, she escapes death nearly and few times, without the spiders hurting her or her friends at all. Typically, I would not pick this book up. One reason because it’s more from middle school to late middle schoolers, but I saw it was something about Saginaw. It almost reminds me of those Magic Treehouse books that seem impossible for that to happen to kids.

What is friendship anyway? The actual definition of friendship is the emotions of the conduct of friends, the state of being friends. For instance, how many friends of yours would come help you find your dog in that instance? Leah’s did, and to back that up, even more, Leah stopped searching for her dog, and worried more about her friend Angela that was in trouble. Would your friend sacrifice their life to save you being attacked by a giant spider? Leah’s friends all did and they happened to save the world meanwhile. For example, “Conner?!?!?! I gasped. Is… is that you? No, it’s Humpty-Dumpty! Conner mocked. Of course, it is me”! (Rand 38) At this moment in time, Leah is stuck in the spider’s cocoon. Hopeless, Leah believes it is a spider about ready to attack her, but remarkably Conner is on the other end with his pocket knife cutting through the cocoon. What a great friend you have to chop you out of a cocoon, and survive. Another time when Angela and Leah escaped the spiders they jumped up into the air went and hid. “Hold my hand, I ordered Angela. Hold my hand so that we don’t-”. (Rand 131) At this time Leah is falling down the air rafters into who knows where, and Angela slid down to save her. That is what I call friendship.

[Max Higgins]

This book is based on true events. Arachno-sapiens and Octogores are real. They are among us. I should know, I am one of them.

My story begins when I was hanging out with friends in my basement, smoking weed. We were trying this new stuff my dad had grown. It was insane shit but anyway

I took a few hits and felt fine. Later, I went to the bathroom to drop a colossal turd. That was when the headache started.

My vision went black and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I shit you not I saw that i had completely transformed into a giant spider!

I freaked the fuck out and tried to open the bathroom door, but my stupid spider legs couldn't get a grip on the handle. I slipped and fell and smacked my head against the handle and everything went black.

While I was asleep I kept thinking to myself "why wouldn't my dad tell me that I'm a fucking arachnosapian?" I'm from another planet. I always said that I wanted to get the hell off this planet but man this is ridiculous!

When I woke up I was on the couch. I was told by my dad that I had permanent brain damage. I know the truth, though. They're trying to cover up the fact that I am, in fact, an alien spider monster.

Pretty good book.

[Keira Kohles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main character i read was Angela her name was Angela and there was a attack of spiders huge spiders and Angela hatted spiders even the tiny ones.So there was a spider attack and they where living in the sewers and wanted to make the humans under control of them with putting there toxic stuff in the water so they did that by flooding the city with the water tower.

[Caitlin Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in elementary school, so about 18 years ago. When looking at the list of Michigan Chillers, this one instantly caught my eye. I can vividly remember the mental visualizations of some of the parts in this book. Honestly, any of the Michigan Chilllers books were a staple to my childhood reading habits.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can lay your hands on this author's books, I definitely recommend them. The characters are young adult/teens, but the subject matter, the subtly included history & geography are informative. Mainly, though, they're a fun read.

[Aaden · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending knocked a whole star off and leading into a new series is dumb

[Anmol · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Leah HATES spiders. So when she loses his dog, grumpy, runs away, she finds the octogores- the evil spiders. She and her friends Angela and Conner find out that the achrano-sapiens- the good spiders- are all around them. The 3 kids and the achrano-sapiens team up to stop the octogores. They overpower the octogores only to find a shocking end!

[Jacob Pung · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Sinister Spiders of Saginaw" by Johnathan Rand was a cool book. A girl named Leah and her friends discover a race of giant spiders and they suspect they are up to no good. They team up to stop them and try to figure out their plans. but will they be able to stop them? or is there nothing to stop at all?

[Ais Eddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great book. I live i Saginaw so it was pretty cool for me. I got it at the Saginaw Soccerfest and he (Jonathan Rand) signed it for me. I finished it in four days. It didn't really have much suspence; you could tell what came next - except for the end. For teens and preteens.

[Tony Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was very interesting because the charcters have to save their town. because spiders from another planet are trying to put poision in the new water plant. also there are people who are half spider half human

[JacobT · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a big adventure to read. Love the monster spiders.

[Grace Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate spiders, this book was good but it freaked me out! The ending scared me. I mean, the ending wasn't scary, just sooooo FREAKY!!!!

[Lauren Lebeck]

it was a good book!

[Reese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its about a girl who hates spideres and 2 friends who look for there dog and find huge spiders underground who are trying to take over.

[Fishy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it was a great book and I think you should read it too!
I liked the part when the good guys sneaked into the water tower and saved Saginaw.

[Fluffyrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book about adventure and giant 16 foot spiders.

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

These giant spiders take over grand rapids destroy what will they do next