The Hatching is catching
Again, sorry for the cheesy title, but that is just how this is going to be.
So I recently finished The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone. Now before I start with my opinion you should know that this book is blowing up. It was released about a month ago, and already many people are in love and scared out of their wits by this book.
It is about a world on the verge of apocalypse, an apocalypse brought on by an ancient species of spiders that feed (yes chewing and everything) off human flesh. Scientists find a ten thousand year old egg sac in the middle of nowhere and of course, they have to hatch what's in there. Inside are hundreds of spiders that seem to work together kind of like bees as they swarm their prey, humans. These spiders have to ability to hatch and grow quickly or stay in a sac for thousands of years. Plus the whole feeding on humans thing. Yeah, that's weird, too. The book follows along as different groups from all over the world try to deal with this spider infestation (China opts for nuclear bombs - which, hint, do not work; India is at a complete loss; America grounds all air traffic and starts quarantines - which also do not work). We meet several hundred characters and watch as they all experience this apocalypse and try to save themselves.
Overall, the book is good. It has a great story line and the characters are relatively well developed considering how many there are. The writing is what makes this book. Boone's descriptions of the way the spiders move on the wind is amazing and makes your skin crawl. My only preference would have been to focus on just a few characters instead of a new one in nearly every chapter. I am not accustomed to still be meeting new main characters on the 200th page. Much of the book is spent introducing each character with only about a page or so showing how they deal with the spiders. I just think it would have been easier to connect with the characters if there weren't so many, and I think it would've kept the pace going. This book is a world-ending thriller and, unfortunately, is slowed down considerably by having to explain each characters' backgrounds before they encounter the threat.
This by no means makes it a bad book. Look for yourself at other reviews, and you can see people love this book. As an English major and a publishing institute graduate I think I am more apt to see the flaws in a book that most of the general reading population would not be bothered by. Still, I recommend you try out this book yourself. It had me scratching invisible spiders off my skin and definitely made me start to look out for them more.
This is a piece of great writing, great plot, and pretty good structure. Honestly, I was most interested in the evaluation of the different governments around the world and how they might deal with this sort of thing. It is an insightful look into governments and the way they operate in times of crisis. Not only that but seeing people react in such different ways shows the variation in humanity that I believe would kick these spiders' butts.
I liked this book. It would make a great movie, one that I would love to see. As long as it's not in 3D.
