BOOK REVIEW: The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Stephanie O'Connell | 3 April 2017 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Orion Books
February 2017
Paperback, $19.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Speculative Thriller

6/10

Deep in the jungle of Peru, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist party whole. FBI agent Mike Rich investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Indian earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. The Chinese government “accidentally” drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. The first female president of the United States is summoned to an emergency briefing. And all of these events are connected.

As panic begins to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at Melanie Guyer’s Washington laboratory. The unusual egg inside begins to crack. Something is spreading…

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An virulent ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake. But this is only the beginning of our end…

This book has many of the required elements for a book within the horror/thriller category.

Many groups of people in certain areas of the world, well poised to let the reader see the disaster unfold across the globe.
Some of these groups featured people in power, like the female president of the United States.
There’s something freaky going on, with pockets of spiders turning up in these different locations and reproducing rapidly.

When it comes to The Hatching, readers are bound to have one of two responses.

People who are scared of spiders are bound to find this terrifying, bound to jump at the skitter of autumn leaves and heavily employ door blockers from now on.
But those who aren’t scared of spiders and who are well-versed in the thriller/horror genres aren’t likely to see much they haven’t seen before.

Sadly, many of the readers I know who belong to the former category would never pick this book up in a million years… because of all the spiders on the cover. The fact that this follows the mold of every other disaster book or movie, where spiders could easily be interchanged for zombies, or aliens, or heck, volcano sharks, means that while it is a fun and quick read, it is also not the most original story ever.

This is an enjoyable read, but it’s par for the course for disaster stories, and there’s not much in the character development to really get attached to.