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The Uninvited
It was like any other spring day in the quiet, peaceful community of Lapeer Parish, Louisiana. But for Sheriff Vic Ransonet it was the beginning of a nightmare. People were disappearing without a trace. Animals were being eaten right down to the bone. Lush fertile fields of crops were being stripped bare. But the sherriff knew the evil that lurked in the barns, sheds, and homes of the sleepy parish. He had seen the creatures with his own eyes. He had heard the clicking of ther jaws, the signal that they were on the move to feed their ravenous appetites. And if he couldn't stop them, then every man, woman, and child would die, and Lapeer Parish would be wiped off the map.
301 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
60 people are currently reading
375 people want to read
About the author
William W. Johnstone
1,041 books1,392 followersWilliam W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before serving in the army. He went on to become known as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century." Visit him online at WilliamJohnstone.net.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 18, 2024
A frightening, icky man versus nature story in which a small Louisiana town faces off with a swarm of mutant cockroaches. Intelligent and up to 8 inches long with a viscous bite that infects and mutates the victim these viscous little insects will give you the creepy crawlies in your nightmares.
October 13, 2021
This story may bug you.
There are many novels called "The Uninvited," most of which fall squarely in the horror category, and William Johnstone's novel is as generic as the title. This is an 80s animals-amok disaster tale featuring a hoarde of cockroaches mutated by a Monsanto-style chemical compound that spills into the swamps of Cajun country. These critters are huge. They're vicious. They have teeth. Their bites carries an infectious agent that turns people into mindless flesh-eating zombies. And they eat just about anything, even each other. Has human meddling with the forces of nature finally led to the end of the world?
If you like classic B-movies from the 50s through the early 80s, you will enjoy this book. It's themes and tropes will feel very familiar. But if you have a phobia of creeping and biting insects, this may be a little too intense for you.
I for one enjoyed the setting in my home state of Louisiana, particularly in the rural towns around Thibodaux. However, most of the landmarks of this area are fictional. Johnstone does a good job of making the backdrop feel like real areas in the gator-infested swampland surrounding Thibodaux, Houma, and Alexandria, with made-up places like Lapeer and Baronne parishes and the Velour River.
Johnstone gets a lot of friendly joshing among horror fans for his writing, but I didn't find it to be all that bad. However, there are some quintessential Johnstone moments in this book. Take this excerpt, for instance:
"The coffee in the squad room tasted like old boiled mud. 'Tastes like shit!' Slick said." I'm surprised Johnstone didn't follow this with: "And the coffee was real bad too."
Johnstone also doesn't seem to know that insects and spiders are not the same. He repeatedly reports that the roaches have eight legs. Granted, these are mutant roaches, but I don't think the eight legs was written as intentionally part of the mutation.
Here's another example with minor spoilers. The author mentioned that there are only three bridges in and out of the infested area, so if you then guessed that the bridges would all go down over the course of the story, thus trapping the local inhabitants with millions of hungry mutant bugs, give yourself credit at least for not missing the obvious. But Johnstone has the bridges taken out through ridiculous and all too convenient means--a true Deus ex machina. First, a truck driver gets stung by a wasp that flies through his open window, causing anaphylactic shock instantly which sends the truck and the unconscious driver careening into another car, the bridge being destroyed in the ensuing explosion. The second bridge falls victim to an oversized truck taxing the supports weakened by years of damage from burrowing nutria. Damn, what does Johnstone have against truckers? Anyway, it is far too ridiculous to have two escape routes ruined by two innocuous and random accidents that coincidentally just so happened to occur at the same time during a major crisis requiring evacuation.
But my main complaint is in regard to the characterization. Dr. Whitson is the most memorable of the cast, an old curmudgeon leading the scientific research and defense against the spreading ecodisaster. He is cold and impartial, capable of making tough decisions based on data rather than emotion, but he also is endowed with warmth and humor. The rest of the cast is not so memorable. I rarely could tell who was speaking based on the dialogue, as they all sounded the same, and we never get to know many of the characters as fleshed-out personalities. Even their names are generic, such as Bob, but things get really confusing when you run across names like Slick, Dick, and Vic. Like "Shin Godzilla," there are also too many characters of which to keep track. The cast is huge, which gives some weight and breadth to the scale of impact, but you don't have enough time to invest heavily in the fates of anyone involved.
All that being said, the novel has an undeniable charm about it. It is also a quick read and quickly paced. And the idea of swarming giant roaches certainly succeeded in giving me endless nightmares of formication. I have encountered all sorts of more dangerous animals and insects in my lifetime, yet roaches remain a staple phobia I have yet to kick. I still remember waking up from a dream where a woman with long nails was running her fingers seductively through my hair, only to find that alone in my dark bedroom that something was still prickling in my curls. Jumping out of bed and desperately clawing at my scalp, I was horrified to discover one of those flying Chinese cockroaches had been responsible for the sensation, and I jump onto the nearest chair whenever I see one of the chitinous pests to this day.
If you are in the mood to try a Johnstone novel, or a classic of paperback horrors, you could do worse.
There are many novels called "The Uninvited," most of which fall squarely in the horror category, and William Johnstone's novel is as generic as the title. This is an 80s animals-amok disaster tale featuring a hoarde of cockroaches mutated by a Monsanto-style chemical compound that spills into the swamps of Cajun country. These critters are huge. They're vicious. They have teeth. Their bites carries an infectious agent that turns people into mindless flesh-eating zombies. And they eat just about anything, even each other. Has human meddling with the forces of nature finally led to the end of the world?
If you like classic B-movies from the 50s through the early 80s, you will enjoy this book. It's themes and tropes will feel very familiar. But if you have a phobia of creeping and biting insects, this may be a little too intense for you.
I for one enjoyed the setting in my home state of Louisiana, particularly in the rural towns around Thibodaux. However, most of the landmarks of this area are fictional. Johnstone does a good job of making the backdrop feel like real areas in the gator-infested swampland surrounding Thibodaux, Houma, and Alexandria, with made-up places like Lapeer and Baronne parishes and the Velour River.
Johnstone gets a lot of friendly joshing among horror fans for his writing, but I didn't find it to be all that bad. However, there are some quintessential Johnstone moments in this book. Take this excerpt, for instance:
"The coffee in the squad room tasted like old boiled mud. 'Tastes like shit!' Slick said." I'm surprised Johnstone didn't follow this with: "And the coffee was real bad too."
Johnstone also doesn't seem to know that insects and spiders are not the same. He repeatedly reports that the roaches have eight legs. Granted, these are mutant roaches, but I don't think the eight legs was written as intentionally part of the mutation.
Here's another example with minor spoilers. The author mentioned that there are only three bridges in and out of the infested area, so if you then guessed that the bridges would all go down over the course of the story, thus trapping the local inhabitants with millions of hungry mutant bugs, give yourself credit at least for not missing the obvious. But Johnstone has the bridges taken out through ridiculous and all too convenient means--a true Deus ex machina. First, a truck driver gets stung by a wasp that flies through his open window, causing anaphylactic shock instantly which sends the truck and the unconscious driver careening into another car, the bridge being destroyed in the ensuing explosion. The second bridge falls victim to an oversized truck taxing the supports weakened by years of damage from burrowing nutria. Damn, what does Johnstone have against truckers? Anyway, it is far too ridiculous to have two escape routes ruined by two innocuous and random accidents that coincidentally just so happened to occur at the same time during a major crisis requiring evacuation.
But my main complaint is in regard to the characterization. Dr. Whitson is the most memorable of the cast, an old curmudgeon leading the scientific research and defense against the spreading ecodisaster. He is cold and impartial, capable of making tough decisions based on data rather than emotion, but he also is endowed with warmth and humor. The rest of the cast is not so memorable. I rarely could tell who was speaking based on the dialogue, as they all sounded the same, and we never get to know many of the characters as fleshed-out personalities. Even their names are generic, such as Bob, but things get really confusing when you run across names like Slick, Dick, and Vic. Like "Shin Godzilla," there are also too many characters of which to keep track. The cast is huge, which gives some weight and breadth to the scale of impact, but you don't have enough time to invest heavily in the fates of anyone involved.
All that being said, the novel has an undeniable charm about it. It is also a quick read and quickly paced. And the idea of swarming giant roaches certainly succeeded in giving me endless nightmares of formication. I have encountered all sorts of more dangerous animals and insects in my lifetime, yet roaches remain a staple phobia I have yet to kick. I still remember waking up from a dream where a woman with long nails was running her fingers seductively through my hair, only to find that alone in my dark bedroom that something was still prickling in my curls. Jumping out of bed and desperately clawing at my scalp, I was horrified to discover one of those flying Chinese cockroaches had been responsible for the sensation, and I jump onto the nearest chair whenever I see one of the chitinous pests to this day.
If you are in the mood to try a Johnstone novel, or a classic of paperback horrors, you could do worse.
July 10, 2019
This was a creepy, crawly, crazy book!
What do you get when you mix toxic chemicals with insects? Mutants on steroids that grow from an inch to twelve inches! Not only do they get big, but they are also cannibalistic meaning they are very hungry.
Lapeer Parish, Louisiana with a population of a few thousand are enjoying the quiet life, until the mutants show up. When a farmer's herd of cattle end up dead and all that is left of them are bones is when the mystery surrounds the community. Then people start disappearing, but just a few at a time, so nothing really to worry about as excuses are made as to where the people have gone.
When more people start vanishing, that is when Sheriff Vic Ransonet steps in and tries to make sense of what happened. Not only people, but pets, farm animals, lush crops, etc. are at the mercy of these mutants. The sheriff along with his deputies go to investigate the farms to find the people, but when they get out to the farms, all they find are bones of what use to be the citizens.
Night is the worse for the mutants as that is when they come out in full force, but we are not talking about hundreds of mutants, we are talking about millions of them and they love to eat. The only way to know that they are in the vicinity is by the "clicking" noise of their jaws.
The crap hits the fan though when the mutants bite some of the people as not all of the them die as when the toxin hits their system, they are driven to madness which makes them almost like zombies. It is everything that Sheriff Ransonet can do to keep his deputies alive along with people that have not come in contact with the mutants. Do they make it out alive? Are the mutants able to be killed? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book.
This was one scary insect ride as it shows what happens when toxic chemicals mix with our ecological system and things go haywire with any kind of living organisms. Giving this book four stars.
What do you get when you mix toxic chemicals with insects? Mutants on steroids that grow from an inch to twelve inches! Not only do they get big, but they are also cannibalistic meaning they are very hungry.
Lapeer Parish, Louisiana with a population of a few thousand are enjoying the quiet life, until the mutants show up. When a farmer's herd of cattle end up dead and all that is left of them are bones is when the mystery surrounds the community. Then people start disappearing, but just a few at a time, so nothing really to worry about as excuses are made as to where the people have gone.
When more people start vanishing, that is when Sheriff Vic Ransonet steps in and tries to make sense of what happened. Not only people, but pets, farm animals, lush crops, etc. are at the mercy of these mutants. The sheriff along with his deputies go to investigate the farms to find the people, but when they get out to the farms, all they find are bones of what use to be the citizens.
Night is the worse for the mutants as that is when they come out in full force, but we are not talking about hundreds of mutants, we are talking about millions of them and they love to eat. The only way to know that they are in the vicinity is by the "clicking" noise of their jaws.
The crap hits the fan though when the mutants bite some of the people as not all of the them die as when the toxin hits their system, they are driven to madness which makes them almost like zombies. It is everything that Sheriff Ransonet can do to keep his deputies alive along with people that have not come in contact with the mutants. Do they make it out alive? Are the mutants able to be killed? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book.
This was one scary insect ride as it shows what happens when toxic chemicals mix with our ecological system and things go haywire with any kind of living organisms. Giving this book four stars.
August 26, 2023
Really closer to two stars, but I am feeling generous today. While most of Johnstone's Zebra horror revolves around some ancient good/evil binary, The Uninvited gives us his take on the 'animal attack' subgenre so popular in the 70s/early 80s. The attacker this time? Giant, mutated cockroaches with a taste for human flesh whose bite (they have fangs/teeth) transforms people into cockroach zombies! What could go wrong?
Well, for starters, The Uninvited came out two years after The Nest by Douglas, which also featured man-eating cockroaches, also strangely mutated. Even odder, they seem to attack in a remarkably similar way. Hum. Being generous again, you could argue that Johnstone was inspired by that work; less generous readers might go so far as to call it a crude knockoff. In any case, this takes place in rural Louisiana and not an island of the New Jersey coast.
Seems like some shady government agency was experimenting with chemicals; one looked like a real winner-- a combo insecticide/fungicide that even adds nutrients into the soil! The only problem, however, was its impact on cockroaches. Yes, it mutated them into something mean and nasty, and (like The Nest again!) turned them into hive minds to seek out their prey. The agency decided this stuff was too hot to handle and the plan was to dump it in the ocean, but the tanker carrying it had a minor accident and ended up leaking gallons of the stuff in rural Louisiana...
Johnstone's typical assemblage of character types populate the novel; several war heroes and one with a medal of honor (there always seems to be at least one of these in his novels!), tough cops, sexy women, some doctors and even one 'bug doctor' that is world famous. Johnstone does not mess around with a lot of filler here and the action starts up right away. People are missing everywhere, herds of cow 'get et', leaving nothing but bones. Strange clicking noises in bean fields. Who would believe, however that cockroaches would be behind all this? Toss in some typical off the wall humor by Johnstone (whose 'conservative rants' always touch on parody) and here you go. Not horrible, but pretty derivative to be sure (again, being generous). 2.5 roachy stars!!
Well, for starters, The Uninvited came out two years after The Nest by Douglas, which also featured man-eating cockroaches, also strangely mutated. Even odder, they seem to attack in a remarkably similar way. Hum. Being generous again, you could argue that Johnstone was inspired by that work; less generous readers might go so far as to call it a crude knockoff. In any case, this takes place in rural Louisiana and not an island of the New Jersey coast.
Seems like some shady government agency was experimenting with chemicals; one looked like a real winner-- a combo insecticide/fungicide that even adds nutrients into the soil! The only problem, however, was its impact on cockroaches. Yes, it mutated them into something mean and nasty, and (like The Nest again!) turned them into hive minds to seek out their prey. The agency decided this stuff was too hot to handle and the plan was to dump it in the ocean, but the tanker carrying it had a minor accident and ended up leaking gallons of the stuff in rural Louisiana...
Johnstone's typical assemblage of character types populate the novel; several war heroes and one with a medal of honor (there always seems to be at least one of these in his novels!), tough cops, sexy women, some doctors and even one 'bug doctor' that is world famous. Johnstone does not mess around with a lot of filler here and the action starts up right away. People are missing everywhere, herds of cow 'get et', leaving nothing but bones. Strange clicking noises in bean fields. Who would believe, however that cockroaches would be behind all this? Toss in some typical off the wall humor by Johnstone (whose 'conservative rants' always touch on parody) and here you go. Not horrible, but pretty derivative to be sure (again, being generous). 2.5 roachy stars!!
November 2, 2020
William W. Johnstone is best consumed with a tongue lodged so firmly in cheek that it requires an oral surgeon to straighten the problem out. And if you don't believe me, I cordially, uh, "invite" (see what I did there?) you to join me for a romp through another of his square-jawed, Republican-Jesus-fearing, journalist-hating, gun-humping redneck horror tales from Zebra Publishing.
It's the very early 80's, and courtesy of government malfeasance and scientific idiocy (80's horror's absolute best friends-with-benefits), Louisiana is overrun by cockroaches. Not your garden variety Periplaneta americana, mind you, but a mutated, Big Gulp-sized sort which have grown not only larger, but also teeth, and also also are now super-spreaders of a virulent strain of Rabies-Ricketts-Anthrax because William W. Johnstone understands neither virology nor biology. What he did understand was people at Zebra kept paying him to slap typewriter keys until horror novels came out the other end, and so that's what he did. Which is why we should all be grateful we have The Uninvited (the book, not the flesh-rending cockroaches) available for reading.
While the horror realm may be large and all-encompassing, there's still a general rule that there's room for only one of any given type of "killer critter" book. It's why everybody remembers 1975's Jaws and ignored 1984's Devil Fish, despite the latter having way more nudity and graphic violence. The unspoken rule is if you're going to do killer critters, you need to either be the first to exploit your new humanity-destroying monstrosity, or, failing that, you rip off someone else's idea and make it more exploitative and lurid.
Gregory Douglas beat Johnstone to the punch with 1980's The Nest, which is already about as lurid and exploitative (not to mention scientifically literate) as one could want in a cockroaches-eating-literally-everything book. Whether Johnstone knew this or not, Zebra sure as hell should have, since they're the ones who published The Nest. Then again, Zebra was where the turds at the bottom of the slush pile occasionally earned a polishing, so it's not like readers didn't know what they were getting. What they got with The Uninvited was The Nest with a faster pace and lower page count, bred at the expense of such trivialities as "character development", and unhampered by the likes of lurid exploitation save for the mildly PG-13 variety.
I'm not going to regurgitate the plot of The Uninvited. A chemical spill in backwater Louisiana mutates the roaches living there into six-inch monstrosities with ravenous appetites, and everything swiftly goes to Hades. That's all you need to know. There are a number of POV characters, none of whom is particularly interesting or likeable, and it's the same stock in trade sorts that populate virtually every "nature on the rampage" book you've ever read: the small-town sheriff, the best-in-his-field scientist, the women of inaction, the wise-cracking deputy, the uppity reporter, the steel-jawed general who has to decide how much napalm on innocent civilians will solve the problem, and the President with a crush on Linda Ronstadt -- the only thing Johnstone was willing to divulge about this parallel universe's Ronald Reagan analog.
Most of the deaths occur off-page, though we are treated to a few moments where Johnstone tells us about roaches stripping the flesh from people's bones, and eating their eyes, and crawling into their mouths. But because he's only telling the reader about it, there's little to horrify. Here's a sample of the carnage which takes place when two promiscuous teenagers learn why it's a bad idea to have sex out in the middle of nowhere:
See what I mean? Sure, the idea of all that happening is awful, but it lands like a cheerleader who jumped the wrong way when dismounting from the human pyramid. Johnstone's prose is as subtle as a thunderous fart in a cramped elevator. When he's trying to be funny, he's turgid. But when he's not trying to amuse, I laugh my ass off. That, right there, is why I will continue to read Johnstone's horror novels. They're entertaining for all the reasons he never intended.
I have no choice but to award The Uninvited a heart-warming three plague-bearing cockroaches out of five.
Best Scene:
Spoilers for the end of the book, but It's the sort of hilariously awful ending you don't expect, and it happens like it just dawned on Johnstone that he hadn't quite hit the body count he was going for. He later explains the fate of some of the survivors in about three sentences towards the end, in that horribly awkward "text overlay" format used by documentaries when there's no footage suitable for wrap-up.
The epilogue, though, is perfect. I'll leave it at that. Johnstone, it appears, was in on the joke all along.
It's the very early 80's, and courtesy of government malfeasance and scientific idiocy (80's horror's absolute best friends-with-benefits), Louisiana is overrun by cockroaches. Not your garden variety Periplaneta americana, mind you, but a mutated, Big Gulp-sized sort which have grown not only larger, but also teeth, and also also are now super-spreaders of a virulent strain of Rabies-Ricketts-Anthrax because William W. Johnstone understands neither virology nor biology. What he did understand was people at Zebra kept paying him to slap typewriter keys until horror novels came out the other end, and so that's what he did. Which is why we should all be grateful we have The Uninvited (the book, not the flesh-rending cockroaches) available for reading.
While the horror realm may be large and all-encompassing, there's still a general rule that there's room for only one of any given type of "killer critter" book. It's why everybody remembers 1975's Jaws and ignored 1984's Devil Fish, despite the latter having way more nudity and graphic violence. The unspoken rule is if you're going to do killer critters, you need to either be the first to exploit your new humanity-destroying monstrosity, or, failing that, you rip off someone else's idea and make it more exploitative and lurid.
Gregory Douglas beat Johnstone to the punch with 1980's The Nest, which is already about as lurid and exploitative (not to mention scientifically literate) as one could want in a cockroaches-eating-literally-everything book. Whether Johnstone knew this or not, Zebra sure as hell should have, since they're the ones who published The Nest. Then again, Zebra was where the turds at the bottom of the slush pile occasionally earned a polishing, so it's not like readers didn't know what they were getting. What they got with The Uninvited was The Nest with a faster pace and lower page count, bred at the expense of such trivialities as "character development", and unhampered by the likes of lurid exploitation save for the mildly PG-13 variety.
I'm not going to regurgitate the plot of The Uninvited. A chemical spill in backwater Louisiana mutates the roaches living there into six-inch monstrosities with ravenous appetites, and everything swiftly goes to Hades. That's all you need to know. There are a number of POV characters, none of whom is particularly interesting or likeable, and it's the same stock in trade sorts that populate virtually every "nature on the rampage" book you've ever read: the small-town sheriff, the best-in-his-field scientist, the women of inaction, the wise-cracking deputy, the uppity reporter, the steel-jawed general who has to decide how much napalm on innocent civilians will solve the problem, and the President with a crush on Linda Ronstadt -- the only thing Johnstone was willing to divulge about this parallel universe's Ronald Reagan analog.
Most of the deaths occur off-page, though we are treated to a few moments where Johnstone tells us about roaches stripping the flesh from people's bones, and eating their eyes, and crawling into their mouths. But because he's only telling the reader about it, there's little to horrify. Here's a sample of the carnage which takes place when two promiscuous teenagers learn why it's a bad idea to have sex out in the middle of nowhere:
The driving passion of the young pair increased, with Judy hunching upward to meet his plunging. The rain had long since gentled into a fine, light mist.
"Oh, God!" she cried, wrapping her legs around his as climax shook her in a hot hand.
Then she screamed in pain and terror as something started biting her legs.
Mickey howled in agony as his legs and exposed buttocks were suddenly covered with a crawling, hairy, biting fury.
They screamed as creatures poured in through the open windows, thousands of them, crawling over the boy and girl, completely covering them in a feeding frenzy. The shrieking of the young people ripped through the soft night as they sought vainly to escape. But all avenues were blocked as the mutants fought with each other for the opportunity to feed, to appease their rapacious appetites. The screaming of the kids ceased abruptly as their mouths filled with mutants. The Bronco swayed in the night, a darkness that jerked back and forth, rocking with no set rhythm as the kids convulsed in spasmodic agony on the seat and floorboards. Within moments, all motion stopped, as the mutants ate their fill, then backed away, allowing others to feed.
See what I mean? Sure, the idea of all that happening is awful, but it lands like a cheerleader who jumped the wrong way when dismounting from the human pyramid. Johnstone's prose is as subtle as a thunderous fart in a cramped elevator. When he's trying to be funny, he's turgid. But when he's not trying to amuse, I laugh my ass off. That, right there, is why I will continue to read Johnstone's horror novels. They're entertaining for all the reasons he never intended.
I have no choice but to award The Uninvited a heart-warming three plague-bearing cockroaches out of five.
Best Scene:
Spoilers for the end of the book, but It's the sort of hilariously awful ending you don't expect, and it happens like it just dawned on Johnstone that he hadn't quite hit the body count he was going for. He later explains the fate of some of the survivors in about three sentences towards the end, in that horribly awkward "text overlay" format used by documentaries when there's no footage suitable for wrap-up.
The epilogue, though, is perfect. I'll leave it at that. Johnstone, it appears, was in on the joke all along.
April 17, 2009
Okay the only reason I gave it so many stars was because it was a fun read. This book read like a "B" horror flick, I totally enjoyed it because of that. If you do not like those types of movies than you won't like this book.
August 15, 2018
Another great "nature on the rampage" book. Also, one of the few Zebra horror books that does not deal with a young child's horrific nightmare. This ones about a pesticide that was spilled in a parish in Louisiana. It effected only one bug, the cockroach. It turns them into giant, a foot long at the most, mutant flesh or anything in their way, eaters. The residents have to combat the bugs and try to survive. The President of the US encircles the contaminated areas so no one can get in and more importantly, out. If your bit by these bugs, you turn into a foaming at the mouth mad person that will eat you just the same as the bugs.
This book gets extra points for the ending. You sort of know whats going to happen, but there are a few curves that you won't see coming. This book wastes no time in getting going. It moves from scene to scene a brake neck pace. We get some planning on how to deal with the bugs, them, next thing you know, someone is a Periplaneta's feast. This book also reminds me of another book by William W. Johnstone that I read years ago called, "Watchers in the Woods" If I remember right. This one is with bugs. That one was with big foot type creatures that kill. I may have to re-read that one again to see if my memory is right. Very nice book.
This book gets extra points for the ending. You sort of know whats going to happen, but there are a few curves that you won't see coming. This book wastes no time in getting going. It moves from scene to scene a brake neck pace. We get some planning on how to deal with the bugs, them, next thing you know, someone is a Periplaneta's feast. This book also reminds me of another book by William W. Johnstone that I read years ago called, "Watchers in the Woods" If I remember right. This one is with bugs. That one was with big foot type creatures that kill. I may have to re-read that one again to see if my memory is right. Very nice book.
January 8, 2024
Typical Johnstone, crass, bizarre, and weirdly political. Much more entertaining if you read everything in a Transatlantic accent like a cheesy horror flick. Worth it for the cover.
July 7, 2015
It starts with a little spill. Just some toxic junk. No big deal.
Until that stuff changes something. Creates something new and deadly.
If you hear the clicking, it’s already too late.
Another scary good story from this author with more creatures. I can’t tell you what they are. I can tell you they appear from out of nowhere, strip a body down to the bare bones in the time it takes to say, Oh sh#t!, and vanish just as quickly.
No place is safe. As the town is slowly cut off from the rest of the world, the reports of missing animals and people rises and more dessicated bodies are discovered.
Once again, this author gave me horror the way I like it. Creatures, a desperate struggle to survive, and no guarantees that your favorite characters will still be standing at the end.
I received this book for my honest review.
Until that stuff changes something. Creates something new and deadly.
If you hear the clicking, it’s already too late.
Another scary good story from this author with more creatures. I can’t tell you what they are. I can tell you they appear from out of nowhere, strip a body down to the bare bones in the time it takes to say, Oh sh#t!, and vanish just as quickly.
No place is safe. As the town is slowly cut off from the rest of the world, the reports of missing animals and people rises and more dessicated bodies are discovered.
Once again, this author gave me horror the way I like it. Creatures, a desperate struggle to survive, and no guarantees that your favorite characters will still be standing at the end.
I received this book for my honest review.
October 1, 2015
I absolutely loved this book. It gives you the willies. It will make your skin crawl. If you are into scare you out of your skin...you will like this. If you are into romance books...you will not like this.
Give it a shot. Leave the lights on!
Give it a shot. Leave the lights on!
August 28, 2017
Great book
I really liked this book, was hard to put down, and kept you guessing who would survive. A good read for any monster,disaster, horror fan.
I really liked this book, was hard to put down, and kept you guessing who would survive. A good read for any monster,disaster, horror fan.
February 21, 2018
Read this book
This is amazing read!! I can't recommend this book highly enough. Thrilling from beginning to end. One of his best.
This is amazing read!! I can't recommend this book highly enough. Thrilling from beginning to end. One of his best.
November 4, 2022
3.5 stars rounded down for GR. This story was absurd and ridiculous, and the writing wasn't very good. However, it was so over-the-top and trashy that I actually had a good time reading it.
March 27, 2011
This has got to be one of the best horror novels I have read. Really enjoyed it - however it is hard to find and my copy is falling apart, so I am scared to read it again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2024
I got a hunch this is gonna be a year we’ll all remember.
I have to explain something before I get started here: you see, I've been working on a reading challenge - 12 books featuring creepy crawlies - and this was entry #12. For those of you that don't know about my obsessiveness, that's 16 days of nothing but insect books! And at the finish line, I decided on William W. Johnstone's "The Uninvited" because the leader of our group - the indomitable D.M.Guay! - has lived in both Louisiana and also OF COURSE features a cockroach in her own books (albeit a nice one that doesn't eat faces! P.S. Read her books NOW!). Also, as the denizens of our Facebook group and any followers I might have on Instagram know (I think I have 3 and 2 of them are spambots), I decided I would only include insects and arachnids as CC qualifiers… noting quite clearly this doesn't include giant worms of any kind, which, bizarrely enough, keep showing up in on-line lists for insect related literature. My point is simply that by this point, I've seen a lot of similar things that also happened here, so if that influences my comments, well, so be it. And yes, my skin is freakin' itchy as heck! Goosebumps galore!
Man had finally done it, had finally produced a super-strain of insect.
Anyway, "The Uninvited" has a lot of the standard events that happen in and aspects of this (sub)genre, including the requisite spillage of agro- or biochemicals into an otherwise benign and thriving ecosystem. In this case, this "wee, minor industrial accident" does little damage with the exception of turning the local cockroach community into drooling - and clicking, good gods, don't forget the clicking! - killing machines. Man oh man, do they do some killing … and it gets pretty gruesome pretty quickly for our Cajun friends! But where this takes a neat twist vs. other stories of this ilk (meaning, the ones on my list) is that folks - and all living things, let's not forget that either - that aren't completely eaten away into dried and bleached skeletons turn themselves into drooling zombies with a taste for ultra-violence and -destruction, human flesh, and, um, paper. It makes for an even more in-depth clusterFUNTIME (sorry, the censors must have hacked in) that leads our ragtag teams of local public safety officers, genuine war heroes, and even current military personnel to make some very, very difficult decisions indeed.
We not only have mutant roaches among us, we also have mutant humans prowling the streets.
I have to admit that I was especially relieved that Johnstone at very least takes a realistic view on how folks would react during such a disaster, including the relatively quick military response - and thorough both in sheer numbers as well as the ordnance involved. Even when the night of the final "purge" arrives, he doesn't hesitate to show that these circumstances do not only bring out the best in mankind, but the very worst as well. And again, in doing so, he manages to ramp up the tension that the reader WANTS to feel, even though the eventual conclusion can't/won't be all that surprising. Plus, the aforementioned work by the Armed Forces comes across as not only thorough - I wasn't expecting nukes but the napalm was damned impressive - but even sympathetic. Not following the orders of a disinterested (and probably thoroughly incompetent) President is also a plus, especially once he starts pining for the company of gorgeous Russian women. Amazing this book came out in 1982 with the way things are now, huh? Ahem.
We’re less than twenty thousand. A drop in the bucket. We’re all expendable.
But with the positives came also some less effective aspects. First, trying to rid the world of the "mutants" as they're repeatedly called is all well and good, but am I the only one that noticed they were flying towards the end? I don't think razing the local area with oodles of napalm - mmm, gotta love the smell in the mornings though - would guarantee that a flying threat would be eliminated. Yes, they "burned" the waterways as best as they could (ahem, the return of ahem) but we're talking an airborne threat during a very violent storm at one point. Yeah, that would definitely make me think they had some future trouble on their hands. And in their faces, their hair, and so on. I'm just saying it doesn't take a hurricane to spread things into the next county.
We can’t just think of ourselves at a time like this. This could infect the whole world!
Also, in terms of execution, while the pacing and general production of the book wasn't bad, I was still surprised that there were a lot of punctuation, spelling and even naming mistakes. I mean, men just don't pin their ID's on their skirts, at least not terribly often in these parts. And was it Dick Plano (mentioned 7 times) that killed his family OR Dick PIANO (mentioned 4 times) that went on a rampage? That kind of hiccup is rather severe in my mind as these are like the actual CHILDREN of the author, so if anything, names are an aspect I insist HAVE to be right (noting I have also been caught calling my daughter by the dog's name, which isn't quite the same… look, I'm old dammit!)! In addition, as an ex-chemist myself, I understand that many in the various industries believe that, quote, "the solution to pollution is dilution!"… but wouldn't an agent of the strength of "Nandy" being dumped into the ocean still kind of be really, really bad for the local marine life wherever it managed to land? Or is this one of those "oh just wait until Book 2 moments" and suddenly highly intelligent, mutated whales are feeding on the flesh of us all?
The venom can drastically alter the victim’s makeup, physically and chemically.
But to be clear, overall this was an exciting read that I barely put down since I picked up a copy. The cast was well-formed and mostly sympathetic (ain't it always the same though with the town jerk winding up with some cushy political job?). From my brief experience with Louisiana, it was also a really accurate look at how quickly things could turn tragic in such a small community, particularly one with limited resources (read: no tax surplus from booming industrial players) and even limited chances to actually get the hell out of Dodge if need be! Johnstone handled the introduction as well as concluding parts with aplomb (rhymes with napalm? No…), so if you're doing your own creepy crawlie thingie, enjoy!
I have to explain something before I get started here: you see, I've been working on a reading challenge - 12 books featuring creepy crawlies - and this was entry #12. For those of you that don't know about my obsessiveness, that's 16 days of nothing but insect books! And at the finish line, I decided on William W. Johnstone's "The Uninvited" because the leader of our group - the indomitable D.M.Guay! - has lived in both Louisiana and also OF COURSE features a cockroach in her own books (albeit a nice one that doesn't eat faces! P.S. Read her books NOW!). Also, as the denizens of our Facebook group and any followers I might have on Instagram know (I think I have 3 and 2 of them are spambots), I decided I would only include insects and arachnids as CC qualifiers… noting quite clearly this doesn't include giant worms of any kind, which, bizarrely enough, keep showing up in on-line lists for insect related literature. My point is simply that by this point, I've seen a lot of similar things that also happened here, so if that influences my comments, well, so be it. And yes, my skin is freakin' itchy as heck! Goosebumps galore!
Man had finally done it, had finally produced a super-strain of insect.
Anyway, "The Uninvited" has a lot of the standard events that happen in and aspects of this (sub)genre, including the requisite spillage of agro- or biochemicals into an otherwise benign and thriving ecosystem. In this case, this "wee, minor industrial accident" does little damage with the exception of turning the local cockroach community into drooling - and clicking, good gods, don't forget the clicking! - killing machines. Man oh man, do they do some killing … and it gets pretty gruesome pretty quickly for our Cajun friends! But where this takes a neat twist vs. other stories of this ilk (meaning, the ones on my list) is that folks - and all living things, let's not forget that either - that aren't completely eaten away into dried and bleached skeletons turn themselves into drooling zombies with a taste for ultra-violence and -destruction, human flesh, and, um, paper. It makes for an even more in-depth clusterFUNTIME (sorry, the censors must have hacked in) that leads our ragtag teams of local public safety officers, genuine war heroes, and even current military personnel to make some very, very difficult decisions indeed.
We not only have mutant roaches among us, we also have mutant humans prowling the streets.
I have to admit that I was especially relieved that Johnstone at very least takes a realistic view on how folks would react during such a disaster, including the relatively quick military response - and thorough both in sheer numbers as well as the ordnance involved. Even when the night of the final "purge" arrives, he doesn't hesitate to show that these circumstances do not only bring out the best in mankind, but the very worst as well. And again, in doing so, he manages to ramp up the tension that the reader WANTS to feel, even though the eventual conclusion can't/won't be all that surprising. Plus, the aforementioned work by the Armed Forces comes across as not only thorough - I wasn't expecting nukes but the napalm was damned impressive - but even sympathetic. Not following the orders of a disinterested (and probably thoroughly incompetent) President is also a plus, especially once he starts pining for the company of gorgeous Russian women. Amazing this book came out in 1982 with the way things are now, huh? Ahem.
We’re less than twenty thousand. A drop in the bucket. We’re all expendable.
But with the positives came also some less effective aspects. First, trying to rid the world of the "mutants" as they're repeatedly called is all well and good, but am I the only one that noticed they were flying towards the end? I don't think razing the local area with oodles of napalm - mmm, gotta love the smell in the mornings though - would guarantee that a flying threat would be eliminated. Yes, they "burned" the waterways as best as they could (ahem, the return of ahem) but we're talking an airborne threat during a very violent storm at one point. Yeah, that would definitely make me think they had some future trouble on their hands. And in their faces, their hair, and so on. I'm just saying it doesn't take a hurricane to spread things into the next county.
We can’t just think of ourselves at a time like this. This could infect the whole world!
Also, in terms of execution, while the pacing and general production of the book wasn't bad, I was still surprised that there were a lot of punctuation, spelling and even naming mistakes. I mean, men just don't pin their ID's on their skirts, at least not terribly often in these parts. And was it Dick Plano (mentioned 7 times) that killed his family OR Dick PIANO (mentioned 4 times) that went on a rampage? That kind of hiccup is rather severe in my mind as these are like the actual CHILDREN of the author, so if anything, names are an aspect I insist HAVE to be right (noting I have also been caught calling my daughter by the dog's name, which isn't quite the same… look, I'm old dammit!)! In addition, as an ex-chemist myself, I understand that many in the various industries believe that, quote, "the solution to pollution is dilution!"… but wouldn't an agent of the strength of "Nandy" being dumped into the ocean still kind of be really, really bad for the local marine life wherever it managed to land? Or is this one of those "oh just wait until Book 2 moments" and suddenly highly intelligent, mutated whales are feeding on the flesh of us all?
The venom can drastically alter the victim’s makeup, physically and chemically.
But to be clear, overall this was an exciting read that I barely put down since I picked up a copy. The cast was well-formed and mostly sympathetic (ain't it always the same though with the town jerk winding up with some cushy political job?). From my brief experience with Louisiana, it was also a really accurate look at how quickly things could turn tragic in such a small community, particularly one with limited resources (read: no tax surplus from booming industrial players) and even limited chances to actually get the hell out of Dodge if need be! Johnstone handled the introduction as well as concluding parts with aplomb (rhymes with napalm? No…), so if you're doing your own creepy crawlie thingie, enjoy!
December 5, 2016
A short take:
Intelligent, carnivorous mutant bugs and a handful of small town folk who stand out as more than bugfood. I give Johnstone a lot of credit for craft, as he ventures into genre cliche territory and extracts a fine story that makes for a fun and easy read. Don't let him fool you, kids: this kind of storytelling takes serious work to read so effortlessly. I probably won't come across another mutant bug story that is half as entertaining as this one.
Intelligent, carnivorous mutant bugs and a handful of small town folk who stand out as more than bugfood. I give Johnstone a lot of credit for craft, as he ventures into genre cliche territory and extracts a fine story that makes for a fun and easy read. Don't let him fool you, kids: this kind of storytelling takes serious work to read so effortlessly. I probably won't come across another mutant bug story that is half as entertaining as this one.
January 31, 2017
It was like any other spring day in Lapeer Parish, Louisiana. But for Sheriff Vic Ransonet it was the beginning of a nightmare. People disappearing without a trace, animals eaten down to the bone. It started with a small chemical spill that went unnoticed. The the roaches came out. And they were hungry.
Killer mutant cockroaches! Quick little story that was pretty fun to read. I enjoyed reading the path of destruction the roaches caused.
Killer mutant cockroaches! Quick little story that was pretty fun to read. I enjoyed reading the path of destruction the roaches caused.
December 14, 2012
I read this book a number of times as a teen.
Fun book, kind of horrible. Guilty pleasure.
Fun book, kind of horrible. Guilty pleasure.
February 14, 2021
I hate bugs!!!
I have a true hate for bugs and reading this book really filled me with sheer terror. The whole time I was reading this I could feel giant roaches.crawling on me wanting to devour me. This book was amazing and truly terrifying. How do you stop mutant roaches with teeth and all they want to do is multiply and eat? This book got to me and it’s one I will never forget
I have a true hate for bugs and reading this book really filled me with sheer terror. The whole time I was reading this I could feel giant roaches.crawling on me wanting to devour me. This book was amazing and truly terrifying. How do you stop mutant roaches with teeth and all they want to do is multiply and eat? This book got to me and it’s one I will never forget
May 5, 2021
Formula fun
This probably isn't a good book, as far as works of literature go. This is a Formula bug invasion story the likes of which thrilled me as a kid. And you know I'm still a sucker for it. Like that roller coaster that I would ride every time that I went to the carnival. I would ride it again and again even though I knew every hill ,turn, and stomach wrenching drop. But it was fun every time. This is a fun book.
This probably isn't a good book, as far as works of literature go. This is a Formula bug invasion story the likes of which thrilled me as a kid. And you know I'm still a sucker for it. Like that roller coaster that I would ride every time that I went to the carnival. I would ride it again and again even though I knew every hill ,turn, and stomach wrenching drop. But it was fun every time. This is a fun book.
May 6, 2018
Crawling With Action
Not an original plot but interesting enough to keep you r reading. The characters were mostly believable so nd the action was non stop. Overall a good classic B movie read.
Not an original plot but interesting enough to keep you r reading. The characters were mostly believable so nd the action was non stop. Overall a good classic B movie read.
May 2, 2025
This is a fun, gross-out horror book that never takes itself too seriously. And Johnstone clearly had fun writing it. Mutant killer cockroaches that devour people and everything else in sight? This book delivers.
November 2, 2025
After reading "The Nest" I figured that I should read another killer roach book, and this was the same exact thing, only Johnstonified. A relatively early horror book from him, and one of the tamer stories I've read so far.
March 2, 2019
roaches. gah!
October 4, 2020
Giant mutant roaches... Need I say more?
Seriously, big bugs going berserk through parishes. Death and mayhem, you got it! People losing it, you bet. Let the roaches attack!
Seriously, big bugs going berserk through parishes. Death and mayhem, you got it! People losing it, you bet. Let the roaches attack!
December 13, 2021
Fun premise, but the flatness of the characters really BUGGED me.
August 30, 2025
mutant roach horror
meets red-blooded 'mericans
and eats several
meets red-blooded 'mericans
and eats several
November 15, 2011
Foodfic musing - not a traditional review:
http://bookfare.blogspot.com/2011/11/...
http://bookfare.blogspot.com/2011/11/...
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