Read Some Books Initiative '16: Book 1
Book: Spiders
Author: Tom Hoyle
Pages: 294/294
Was it interesting? Eh. It was alright.
Well-written? Eh...it had some rough parts.
Would I read it again? No.
Would I read a sequel/further adventures/etc? Probably not.
I suppose this is a fantastic book for spending 3 pounds (sterling) on the cover alone. It has a wr0cking cover yo. Seriously. It’s bright orange, like safety orange and the word “Spiders”’s shadow morphs into a shadow spider. The edges of the pages are also dyed orange and along the top and bottom edge it looks like a gap is in the book and tiny spiders are pouring out of it. The front side has “The web is closing in” written down it and the back just has “They’ll make your skin crawl” as a blurb - I LOVE IT! So yeah, it was worth every pence for the book design alone. The fact that it’s just a sort of pass the time being mildly entertained book is, at this point, a bonus.
Mind you, it would have been awesome if the story were GREAT but I made my peace with the fact that this one’s a looker.
Any-How! I hadn’t realized it was a YA book until about a third of the way through when I said to myself, “Dang but the grownups are useless here…oh wait. OK. Now I see. Carry on.” This is also apparently book two of the Adam Grant series. The first being Thirteen (which also has a fantastic design). Apparently Adam and Meghan had something untoward happen in which Adam killed someone (a crazy cult leader grown up someone) because STUFF. This book starts out with a crazy cult doing crazy cult stuff in Edinburgh which involves kidnapping exceptional children for nefarious cult things.
Abby’s mom died several years back, her dad (an agent of MI5) isn’t handling it well and is withdrawn. He is “investigating” this cult as maybe part of his job, more likely because they hoodwink him into believing he will be reunited with his dead wife. Abby sneaks around and then winds up having to go “under cover” with him. The cult drugs people into docility (the drug manifests your deepest fear - in Abby’s case she sees spiders) but Abby knows something bad is happening. The cult is looking for the thirteenth (call out from the previous book) kid which will bring about the something something ascension sauce. I think they are an alien rapture cult. Adam is, surprise, the 13th kid. He gets nicked and he and Abby work together to escape and then rescue the remaining kids.
Megan helps too but eh.
The thing I liked about this book was everything on the outside. The things I really could leave about this book was pretty much most of the stuff on the inside. I read it and I will probably forget most of it by the time I get around to doing my statistics next year. Except the cover. That is still worth 3 pounds. I suppose the story wasn’t bad, I was amused after all. It wasn’t really special though and places were downright rough. It might could have gone through another polishing before being printed. Also, the writer is a head master at whatever school somewhere and for some reason my brain has developed this not very flattering impression of him. Like maybe the incidental herring from Midsommer Murders. It’s probably not fair, Hoyle is probably a really nice guy but if I met him and he said to me “I am an established author of young adult lit - I just continue to head master because I have a passion for children.” I would roll my eyes and be all “Yeah…figured.”
Author: Tom Hoyle
Pages: 294/294
Was it interesting? Eh. It was alright.
Well-written? Eh...it had some rough parts.
Would I read it again? No.
Would I read a sequel/further adventures/etc? Probably not.
I suppose this is a fantastic book for spending 3 pounds (sterling) on the cover alone. It has a wr0cking cover yo. Seriously. It’s bright orange, like safety orange and the word “Spiders”’s shadow morphs into a shadow spider. The edges of the pages are also dyed orange and along the top and bottom edge it looks like a gap is in the book and tiny spiders are pouring out of it. The front side has “The web is closing in” written down it and the back just has “They’ll make your skin crawl” as a blurb - I LOVE IT! So yeah, it was worth every pence for the book design alone. The fact that it’s just a sort of pass the time being mildly entertained book is, at this point, a bonus.
Mind you, it would have been awesome if the story were GREAT but I made my peace with the fact that this one’s a looker.
Any-How! I hadn’t realized it was a YA book until about a third of the way through when I said to myself, “Dang but the grownups are useless here…oh wait. OK. Now I see. Carry on.” This is also apparently book two of the Adam Grant series. The first being Thirteen (which also has a fantastic design). Apparently Adam and Meghan had something untoward happen in which Adam killed someone (a crazy cult leader grown up someone) because STUFF. This book starts out with a crazy cult doing crazy cult stuff in Edinburgh which involves kidnapping exceptional children for nefarious cult things.
Abby’s mom died several years back, her dad (an agent of MI5) isn’t handling it well and is withdrawn. He is “investigating” this cult as maybe part of his job, more likely because they hoodwink him into believing he will be reunited with his dead wife. Abby sneaks around and then winds up having to go “under cover” with him. The cult drugs people into docility (the drug manifests your deepest fear - in Abby’s case she sees spiders) but Abby knows something bad is happening. The cult is looking for the thirteenth (call out from the previous book) kid which will bring about the something something ascension sauce. I think they are an alien rapture cult. Adam is, surprise, the 13th kid. He gets nicked and he and Abby work together to escape and then rescue the remaining kids.
Megan helps too but eh.
The thing I liked about this book was everything on the outside. The things I really could leave about this book was pretty much most of the stuff on the inside. I read it and I will probably forget most of it by the time I get around to doing my statistics next year. Except the cover. That is still worth 3 pounds. I suppose the story wasn’t bad, I was amused after all. It wasn’t really special though and places were downright rough. It might could have gone through another polishing before being printed. Also, the writer is a head master at whatever school somewhere and for some reason my brain has developed this not very flattering impression of him. Like maybe the incidental herring from Midsommer Murders. It’s probably not fair, Hoyle is probably a really nice guy but if I met him and he said to me “I am an established author of young adult lit - I just continue to head master because I have a passion for children.” I would roll my eyes and be all “Yeah…figured.”