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Alice (12 KP) rated Skitter in Books

Jul 3, 2018  
Skitter
Skitter
Ezekiel Boone | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review </i>

This review can be found on my blog <a href="http://wp.me/p5y0lX-1NL">here</a href>

Skitter is part two of The Hatching trilogy and though it did sort of fall victim to the second book in a trilogy trope it was actually pretty good regardless. 

It was a general lull in the mania that was The Hatching that gives you the idea that Boone hasn't finished with the spiders and he hasn't finished telling his story that's for sure. 

Skitter is more of a plateau for Boone to pitch the following ideas of where the story is going to go; it follows the same characters from The Hatching and plenty of new ones as they all experience the changes from the first wave of spiders and the transition to the second wave. 

The survivalists Gordo, Shotgun and their significant others Amy and Fred become integral to the storyline whereas in the first book they were merely amusing side characters. Development of a weapon that is supposedly able to destroy the spiders takes a good precedent. 

Although the series so far has been dark this book was infinitely darker with a lot more death and destruction mostly at the hands of government officials who are in a respect doing what they believe to be the right move.  Agent Mike Rich has holed up with his family on an island in the woods and he's feeling particularly twitchy when some folks appear from nowhere. 

There was some more scientific deductions about these spiders that potentially could not be actual spiders but could actually be spiders - if that made any sense whatsoever yay. It's left open to have the story continued and hopefully the next book will give me the info I crave. 

Skitter wasn't particularly creepy and there was minimal spider action with only a few people being eaten, some weird experiences from civilians and some people jumping the gun with regards to the egg sacs.

In all, the book wrapped up some trailing story arcs nicely and left the story wide open for the next book. 
  
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Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Charlotte's Web in Books

Oct 10, 2017 (Updated Oct 10, 2017)  
Charlotte&#039;s Web
Charlotte's Web
E.B. White, Garth Williams | 2014 | Children
8
7.9 (50 Ratings)
Book Rating
Classic children's story about friendship and loss
I shed so many tears reading this as a kid. It's a great book for children exploring loss, and unlikely friendship. Even though I hate spiders, Charlotte is wonderful, attempting to aid her friend Wilbur the pig from being slaughtered. A heartwarming, bittersweet tale.
  
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Merissa (11704 KP) rated Gatekeeper in Books

Dec 17, 2018  
G
Gatekeeper
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First off, I'm not sure what category this book is supposed to be. It is a Mystery/Fantasy but for me personally it was also borderline Horror. As an arachnophobe, it was incredibly hard for me to keep reading when the descriptions of the spiders were so good. Believe me when I say I had no idea that this book involved spiders or I would not have downloaded it in the first place.

Saying that, it would have been my loss. This book is incredibly well written, with twists and turns aplenty, love and betrayal, trust, honour - it's all here.

It has been compared to DUNES which may help you to decide if you want to read it.
  
B(
Blackout (Cal Leandros, #6)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
At the beginning of this novel, Cal Leandros wakes up on a deserted beach, surrounded by the carcasses of giant spiders, with no memory of who he is, how he got there, or where the spiders have come from. In other words, the novel goes down the good old amnesia route.

While, perhaps, this would have been a good opportunity for Rob Thurman to hit the 'reset' button on the world she's created, I have to say that I found this book to be a bit of a wasted opportunity - concentrating (in my opinion) far far too much on the brotherly bond between Cal and Niko (who, initialyy, he can't even remember) and nowhere near enough on the monsters or action scenes!
  
You Cannot Kill David Arquette (2020)
You Cannot Kill David Arquette (2020)
2020 | Documentary
9
7.8 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Giant spiders couldn't kill him, Ghostface couldn't kill him, wrestling couldn't kill him(almost did), and You Cannot Kill David Arquette. This was such a great documentary. As a fan of movies, a fan of wrestling, and someone who also hates growing up I've always loved David Arquette. After watching this documentary, I now respect him as well.
  
SA
Swat!: A Fly's Guide to Staying Alive
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received this book from Toppsta to review

It took me a while to review this book because my 8 year old got to it first and I had to pry it out of his sleeping hands to get the chance to read it myself ... I HAD to find out what had him so engrossed and giggling away.

Swat! by Mike Barfield is an educational story about Buzzter, a newly hatched fly, and Professor Hector Halfbottle teaching Buzzter about all the things that he has to avoid because basically everything out there will attempt to kill or eat him.

The book is packed full of wonderfully bright and detailed drawings and information showing the dangers to flies. The Venus Flytrap page has been sponged into the 8yr olds brain as he has gleefully spouted the information to everyone he meets about the small plant we have on the windowsill. Jumping Spiders and Archerfish have also been inspiring (Muuuummm, can you find me a video of a spitting fish?).

I would highly recommend this book for any budding young entomologist, and also to those who are teensy bit scared of spiders to show them what good things spiders can do.


You should also check out his website for extra things like printable colouring pages and fly jokes
  
The Hobbit
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien | 1937 | Children
10
8.4 (144 Ratings)
Book Rating
Brilliant adventure (1 more)
Must read before Lord of the rings
Amazing novel
The Hobbit is another master piece but the now deceased master of fantasy: Tolkein. If you ever see the J. R. R Tolkein name on a novel your guaranteed for a ride that you will not want to get off. May be slow to start but that can be a good thing. I know this recently was made in to a movie series but I do wish that this had been done before Lord of The Rings as the Hobbit gives us the background and shows us Bilbo as a younger man. Now I’m not gonna give any spoilers as I believe it’s a novel best experienced yourself but I will say this: anyone afraid of spiders needs to be prepared cause this book does contain giant spiders in a part of it.

Buckle up, relax and enjoy the wonderful journey of a Hobbit.
  
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Ross (3282 KP) rated The Sea Watch in Books

Sep 13, 2017  
The Sea Watch
The Sea Watch
Adrian Tchaikovsky | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
5
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Similar to the preceding book of the series, this was a real slog. The action starts to hot up again, with the Spiders starting to show their true colours once more, however the story then moves underwater and slows to a crawl. There is little of this book that adds to the whole series, other than the link between Stenwold and the sea-kinden. You could reasonably safely skip this book and move on with little missed out.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Web in Books

Sep 6, 2019 (Updated Sep 6, 2019)  
Web
Web
John Wyndham | 1979 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
John Wyndham's final novel revisits a number of his themes and has the odd good passage, but you can tell the author has struggled with it. A group of idealists looking to create a perfect society discover they have made a bad choice of site: the location in question, a remote Pacific island, is already overrun by vast swarms of social spiders - possibly the result of nuclear testing in the region (or, failing that, a curse from the original islanders, displaced by the colonial powers).

Sounds like it has promise, but it takes a very long time to properly get going (the spiders don't appear until the second half of the book) and it's a bit unclear what points Wyndham is trying to make. Some of the divergences from the classic Wyndham formula are a little curious; the protagonist is older, and the general tone more fatalistic than in his better-known books. Fairly readable, but it lacks the big ideas and memorable imagery of his best novels.
  
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
2017 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Only very loosely related to the original film (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
The original scared the crap out of me as a kid (the spiders, the monkeys, the general chaos). This one only seemed to have the vaguest connection to the first one and mostly went for laughs above any type of serious plot points or characterization. They had almost 22 years to think of a better sequel! As a stand-alone movie it's okay but they could have done so much more with it.