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The Nest
It was just an ordinary garbage dump on peaceful Cape Cod. No one ever imagined that conditions were perfect for breeding, that it was a warm womb, fetid, moist, and with food so plentiful that everything creeping, crawling, and slithering could gorge to satiation. Then a change in poison control was made, resulting in an unforeseen mutation. Now the giant mutant cockroaches are ready to leave their nest—in search of human flesh!
Following in the footsteps of other “animal attack” classics like Jaws and The Rats, Gregory A. Douglas’s shocker The Nest (1980) is an ’80s paperback horror classic and was the basis for a 1988 cult film adaptation. This edition features a new introduction by Too Much Horror Fiction blogger Will Errickson.
Following in the footsteps of other “animal attack” classics like Jaws and The Rats, Gregory A. Douglas’s shocker The Nest (1980) is an ’80s paperback horror classic and was the basis for a 1988 cult film adaptation. This edition features a new introduction by Too Much Horror Fiction blogger Will Errickson.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1980
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3350 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 285 reviews
May 27, 2019
A rollicking entry into the “Paperbacks From Hell” re-print series. If your favorite part of creature creepers is watching people get eaten alive, this will satisfy your desires unlike any other. Nearly every chapter includes a graphically-described swarm of mutant cockroaches devouring human flesh. A few innocent animals too, for good measure.
True to the bizarre trends of '80s horror, additional moments will "leave" you scratching your head in the most amazing way. Those familiar know I'm talking about the iconic masturbation scene. It's so insane, so inexplicable, so preposterous, you have to wonder how Douglas could even think of it. In any case, just be glad he did. These immortal pages contain one of the most memorable moments of horror fiction that I can recall.
Overall, The Nest is better than it should be though still pretty bad. Even I began to tire after a phonebook of characters meet their brutal demise. The remaining cast struggle to obtain significance until the final 20% of the book, which is admittedly excellent. The scientific explanations and epic showdown are well worth the slog through the more boring passages. It's like Douglas said to himself: Now that I've completed the obligatory slaughter, I can actually write a novel!
You probably know if you're the type of person who enjoys off-the-wall, B-horror, killer bug romps. If you are, go for it. And tell me what you think about The Scene--even better, try to explain it! LOL
True to the bizarre trends of '80s horror, additional moments will "leave" you scratching your head in the most amazing way. Those familiar know I'm talking about the iconic masturbation scene. It's so insane, so inexplicable, so preposterous, you have to wonder how Douglas could even think of it. In any case, just be glad he did. These immortal pages contain one of the most memorable moments of horror fiction that I can recall.
Overall, The Nest is better than it should be though still pretty bad. Even I began to tire after a phonebook of characters meet their brutal demise. The remaining cast struggle to obtain significance until the final 20% of the book, which is admittedly excellent. The scientific explanations and epic showdown are well worth the slog through the more boring passages. It's like Douglas said to himself: Now that I've completed the obligatory slaughter, I can actually write a novel!
You probably know if you're the type of person who enjoys off-the-wall, B-horror, killer bug romps. If you are, go for it. And tell me what you think about The Scene--even better, try to explain it! LOL
April 17, 2019
3.5/5 stars!
One of my favorite sub-genres of horror is the creature feature, and boy does this one deliver!
On a small island off the coast of Cape Cod, something is happening in the middle of the island's dump. There's hissing and movements, then someone's dog dies and so begins THE NEST.
I'm not going to make like this book is some kind of literary achievement, because it's not. (Does anyone really pick up a giant cockroach book and think it's literary? I guess it's possible, but it's not the case here.) What this book IS is....just plain romping and chomping F-U-N!
Set on an island in my home state-the isolation makes for a cockroach feast! And that's basically what we get: cockroaches feeding on this one and on that one, in increasingly inventive and gross ways. (See my previous statement: F-U-N!)
Being that this was originally written back in 1980 we also get: some preachy scientist talk, some man-splaining, a smidge of schmaltzy romance, a wee bit of anti-feminism, and a tad of classism. Did I mention the gross cockroach kills?
Okay, so this isn't the "great American novel" but what it is is a lot of gross out laughter and chills, and a few hours of mindless entertainment. In these political times, who couldn't use that? I would have given this three stars based on the writing alone, but I added a half star and rounded it up to 4 total, because of the FUN factor!
Recommended to fans of 80's horror and creature features!
Valancourt Books has teamed up with Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson, (Authors of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL), to bring you an entire line of horror books from the 70's and 80's called the PAPERBACKS FROM HELL series. Find out more about the series here: http://www.valancourtbooks.com/paperb...
*I was given an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
One of my favorite sub-genres of horror is the creature feature, and boy does this one deliver!
On a small island off the coast of Cape Cod, something is happening in the middle of the island's dump. There's hissing and movements, then someone's dog dies and so begins THE NEST.
I'm not going to make like this book is some kind of literary achievement, because it's not. (Does anyone really pick up a giant cockroach book and think it's literary? I guess it's possible, but it's not the case here.) What this book IS is....just plain romping and chomping F-U-N!
Set on an island in my home state-the isolation makes for a cockroach feast! And that's basically what we get: cockroaches feeding on this one and on that one, in increasingly inventive and gross ways. (See my previous statement: F-U-N!)
Being that this was originally written back in 1980 we also get: some preachy scientist talk, some man-splaining, a smidge of schmaltzy romance, a wee bit of anti-feminism, and a tad of classism. Did I mention the gross cockroach kills?
Okay, so this isn't the "great American novel" but what it is is a lot of gross out laughter and chills, and a few hours of mindless entertainment. In these political times, who couldn't use that? I would have given this three stars based on the writing alone, but I added a half star and rounded it up to 4 total, because of the FUN factor!
Recommended to fans of 80's horror and creature features!
Valancourt Books has teamed up with Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson, (Authors of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL), to bring you an entire line of horror books from the 70's and 80's called the PAPERBACKS FROM HELL series. Find out more about the series here: http://www.valancourtbooks.com/paperb...
*I was given an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
January 20, 2020
On a 2-mile-long, 1-mile-wide island near Cape Cod, the small community there is unaware that the cockroaches infesting the nearby dump are undergoing a strange and frightening mutation. No, this isn't a "giant bug" novel, though these cockroaches are slightly larger than normal. These roaches have rapidly evolved to form a hive-mind intelligence, as well as much stronger mandibles. There are hundreds of thousands of them. And they're hungry.
This was a well above average creature feature, certainly a step above the typical "nasties" of the 70s and 80s whose authors hoped to cash in on the success of James Herbert's Rats trilogy. Still, 448 pages is a bit much for a killer bug story, though the writing was grade-A pulpy goodness, with vivid, disgusting descriptions of gruesome roach on human violence. Here's a typical example:
"The boy dropped his own body over his sister's, trying to shield her. The bloodthirsty insects crawled between them, now tearing and ripping at both juvenile bodies. [The girl's] silken corn hair was ropy with her blood and her brother's. Their empty-socketed eyes stared at each other face to frail face as they perished in this storm more horrible than the sea had ever hurled at the island."
Depressing. But awesome.
But in between the good stuff, there was a bit too much exposition on insect biology and habits in the form of speeches given by the two scientists brought in to help with the oncoming, inevitable disaster. Much of it was pretty interesting, and I'll take the author's word for it that all the crazy facts are true, but there were seriously 15-20 page stretches of nothing but these speeches.
Still, I'm a sucker for these sorts of "trapped on an island while being hunted by...something"-type stories, and this one scratched that itch rather nicely. It was also very, very dark, with an almost hopeless feel throughout, while still maintaining some semblance of pure carnage-y fun. You can tell that the author -- who normally wrote straight fiction under his real name, Eli Cantor -- had a blast trying to continually outdo himself with each roach attack, and that rubbed off on me, for the most part. Too bad he didn't rein it all in just a little.
I wouldn't recommend the general horror fan to pay the crazy online prices for this, but anyone into the James Herbert/Guy N. Smith/Shaun Hutson-style critter novels, as well as those into the whole "trapped and hunted" theme, could certainly do worse than The Nest.
3.5 Stars
April 30, 2019
A guy fucks a pile of leaves and roaches shit in each others mouths. I’d give it ten stars if I could.
June 24, 2019
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Video review coming shortly!
The Nest, written by Gregory A. Douglas (aka, Eli Cantor), was originally published by Zebra Books in 1980. Since then, the novel has been out of print, available only to those persistent enough to find it in used bookstores. Fortunately, that is no longer the issue thanks to Valancourt Books and their Paperbacks from Hell series. With the help of author Grady Hendrix and vintage horror expert Will Errickson, Valancourt is reprinting five vintage horrors for modern-day readers.
There is really no better starting place for the Paperbacks from Hell line than The Nest. It flawlessly captures the gory, goopy "animal attack" entertainment of the '70s and '80s. The story is simple enough; mutated roaches overtake a Cape Cod town and begin eating everyone. That's really all you need to know about the plot. Sure, we have a large cast of small town characters, but the focus is (more often than not) on the vicious attacks of man-eating roaches.
By "vicious attacks", I mean vicious attacks. These roaches are unstoppable. They eat everything, including the bones, so as you can imagine, the book is incredibly gruesome. There are a few kill scenes that go on for pages, describing in detail the extent to which these roaches feast on human flesh. Combining those gore-filled scenes with Douglas's flowery, purple prose, you have yourself a strange concoction of dark humor and truly unsettling hopelessness.
Typically, I find flowery writing to be very off-putting, an attempt at poetry that comes off as pretension. The Nest definitely has that vibe, but something about reading horrible, gory deaths written in such an artsy way had me rolling on the floor. It often feels like the author is parodying high-brow literature, so I get the impression that Mr. Douglas knew what he was doing here.
Even though I found this aspect of The Nest to be very humorous, there are times when the writing serves a different purpose. This is where that "unsettling hopelessness" comes into play. Imagine thousands of hungry, man-eating roaches scrambling toward you. You stomp on as many as you can before you lock yourself in a room. Some of the insects squeeze under the door while others chew their way through the wood. They won't stop coming. A flying roach lands on you cheek and begins biting. You slap at it and its blood splatters into your eyes, temporarily blinding you. You can't see anything. But you can feel, feel the roaches covering your body. They burrow into your skin. As you slap at them, more take their place. Even if you get all the bugs off your body, you know it's too late; they are already inside you, eating you from the inside... Pretty hopeless, right? Once the characters are in the presence of these roaches, there is no escaping. The insects are as relentless as Douglas's writing.
Unfortunately--while this novel is filled with gore, terror, humor, and several shocking moments--there are many scenes in which our characters sit around discussing the science of roaches. These scenes are long, drawn-out, and very boring. For this reason, I have to deduct a star and a half from an otherwise bonkers, five-star book. On the bright side, I now know more about roaches than I ever thought possible.
Overall, The Nest was a wildly entertaining reading experience, made even more enjoyable by Will Errickson's well-written introduction. If you like small-town horror and animal attack books, this is a must read! 3.5 stars.
The first three books in the Paperbacks from Hell series are available now. You can subscribe to have those three books shipped to you, plus the other two once they become available. I sincerely hope Valancourt continues the series for another wave of vintage horror paperbacks!
The Nest, written by Gregory A. Douglas (aka, Eli Cantor), was originally published by Zebra Books in 1980. Since then, the novel has been out of print, available only to those persistent enough to find it in used bookstores. Fortunately, that is no longer the issue thanks to Valancourt Books and their Paperbacks from Hell series. With the help of author Grady Hendrix and vintage horror expert Will Errickson, Valancourt is reprinting five vintage horrors for modern-day readers.
There is really no better starting place for the Paperbacks from Hell line than The Nest. It flawlessly captures the gory, goopy "animal attack" entertainment of the '70s and '80s. The story is simple enough; mutated roaches overtake a Cape Cod town and begin eating everyone. That's really all you need to know about the plot. Sure, we have a large cast of small town characters, but the focus is (more often than not) on the vicious attacks of man-eating roaches.
By "vicious attacks", I mean vicious attacks. These roaches are unstoppable. They eat everything, including the bones, so as you can imagine, the book is incredibly gruesome. There are a few kill scenes that go on for pages, describing in detail the extent to which these roaches feast on human flesh. Combining those gore-filled scenes with Douglas's flowery, purple prose, you have yourself a strange concoction of dark humor and truly unsettling hopelessness.
Typically, I find flowery writing to be very off-putting, an attempt at poetry that comes off as pretension. The Nest definitely has that vibe, but something about reading horrible, gory deaths written in such an artsy way had me rolling on the floor. It often feels like the author is parodying high-brow literature, so I get the impression that Mr. Douglas knew what he was doing here.
Even though I found this aspect of The Nest to be very humorous, there are times when the writing serves a different purpose. This is where that "unsettling hopelessness" comes into play. Imagine thousands of hungry, man-eating roaches scrambling toward you. You stomp on as many as you can before you lock yourself in a room. Some of the insects squeeze under the door while others chew their way through the wood. They won't stop coming. A flying roach lands on you cheek and begins biting. You slap at it and its blood splatters into your eyes, temporarily blinding you. You can't see anything. But you can feel, feel the roaches covering your body. They burrow into your skin. As you slap at them, more take their place. Even if you get all the bugs off your body, you know it's too late; they are already inside you, eating you from the inside... Pretty hopeless, right? Once the characters are in the presence of these roaches, there is no escaping. The insects are as relentless as Douglas's writing.
Unfortunately--while this novel is filled with gore, terror, humor, and several shocking moments--there are many scenes in which our characters sit around discussing the science of roaches. These scenes are long, drawn-out, and very boring. For this reason, I have to deduct a star and a half from an otherwise bonkers, five-star book. On the bright side, I now know more about roaches than I ever thought possible.
Overall, The Nest was a wildly entertaining reading experience, made even more enjoyable by Will Errickson's well-written introduction. If you like small-town horror and animal attack books, this is a must read! 3.5 stars.
The first three books in the Paperbacks from Hell series are available now. You can subscribe to have those three books shipped to you, plus the other two once they become available. I sincerely hope Valancourt continues the series for another wave of vintage horror paperbacks!
June 27, 2022
Exactly what I needed! Just a lot of fun and gore and blood! Doesn’t take itself seriously
June 24, 2020
3.25
I liked it. At times it felt both pretentious (with having to constantly look up words only to realize it seemed to just be using "big words" because it could, not because it needed to. Like a "look what big word I know!" even though this is just a killer cockroach book...) and badly written. I mostly liked all the science but eventually it did feel a bit dry. The romance felt...weird too...and i'm not sure why it was there.
That stuff aside though I did like it for the most part. It's gross, has killer cockroaches. A fun horror story.
TW: Fire, Death
I liked it. At times it felt both pretentious (with having to constantly look up words only to realize it seemed to just be using "big words" because it could, not because it needed to. Like a "look what big word I know!" even though this is just a killer cockroach book...) and badly written. I mostly liked all the science but eventually it did feel a bit dry. The romance felt...weird too...and i'm not sure why it was there.
That stuff aside though I did like it for the most part. It's gross, has killer cockroaches. A fun horror story.
TW: Fire, Death
May 31, 2020
3.51/5.0 stars. I liked the old school feel to this just enough to round up to 4. This story takes a bit of an odd perspective for me considering my very science-minded young son is raising some giant cockroaches in a cage in his room right now (amongst many other creepy crawlies). I’ll definitely be looking at them differently from now on, lol. Fun creature feature horror.
July 1, 2023
After finally finding a copy of this for a decent price, I was a little nonplussed, especially given the hype. Definitely a product of the 'animal attack' era that kicked off in the 70s (think Jaws or The Swarm among many others), The Nest features featuring man-eating cockroaches of all things. If you live in Florida, you get to know 'water bugs' pretty well as they are ubiquitous, about the size of rottweilers here and sometimes buzz you as they clumsily fly at night. That stated, to me they are more of a gross out than a freak out.
Set on a small island off Cape Cod, Douglas really plays on classic New England stereotypes here will building his cast. Our main protagonist, Elizabeth, is visiting her grandfather's place on the island with a friend over the summer. The grandfather, stoic and proud, is an 'old timer' on the island and true Yankee stock for sure. Unlike Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard, Yarkie is still a 'working' island, with most of its inhabitants linked to the sea trade in various forms and never embraced the tourist trade.
Douglas plays the trope well for sure. We start off with a mystery of what is first spooking the rats at the landfill to an attack on a dog. Rats gone crazy? Then an expert from Harvard is called in to investigate. So, we soon have our rag-tag group of folks trying to sort out what is going on and what to do about it. Douglas also does not shy away from the visceral gore of the roach attacks-- some nasty scenes to be sure!
While I liked this, Douglas added several things here that really did not add much and made it feel a little ponderous. First, the various romances really did not need to be here. Second, although certainly informative to some degree, the detailed 'science' about the biology, etc., of the roaches got long in the tooth pretty fast. Third, this should have ended without the 'surprise' (that really wasn't) at the end. Overall, a fun read for sure, but there are many other 'animal attack' books just as good or better out there that you can get at a fraction of the price if you are into that kind of thing. 3 cucarachas!
Set on a small island off Cape Cod, Douglas really plays on classic New England stereotypes here will building his cast. Our main protagonist, Elizabeth, is visiting her grandfather's place on the island with a friend over the summer. The grandfather, stoic and proud, is an 'old timer' on the island and true Yankee stock for sure. Unlike Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard, Yarkie is still a 'working' island, with most of its inhabitants linked to the sea trade in various forms and never embraced the tourist trade.
Douglas plays the trope well for sure. We start off with a mystery of what is first spooking the rats at the landfill to an attack on a dog. Rats gone crazy? Then an expert from Harvard is called in to investigate. So, we soon have our rag-tag group of folks trying to sort out what is going on and what to do about it. Douglas also does not shy away from the visceral gore of the roach attacks-- some nasty scenes to be sure!
While I liked this, Douglas added several things here that really did not add much and made it feel a little ponderous. First, the various romances really did not need to be here. Second, although certainly informative to some degree, the detailed 'science' about the biology, etc., of the roaches got long in the tooth pretty fast. Third, this should have ended without the 'surprise' (that really wasn't) at the end. Overall, a fun read for sure, but there are many other 'animal attack' books just as good or better out there that you can get at a fraction of the price if you are into that kind of thing. 3 cucarachas!
January 1, 2021
Paperbacks from Hell #1
Besides Chemistry, Biology has been the one course that fascinates me a LOT. However, with the inherent disgust for crawly insects, human and animal gross anatomy, and basically anything Biologists deal with, except plants, I bravely chose Chemistry over it. That's the very reason why I enjoyed this book so much! Yes, it's gross, it's freaky, it's creepy, but I love it!
This book was first published in 1980 so it really has that 80s creature/monster film vibes which I adore so much. I love the characters. The pacing is also great. The audiobook is amazing. Yeah, it really gave me the creeps.
Anyway, I'm just so proud that I understood all the Biology facts and bits. My love for that subject really jumps out.
Besides Chemistry, Biology has been the one course that fascinates me a LOT. However, with the inherent disgust for crawly insects, human and animal gross anatomy, and basically anything Biologists deal with, except plants, I bravely chose Chemistry over it. That's the very reason why I enjoyed this book so much! Yes, it's gross, it's freaky, it's creepy, but I love it!
This book was first published in 1980 so it really has that 80s creature/monster film vibes which I adore so much. I love the characters. The pacing is also great. The audiobook is amazing. Yeah, it really gave me the creeps.
Anyway, I'm just so proud that I understood all the Biology facts and bits. My love for that subject really jumps out.
May 18, 2019
On a small, quiet island off the coast of Cape Cod, there's something up down in the dump.
The rats are on the run....and then they simply aren't there anymore.
Something nasty has just moved up the food chain....and the human inhabitants are next on the menu.
The Nest is an old school 'Nature Gone Wild' novel, featuring healthy doses of gore....brought to you by the creatures that make pretty much everyone's skin crawl.....mutated....evolving past repulsive into a relentless, flesh shredding, bone pulverizing army.
Yes, folks....there appears to be a bit of a roach problem.
A fast, fun read that only asks you to enjoy the ride....this ain't highbrow horror....but it will have you seeing things scuttling under the fridge when you flick on the lights....can't ask for more than that.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
The rats are on the run....and then they simply aren't there anymore.
Something nasty has just moved up the food chain....and the human inhabitants are next on the menu.
The Nest is an old school 'Nature Gone Wild' novel, featuring healthy doses of gore....brought to you by the creatures that make pretty much everyone's skin crawl.....mutated....evolving past repulsive into a relentless, flesh shredding, bone pulverizing army.
Yes, folks....there appears to be a bit of a roach problem.
A fast, fun read that only asks you to enjoy the ride....this ain't highbrow horror....but it will have you seeing things scuttling under the fridge when you flick on the lights....can't ask for more than that.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
July 3, 2019
Well, that was creepy.
The Nest is for cockroaches as Arachnophobia is for spiders. Damn near sure to induce entomophobia, this 1980's creature feature horror brought back to life thanks to Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell and Valancourt Books is a spine tingling, disturbingly good piece of fiction which, thanks to the authors extensive research, reads scarily plausible - yep, even with these menacing cockroaches reaching the size of 8 inches in the book, somehow this feels like it could happen, making the story that little bit more horrifying.
Set on an isolated island with a small community, The Nest follows the speedy evolution of a subspecies of cockroaches, leveraging off other well known insect characteristics such as the hive mind of ants, and the workers/soldier classes of termites. Without spoiling, there's some further evolutionary goodies which the author throws in the up the horror ante but I'll leave that surprise for other readers.
Naturally, these advanced cockroaches venture out of their nest to wreak havoc on the islands inhabitants, essentially making this somewhat of a survival horror with scientific elements spattering throughout for plausibility.
The steady stream of blood, scenes of overtly graphic gore, and surprisingly good level of character development, make The Nest one of the better horror novels from the saturated 80's mass-market.
My rating: 5/5 stars.
The Nest is for cockroaches as Arachnophobia is for spiders. Damn near sure to induce entomophobia, this 1980's creature feature horror brought back to life thanks to Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell and Valancourt Books is a spine tingling, disturbingly good piece of fiction which, thanks to the authors extensive research, reads scarily plausible - yep, even with these menacing cockroaches reaching the size of 8 inches in the book, somehow this feels like it could happen, making the story that little bit more horrifying.
Set on an isolated island with a small community, The Nest follows the speedy evolution of a subspecies of cockroaches, leveraging off other well known insect characteristics such as the hive mind of ants, and the workers/soldier classes of termites. Without spoiling, there's some further evolutionary goodies which the author throws in the up the horror ante but I'll leave that surprise for other readers.
Naturally, these advanced cockroaches venture out of their nest to wreak havoc on the islands inhabitants, essentially making this somewhat of a survival horror with scientific elements spattering throughout for plausibility.
The steady stream of blood, scenes of overtly graphic gore, and surprisingly good level of character development, make The Nest one of the better horror novels from the saturated 80's mass-market.
My rating: 5/5 stars.
August 10, 2011
Gorgeous prose and exceptionally creepy descriptions make this book one of my favorite surprise discoveries. The writing quality of this author clearly displays a well educated man, and without question, a very talented storyteller. His vision and vocabulary is crisp and clean, submerging the reader deep into his very dark territory.
This book contains some brutal, unrelenting violence against characters you come to care for, and the author dispatches them in graphic detail without an ounce of remorse. This is definitely something I don't see every day with your standard horror book - especially mainstream authors on the bestseller list. Perhaps this is the tradeoff. Write predictable and comfortable stories and sell lots of books, or be original and sell fewer.
The atmosphere is very rich and you feel as if you are stranded on the island along with the characters. Although I did find some of the characters a bit underdeveloped, this book gets a very enthusiastic recommendation from me. Fans of James Herberts' "Rats" will be in killer-critter heaven.
This book contains some brutal, unrelenting violence against characters you come to care for, and the author dispatches them in graphic detail without an ounce of remorse. This is definitely something I don't see every day with your standard horror book - especially mainstream authors on the bestseller list. Perhaps this is the tradeoff. Write predictable and comfortable stories and sell lots of books, or be original and sell fewer.
The atmosphere is very rich and you feel as if you are stranded on the island along with the characters. Although I did find some of the characters a bit underdeveloped, this book gets a very enthusiastic recommendation from me. Fans of James Herberts' "Rats" will be in killer-critter heaven.
May 15, 2023
I don’t review books against other books but against my expectations of them and my reading enjoyment.
This book met my expectations perfectly.
This author was out for blood from the word go-
Each gruesome death is described in gory detail including the final, anguished cries and thoughts of the helpless victims. No one is safe, not dogs or kids or little old ladies, the mutant roaches have a taste for human blood they can never slake!
These sort of attacks are a bit episodic but no less satisfying for depraved readers.
The other parts of the book are hilariously overwritten. There is a clear attempt to use flowery prose and somewhat obscure language considering the subject matter.
At times the scientist character will bring the action to a grinding halt for some expository dialogue. Clearly the author did a lot of research and was intent on including every word of it in the book. The other characters marvel at him and call him ingenious.
You may think that shoehorning a love story into a book like this would be a mistake…and you would be wrong, it’s so right! The sex scene was a high point of the story, with descriptions like “she was the wind and he was her sail “, I almost got too aroused to keep reading! I almost forgot to mention the guy who gets killed while having sex with a pile of wet leaves.
Update: I watched the movie adaptation of the nest this weekend and it’s hilarious! It has very little in common with the book. In the movie the roaches can mutate other things and they turn a cat into a catroach, hilariously brought to life with 1980s puppeteering!
This book met my expectations perfectly.
This author was out for blood from the word go-
Each gruesome death is described in gory detail including the final, anguished cries and thoughts of the helpless victims. No one is safe, not dogs or kids or little old ladies, the mutant roaches have a taste for human blood they can never slake!
These sort of attacks are a bit episodic but no less satisfying for depraved readers.
The other parts of the book are hilariously overwritten. There is a clear attempt to use flowery prose and somewhat obscure language considering the subject matter.
At times the scientist character will bring the action to a grinding halt for some expository dialogue. Clearly the author did a lot of research and was intent on including every word of it in the book. The other characters marvel at him and call him ingenious.
You may think that shoehorning a love story into a book like this would be a mistake…and you would be wrong, it’s so right! The sex scene was a high point of the story, with descriptions like “she was the wind and he was her sail “, I almost got too aroused to keep reading! I almost forgot to mention the guy who gets killed while having sex with a pile of wet leaves.
Update: I watched the movie adaptation of the nest this weekend and it’s hilarious! It has very little in common with the book. In the movie the roaches can mutate other things and they turn a cat into a catroach, hilariously brought to life with 1980s puppeteering!
February 13, 2021
Whoa!!! WHOA!!!!!!
Going in, I thought this book was going to be hella cheesy..... I was wrong!!! Thank gahhh!!
It was good, like, really good.
*Side Note: I listened to the audiobook, which was FANTASTIC!!! The Nest is narrated by Matt Godfrey, who has narrated a bunch of great books.
It doesn’t matter if you read the book or listen to the audiobook.... it’s legit either way. But.... there’s something about the way Godfrey tells the story. Expressing emotions from each character, bringing them to life. Hearing the story and hearing the emotions of the characters, their torment and panic.... I was all encompassed, consumed by this story. Kinda like how the cockroaches consumed.....well, you get it.
Don’t let the topic of bugs keep you from reading this one. It’s ACES!!!
Going in, I thought this book was going to be hella cheesy..... I was wrong!!! Thank gahhh!!
It was good, like, really good.
*Side Note: I listened to the audiobook, which was FANTASTIC!!! The Nest is narrated by Matt Godfrey, who has narrated a bunch of great books.
It doesn’t matter if you read the book or listen to the audiobook.... it’s legit either way. But.... there’s something about the way Godfrey tells the story. Expressing emotions from each character, bringing them to life. Hearing the story and hearing the emotions of the characters, their torment and panic.... I was all encompassed, consumed by this story. Kinda like how the cockroaches consumed.....well, you get it.
Don’t let the topic of bugs keep you from reading this one. It’s ACES!!!
April 7, 2023
3.5⭐️ The first half was a blast, the middle kinda dragged with a bunch of science stuff and after that I started to lose interest. No real fault of the book though, imo. I think animal attack books just don’t hold my interest. But this was full of super gross & fun kills, it was fast paced (for the most part), and the audio book was really good. Wasn’t perfect but overall I really did enjoy it.
April 25, 2019
This is the War And Peace of mutant cockroach books.
January 16, 2022
Review to come!
August 29, 2021
Review to Follow
April 16, 2019
Valancourt Books has spoiled me, I think. By reprinting books by the likes of Michael McDowell, Ken Greenhall, and Bernard Taylor, they've come to represent a way to discover the lost gems of the horror genre. When I heard they would be publishing some reprints of the better novels featured in Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell, of course I signed up for the subscription service to get all of them. The Nest is the first in that series.
The thing is, Valancourt has also published books like Slimer and The Fungus, books that have some merit, but aren't really the best '80s horror had to offer. The Nest falls into that group, too, which surprised me, since it was the first novel in the series. The whole story felt overwrought, and the characters didn't resonate enough for me to care about them. As a result, it was hard to care much about the carnage that came from the mutated, giant, man-eating cockroaches.
For me, there are two classes of horror that are enjoyable: the first is the kind of horror that's effective, subtle and atmospheric, creepy and disquieting; the second is the kind of horror that's so bad that it's just fun to read, like riding a rollercoaster with your hands up the whole way. The Nest strives for the former while just dodging the latter, so it comes across as lackluster and uninteresting. I do give the author credit for giving the story some progressive touches (women scientists, strong women, and hints at an interracial romance) all the way back in 1980, but even then, it feels more like lip service than a genuine attempt at creating character. I'm hoping that the rest of the books in this short series will live up more to my expectations.
The thing is, Valancourt has also published books like Slimer and The Fungus, books that have some merit, but aren't really the best '80s horror had to offer. The Nest falls into that group, too, which surprised me, since it was the first novel in the series. The whole story felt overwrought, and the characters didn't resonate enough for me to care about them. As a result, it was hard to care much about the carnage that came from the mutated, giant, man-eating cockroaches.
For me, there are two classes of horror that are enjoyable: the first is the kind of horror that's effective, subtle and atmospheric, creepy and disquieting; the second is the kind of horror that's so bad that it's just fun to read, like riding a rollercoaster with your hands up the whole way. The Nest strives for the former while just dodging the latter, so it comes across as lackluster and uninteresting. I do give the author credit for giving the story some progressive touches (women scientists, strong women, and hints at an interracial romance) all the way back in 1980, but even then, it feels more like lip service than a genuine attempt at creating character. I'm hoping that the rest of the books in this short series will live up more to my expectations.
September 29, 2019
This is the first read for my new book club: The Peter Derk Book Club!
I looked around at celebrity book clubs, and you know what I saw? Oprah. Reese Witherspoon. Hermione Watson. And I thought, "Why not me?"
Then I ignored all of the immediately apparent reasons why not me and did it anyway.
Our first meeting will convene at the Key Largo Lounge on Wednesday, October 16th, 2019, 7 PM (MST). We will discuss The Nest, if anyone read it, and stickers and bookmarks will be distributed.
Did the stickers end up looking like penises? Yes. A lot. Did the bookmarks end up looking like penises. NOPE! "End up" means it just sort of happened. The penis bookmarks are 100% on purpose. Don't be naive. Penis naive is the worst kind of naive. But Oprah defaced millions of books with her stupid sticker, which is a Big O. What else is a "Big O?" Exactly.
I'm hoping to see several friends and acquaintances at our first meeting, and possibly some people who I don't like so much. That keeps things interesting. Plus, I don't really like that many people, so if I wanted more than like 2 people to come, I'd have to settle for some fucking losers. If you're one of those losers...I was prepared to apologize, but now that I think about it, you know you're a loser. Own it.
If you've read (or will read) The Nest by October 16th, comment below. Make the comments good for discussion at the book club, and I'll send you your very own sticker/bookmark package.
I looked around at celebrity book clubs, and you know what I saw? Oprah. Reese Witherspoon. Hermione Watson. And I thought, "Why not me?"
Then I ignored all of the immediately apparent reasons why not me and did it anyway.
Our first meeting will convene at the Key Largo Lounge on Wednesday, October 16th, 2019, 7 PM (MST). We will discuss The Nest, if anyone read it, and stickers and bookmarks will be distributed.
Did the stickers end up looking like penises? Yes. A lot. Did the bookmarks end up looking like penises. NOPE! "End up" means it just sort of happened. The penis bookmarks are 100% on purpose. Don't be naive. Penis naive is the worst kind of naive. But Oprah defaced millions of books with her stupid sticker, which is a Big O. What else is a "Big O?" Exactly.
I'm hoping to see several friends and acquaintances at our first meeting, and possibly some people who I don't like so much. That keeps things interesting. Plus, I don't really like that many people, so if I wanted more than like 2 people to come, I'd have to settle for some fucking losers. If you're one of those losers...I was prepared to apologize, but now that I think about it, you know you're a loser. Own it.
If you've read (or will read) The Nest by October 16th, comment below. Make the comments good for discussion at the book club, and I'll send you your very own sticker/bookmark package.
February 9, 2015
This novel is one of the most delightfully disgusting things I have ever read in my life. A small fishing village develops a serious cockroach problem and all Hell breaks loose. Cockroaches eat rats, rats eat kids, cockroaches eat kids. Cockroaches crawl up people's butts and eat their eyes out.
While all this is going on there is still time for a love triangle and lots and lots and lots of discussion about the habits of cockroaches.
This novel is firmly tongue-in-cheek. You can almost hear the author laughing as he brings on the next gross out.
I enjoyed this novel so much that I am recommending it to all my friends. If you remember the good old days of being able to pick up a trashy horror novel at the drug store and then reading it over the weekend this novel will bring back the good old days. If you don't remember those good old days, try this book on for size and see what all the fuss was about.
While all this is going on there is still time for a love triangle and lots and lots and lots of discussion about the habits of cockroaches.
This novel is firmly tongue-in-cheek. You can almost hear the author laughing as he brings on the next gross out.
I enjoyed this novel so much that I am recommending it to all my friends. If you remember the good old days of being able to pick up a trashy horror novel at the drug store and then reading it over the weekend this novel will bring back the good old days. If you don't remember those good old days, try this book on for size and see what all the fuss was about.
August 21, 2019
DOES EXACTLY AS IT SAYS ON THE TIN!!! Or in this case the book cover. The Nest is a pulpy, gruesome rollercoaster ride of a book. It is my second read of the Paperbacks From Hell series and while it doesn’t quite which the depths in terms of its characters as When Darkness With Us does, it makes up for that in bloody, gory horror. That isn’t to say it’s characters are one dimensional, they aren’t, but their concerns are immediate and superficial. A father cares for his kids. A woman falls in love. These are deep things, but the author isn’t interested in exploring them too much. What he is interested in seems to be providing one great chunk of story. And The Nest has that in spades.
May 11, 2019
The short review: This book is good, but overlong, and though it really repeats itself...there is something to be said about a book that features multiple scenes of people having roaches tunnel through their eyes into their brain. I mean, goo, huh? Also, there's a bit with a handcuffed man on a small island confused about how to find the sheriff and so he decides to dry hump a pile a leaves and roaches tunnel through his eyes and eat his brains. How about that, huh? The late 70s to early 80s? Am I right?
The long review: My old man heart loves a bit of campy 70s/80s swarms-of-things creature features. At least from a distance. I mean, actually watching the movies was nine-times-out-of-ten sitting through really poorly executed shots of folks standing just about perfectly still while some killer mutant {squirrel | opossum | dandelion} slowly gnaws off kneecaps and man, some/most were as boring as listening to a tabletop gamer just go on and on about the aerodynamics of metal dice. But, hey, there's a certain delight in watching Nature Fight Back(tm). And who can forget scenes like [blonde actress] screaming as she finds the mutilated corpse of her {father | friend | teacher} and there's like...a frog just sitting on the sill and it's a really long extended shot of that frog in that window and the camera just zooms in on that frog and everything else is all super-bokeh and when it finally cuts it's to [dude in turtleneck] looking concerned next to his [read: the director's, bought with production money] car. That scene, you know?
Anyhow, this book is like...one of the better creature feature films. This *book*, mind. There is actually a film made from this book and it is...see above. This book has everything it needs: old sassy grandpa, tough-as-shark sailors, slimy overweight mayors, cute little children, suburban anarchists drugging it up, dated worldviews that seem almost overly dated to be comical but then it sticks with it and you don't know if the author is having a gag or actually kind of sexist and a little overconcerned at taking potshots at The Youth(tm) and their Modern Society(tm), New England fishing jokes, attractive college students, attractive scientists, dudes going on a rampage against some goshdarn roaches, forest fires, storms, abandoned lighthouses, discussions of heritage, middle-aged couples getting into drunken fights, dogs getting eaten by roaches tunneling through said dogs eyes into their dog brains. Everything.
It has so much of everything it needs that it actually spends at least...a hundred pages repeating everything and doing much the same over and over. Out of town person of color falling in love with the young sailor? Keep mentioning it! Love triangle between semi-local beauty and attractive scientist and other attractive scientist? AGAIN! The hissing sound that cockroaches make? Pump that page count, baby! The detailed entomological details of how such a mutation might happen and how it impacts the ecosystem on such a tiny island? Surely time for another! An oncoming storm that takes, like...a third of the book to show up? Can we stretch that?! One ending? Surely we can get two in here! Maybe a third!
The thing is, even with its bloated page count and general slowness to actually get down to the storyline that people care about, and the whiff of inserting Jaws's mayor almost verbatim, it mostly floats.* The fact that it holds no real punches adds to it. Dogs and children get just as eye-tunneled as everyone else. Sometimes, folks survive. Sometimes they don't. Characters that sort of outlive their usefulness to the plot kind of drift to the back (or become gore fodder) while audience favorites drift forward (or become gore fodder). It has an interesting mix of kind of old school writing, feeling like a 40s/50s-era pulp novel complete with hero scientists and Real Men(tm) in places, and modern-for-the-time horror panache. It's camp and it's icky and it's amazingly never quite cruel in all the ways it can be. The scientific insertions are kind of interesting. The methods to fight back make sense. The dumb choices are dumb (see the short review and dude humping leaves) but kind of in a well-why-not kind of way...some of them. Most of them, even. Even when you can tell that doom is on the horizon, you root for folks to escape...or at least take some roach buggers with them. Even the false ending only felt a little cheaty (we can see there's a tenth of the book, left, man...).
All in a story that feels extremely cinematic while still retaining a nice...literary (?)...quality. It doesn't fly by, per se, but it keeps going...and when it gets really going, it's actually fairly exciting.
Recommended.
* Speaking of floating, there's a sex scene that has like...twenty nautical puns. I'm still in awe.
The long review: My old man heart loves a bit of campy 70s/80s swarms-of-things creature features. At least from a distance. I mean, actually watching the movies was nine-times-out-of-ten sitting through really poorly executed shots of folks standing just about perfectly still while some killer mutant {squirrel | opossum | dandelion} slowly gnaws off kneecaps and man, some/most were as boring as listening to a tabletop gamer just go on and on about the aerodynamics of metal dice. But, hey, there's a certain delight in watching Nature Fight Back(tm). And who can forget scenes like [blonde actress] screaming as she finds the mutilated corpse of her {father | friend | teacher} and there's like...a frog just sitting on the sill and it's a really long extended shot of that frog in that window and the camera just zooms in on that frog and everything else is all super-bokeh and when it finally cuts it's to [dude in turtleneck] looking concerned next to his [read: the director's, bought with production money] car. That scene, you know?
Anyhow, this book is like...one of the better creature feature films. This *book*, mind. There is actually a film made from this book and it is...see above. This book has everything it needs: old sassy grandpa, tough-as-shark sailors, slimy overweight mayors, cute little children, suburban anarchists drugging it up, dated worldviews that seem almost overly dated to be comical but then it sticks with it and you don't know if the author is having a gag or actually kind of sexist and a little overconcerned at taking potshots at The Youth(tm) and their Modern Society(tm), New England fishing jokes, attractive college students, attractive scientists, dudes going on a rampage against some goshdarn roaches, forest fires, storms, abandoned lighthouses, discussions of heritage, middle-aged couples getting into drunken fights, dogs getting eaten by roaches tunneling through said dogs eyes into their dog brains. Everything.
It has so much of everything it needs that it actually spends at least...a hundred pages repeating everything and doing much the same over and over. Out of town person of color falling in love with the young sailor? Keep mentioning it! Love triangle between semi-local beauty and attractive scientist and other attractive scientist? AGAIN! The hissing sound that cockroaches make? Pump that page count, baby! The detailed entomological details of how such a mutation might happen and how it impacts the ecosystem on such a tiny island? Surely time for another! An oncoming storm that takes, like...a third of the book to show up? Can we stretch that?! One ending? Surely we can get two in here! Maybe a third!
The thing is, even with its bloated page count and general slowness to actually get down to the storyline that people care about, and the whiff of inserting Jaws's mayor almost verbatim, it mostly floats.* The fact that it holds no real punches adds to it. Dogs and children get just as eye-tunneled as everyone else. Sometimes, folks survive. Sometimes they don't. Characters that sort of outlive their usefulness to the plot kind of drift to the back (or become gore fodder) while audience favorites drift forward (or become gore fodder). It has an interesting mix of kind of old school writing, feeling like a 40s/50s-era pulp novel complete with hero scientists and Real Men(tm) in places, and modern-for-the-time horror panache. It's camp and it's icky and it's amazingly never quite cruel in all the ways it can be. The scientific insertions are kind of interesting. The methods to fight back make sense. The dumb choices are dumb (see the short review and dude humping leaves) but kind of in a well-why-not kind of way...some of them. Most of them, even. Even when you can tell that doom is on the horizon, you root for folks to escape...or at least take some roach buggers with them. Even the false ending only felt a little cheaty (we can see there's a tenth of the book, left, man...).
All in a story that feels extremely cinematic while still retaining a nice...literary (?)...quality. It doesn't fly by, per se, but it keeps going...and when it gets really going, it's actually fairly exciting.
Recommended.
* Speaking of floating, there's a sex scene that has like...twenty nautical puns. I'm still in awe.
April 7, 2019
This one is the first book in Valencourt's line of "Paperbacks From Hell" novels. These are reprints of 80s horror novels that were featured in Grady Hendrix's nonfiction book Paperbacks From Hell.
I preordered the whole line because I trust both Hendrix and Valencourt Books to find some wothwhile stuff.
After this book, I still hold that trust in them, with a few qualifiers.
It's a tale as old as time: giant mutant cockroaches terrorize a small New England Island.
The book alternates between three different speeds. First, grisly descriptions of mayheam and death:
Qualifier #1: The violence gets worse. This is a gross-out book, for sure.
The second speed is scientists condescending to islanders. For example:
Qualifier #2: Be prepared for long stretches of science lectures about insect behavior.
Third gear is rare, but there is the occasional "romantic" scene.
Qualifier #3: Gross.
All that said, this was a fun reminder of the pulpy horror novels I was reading when I was a kid,feeling like I was getting one over on my parents.
I preordered the whole line because I trust both Hendrix and Valencourt Books to find some wothwhile stuff.
After this book, I still hold that trust in them, with a few qualifiers.
It's a tale as old as time: giant mutant cockroaches terrorize a small New England Island.
The book alternates between three different speeds. First, grisly descriptions of mayheam and death:
"The first roach went directly for the rabbit's eyes. The men heard the click of the breaking cornea as the insect mandibles pressed in. "
Qualifier #1: The violence gets worse. This is a gross-out book, for sure.
The second speed is scientists condescending to islanders. For example:
"You know, Elias, there are some ants with so strong a bite that if you try to pull them away, the ant's head will separate from body before its teeth will let go!"
The old eyes widened. "Thunderation!"
Qualifier #2: Be prepared for long stretches of science lectures about insect behavior.
Third gear is rare, but there is the occasional "romantic" scene.
"I do frighten you, don't I, Peter?"
"He said huskily, "Because I've been falling in love with you."
"That's not frightening, that's supercaledeliciouswhatever!"
Qualifier #3: Gross.
All that said, this was a fun reminder of the pulpy horror novels I was reading when I was a kid,feeling like I was getting one over on my parents.
November 2, 2019
Rounded up from 3.5 stars. Enjoyable, gross, and frothy, but with a last chapter that has to rank as one of the worst conclusions to anything I’ve ever read.
January 1, 2020
Superb! Exactly the kind of of horror I was craving, too! Perfectly terrifying and gruesome.
I will say I never thought I could loathe cockroaches more. Well. . . this novel proved me wrong. 😵
I will say I never thought I could loathe cockroaches more. Well. . . this novel proved me wrong. 😵
October 31, 2022
Ugh, roaches.
Like a lot of the Paperbacks from Hell, this one feels incredibly dated on occasion. But not nearly so much as some. If you like creature-features starring repulsive mutant bugs, you're probably gonna love this one. As a former Florida-person, I both appreciate and despise how well Douglas was able to flesh out the roach scenes. I could actually smell the nasty things from time to time.
Like a lot of the Paperbacks from Hell, this one feels incredibly dated on occasion. But not nearly so much as some. If you like creature-features starring repulsive mutant bugs, you're probably gonna love this one. As a former Florida-person, I both appreciate and despise how well Douglas was able to flesh out the roach scenes. I could actually smell the nasty things from time to time.
July 3, 2025
It’s better than the movie. I need a full memory wipe. 🪳
August 6, 2014
Killer Cockroaches crawling at the bottom of the heap of 80s schlock.
Ah the 80s! A boom time for horror fiction, when spinner racks were filled with gaudy-covered paperbacks, riding on the coattails of stephen-king-mania. Gregory A. Douglas’s The Nest is certainly a product of the period, a creature-feature formulaic: pick icky creature (in this case a cockroach), mutate it (with environmentally unfriendly pesticides); imbue it with a hive intelligence (and a thirst for human blood!), and set it upon small town America (in this case Yarkie Island, off Cape Cod). As the author admits … it’s Jaws … on land … with bugs.
It’s also not very good. The characters are wooden and mostly cannon fodder. The prose is purple. There’s some annoying sexism; the men go off to fight the bugs while the good girls, Elizabeth and Bonnie, get to clean house and cook up fish chowder for the boys’ return. The exception is a single female scientist, Wanda, who is both brainy and beautiful, a combination of traits that the rest of the characters seem to find almost as astonishing as the hive of mutant cockroaches. Of course, our super-model scientist is certainly smarter than her dimwitted male counterpart, Peter Hubbard, who even after the roaches have eviscerated a score of his buddies, still must ‘do his duty as scientist’ and drop into the nest for a look-see.
Hubbard’s eyes went stormy, “Don’t lecture me, Mr. Scott! You will not interfere with my doing my job as a biologist!”
Really?
Which isn’t quite as far-fetched as the fate of Bo the hipster, who after running around naked and handcuffed for a couple hundred pages, suddenly decides to dry hump a bed of leaves. As the moonshafts though the trees strike the man’s faster-pumping buttocks, the roaches begin to dine, finishing Bo … just as Bo ‘finishes’ with the forest floor! Curiously, other than old Bo, there are few boobies in this book -- pretty much a staple of cheap horror. In fact, it takes to page 412, before Elizabeth gets to hold Peter (snicker … bad pun!) fast inside her as the deck of her life lists in the sudden storm of emotions she had never sailed before!
Oh yeah …. also a dog dies … and a ship-load (second pun!) of little kids. Not really a fan of books that casually kill puppies. And children.
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