Skitter is the latest instalment in Ezekiel Boone’s spidery apocalypse.  I may have had a few reservations with Hatching but Skitter definitely knocks those on the head.  I really enjoyed this instalment, for me it had a much creepier feel and at the same time just nailed the whole disaster theme.   This is a fast paced story with multiple POVs that sweeps us relentlessly around the world from a remote island in Scotland back to a scientific laboratory in the US and everywhere else in between.  There were spiders a-plenty causing panic and terror but more than that an ever pervasive sense of worse yet to come, that awful feeling of dread that the clock is ticking, counting down the minutes until something even more nasty bursts onto the scene.

The story picks up pretty much where Hatching left off.  After an initial wave of killing and causing havoc the Hatching spiders seem to have run out of steam and have died off.  It’s too soon to breathe a sigh of relief though – egg sacs seem to be popping up everywhere and some of them are far from your basic egg sack – they’re almost as big as trucks – which really doesn’t bode well imho.  Melanie Gruyer, the spider expert/scientist from the first book is working tirelessly to find out more about the spiders, where they come from, how they’re evolving, what might be next and the pieces are starting to slowly come together but it’s still a puzzle with missing elements.

At the same time, many of the characters from Hatching make an appearance and are developed further.  The characters from the underground shelter seem to have a bigger part to play as do the people out on the remote Scottish Isle.  In a separate note our FBI guy has become stranded at his holiday home out in the wilds along with a colleague, his ex wife and her new potential husband and their daughter.  Things are starting to turn a little nasty – and it’s not the spiders this time but would-be marauders.  On top of this people in states where the spiders struck are mass panicking and tryng to flee to other parts of the country.  Of course the army are trying to contain the situation and prevent possible infections from spreading but the order of the day is chaos really.

Boone introduces plenty more characters in fairly short order giving them all a quick outline, I don’t advise you to become too attached too soon thoughas a lot of people are simply fodder for hungry spiders.

What I really enjoyed about this is the aspect of ‘invasion’ that really comes across.  The chaos and panic from the first book is still there but there’s now an underlyng sense of menace.  This is not simply a freak spider attack from an unknown species of spider that seems to have suddenly been disturbed or awakened.  If feels like something much bigger is actually taking place here – there is a sense of intelligence and co-ordination and a horrible feeling that things are going to get a helluva lot worse and that first wave of spiders was merely a preemptive strike with a possible tidal wave to follow.

I thought this was a great second in series to be honest.  Boone has nailed the disaster theme and I look forward to seeing what happens next because this surely does conclude on a creepy vibe.

I received a copy through Netgalley courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.