Creepy Book Club discussion

Hey guys! I hope you all had a fun time reading The Hatching (being petrified of spiders, after reading this I'll probably burn down my house the next time I see one lol). If you want to have your review included in my video review of this, just leave your thoughts by Monday (tomorrow)!

So, aside from the fact that I am SO SCARED of spiders, this was an ok book in terms of scares. I thought the whole reason behind the spiders (even though we don't know where they came from exactly) was well-thought out. I also liked the cliffhanger at the end of the book when Melanie deduces that this is just the first wave attack and bigger spiders are about to hatch. I'm definitely going to have nightmares.

Other than that, I was not a fan of the many characters, I thought there were a few too many and I found myself having to think about where we left certain characters off by the time I get to one of their chapters again.

Speaking of characters, I hate to be this person, but I thought the female characters were a bit...well, they were all the same. Between Melanie, Stephanie (who isn't really a main character), and Kim I thought all of them were that tough, gets what they want, don't-take-no-shit females. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but all three of them? But, to be completely fair, I found the male characters to be super similar, too. In fact, all of the characters felt super similar. I guess because they were coming from the same author? I don't know,

I know this is part of a series, and I guess Boone was writing with sequels in mind, but I thought nothing really happened in the book. It was exciting and scary in the beginning, then a whole lot of the same stuff happened in the middle because we had to get through like twelve characters finding out the same information, then the end was exciting. I think the fault of this book is the author was clearly planning on making more, so this first book is super information heavy. I'm sure the next one will be more exciting.

Overall, I wasn't too into this one. If it were about anything else other than spiders, I would probably be compelled to read the other two books in the series, if nothing else than to find out where the bugs came from initially. I just wasn't impressed with the characters and personally didn't feel like I could relate to any of them. Plus, you know, spiders, so I'm not going to pick up the sequels any time soon.
I'm giving this a 2/5

I'm sorry to hear you didn't like the book. I LOVED this book and gave it 5/5. Yes, there were a lot of characters, but that never bothers me in a book. And I know a lot of people who reviewed this didn't like the female characters or the constant divorce issues, but IMO, it's reality. Let's face it, divorce is the norm these days, and we're dealing with so-called "superior "professions as many people would call them. So high stress jobs of government and politicians...there's usually that tough, "take-no-shit" mentality and a lot of failed marriages, unfortunately. That's why I was fine with it. I read this book super fast and have the other two books which I can't wait to finish! Of course I am a junkie to this sort of story line so that's also why I enjoyed it very much. I'm currently on book 5 of The Meg series as well. :-D This is what I love about reading...that people can read the same story and have such different perspectives. It's all about personal preferences. :-)

I also enjoyed this book. I would say 4/5. At first the many characters bothered me but I got used to it. I was not a fan of the president character as I agree with the things you said (nightmare maven). It particularly annoyed me how often she would say "as President of the United States". We have read hundreds of pages and yes we are all aware that is what she is without her and Manny and everyone else saying it multiple times per paragraph. I like the point of view of Melanie and the preppers the best. I have a collection of 8 tarantulas so spiders do not bother me but the second book is titled Skitter and that word erks me to think about.

I have started the second book and so far I am enjoying it. It brings in new perspectives, including a group of survivors in Los Angelos that have a man named Prophet Bobby and others at the helm. I would liken it to a religious extremist group exploiting the fears of people to get what they want. Even though they didn't mention religion specifically (yet) he is called a prophet and it is ran by unseemly men who were apparently criminals before the hatching and is providing an interesting and I believe accurate depiction of the way people would behave in such a crisis. Even though I deplore those sorts of groups and reading about their repugnant actions is not particularly fun, I think it does provide a new view that has a lot more going on in the short term, with people being murdered and such.

While I didn't think The Hatching was particularly scary I did read through it quickly and it kept me interested. I also appreciated that they got many of the details concerning spiders (the real ones) correct.

I had this book sitting in my Amazon wish-list forever ! Glad that this one was the book for September and had an excuse for ordering it up !

In general I liked the writing style. It was crisp, easy to follow and the action parts weren't a mess.
The story jumps around a lot, in short chapters, travelling across the globe. But it never gets boring. Because of the short parts, it keeps the story fresh and is always on the move. Before you know you it, you will be 20-30 pages further. I think the longest chapter would be around the 15 pages or so.

Yes, there were a lot of characters to get to know. Some are well fleshed out, others not so much. But I think the minor characters in "The Hatching" will be playing a bigger part in the following books. And on the other hand there were also characters that were just fodder for the spiders.

I liked the inserted angle of the Nazca lines in Peru, where they find one of the egg-sack. It's providing the story some good lore. Also I like how ferocious and bloodthirsty the spiders are, how the spiders behave and how the whole set-up unfolds at the end, but a little finale had be more than welcome !. Sometimes it can be a little graphic, like a spider eating through someones head or we get a chest-burst were spiders are crawling out, …

So far I found this an ok creature feature book. As part of a beginning series, I'll give it a 3 /5 for now.

I'm interested enough to get me "Skitter" and "Zero Day". Wondering how it all unfolds. I'll be ordering them for sure. Maybe it's better this time of year to put them already on my Christmas list ! Also adding Boone's new book "The Mansion", that will be coming out at the end of the year !

I'm using my phone here because my Internet is down (so annoying) and I'll respond properly soon, but I'm so excited to hear everyone's opinions on this and how varied they are! As you said, Vickie, that's the beauty of a book club! All of your responses will be in my video review, which will be up as soon as I get the Internet back!