An entomologist creates a bug problem and kills people

Great book! It was hard to put this one down.

This isn't my first John Saul novel, and it won't be my last - yet, it isn't his best work.

As a horror novel, I guess it ticks all the boxes. There are scenes of graphic violence and death, there are bugs (many bugs) that want to eat you alive, and there are lots of panicked people running around unsure of what's happening, but for some reason a few jump to conclusions that hit the nail on the head at the right time.

In short - it's horror, it isn't supposed to make perfect sense, and you're supposed to feel creeped out by it all. So, it does its job. Except for the theme of genetically modified insects and crop fertilisers being the downfall of us all. I think that's a lame storyline, but horror and some thriller novels seem to like it.

If bugs aren't your thing, maybe give this a miss - unless you want to have nightmares about swarms of bugs coming for you out of the woods.

Saul isn't my favourite horror writer, but I appreciate his work. I probable wouldn't read his books a second time.

What do you get when you cross (and NOT in a good way)Mother Nature's wrath, with a Sick serial Killer, teens going thru puberty, Bees and every other kind of creepy crawly thing, with the attack horror and suspense of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"? You get this vintage 1994 HORROR classic! I will NEVER kill another bee or bug for the rest of my life!!!

Alright, I will be honest, in 1994 when this first came out....i bought and cracked it open so excited to get into my favorite horror authors newest tale of terror and horror, and to my dismay I did NOT finish it because it did not deal with the supernatural as all of his 'classics in my book' did before it. What the hell was I thinking!!! So, with me working on another piece of art, and having to get ready to do a buddy read of the next Saul book, i picked up the idea to LISTEN to this on Scribd....and boy oh boy this made me realize.....this is one of his BEST books ever!!! I will definitely put this on my shelf of books to always and seasonably re read!

So, onto the review:
This book starts out with on the day of widowed Karen Spellman and Russell Owen's wedding, they are both parents of kids from another marriage; Karen has two daughters, Julie 15 and Molly 9. Russell has a son Kevin. With Karen moving Los Angeles to the Bay area town of Pleasant Valley California to start a family with Russell, she gets to meet and live with Otto Owen, Russell's widowed father....and boy is he mean and cranky!!! On the wedding day, Molly is the flower girl and she is violently stung by a bee that puts her into a near coma and is rushed to the emergency room at the hospital, abruptly ending the wedding and party at the ranch and farm of Russells family. Molly having never been allergic to anything before is almost killed by this, making Karen realize is there something weird about this small town?. A couple days later Julie is also stung by a bee causing the almost same response, is something wrong with the bees in Pleasant Valley or is it all in Karen's head?

Meet Carl Henderson, ranch hand and employee of Otto. Now this is one of the BEST villains and bad guys that Saul has ever written about. He is obsessed with bees, bugs and anything that crawls and bites, and he warns both the girls and their mother to 'never swat at a bee, just leave it/them alone and they will not harm you or sting'! Yeah, Right!!! What unfolds in this take on the old wives tale of 'Don't Mess with Mother Nature!!!' is something that will make you think, what the hell!!! And you will think twice before you kill a bug. The book has graphic scenes of a young hitchhiking girl on her way to Los Angeles crucified, and held captive in a basement being the food source of creepy crawlies, while her tormentor gets his enjoyment out of watching, there are disturbing and terrifying scenes of suspense and lost children that will just make you flip the pages all that more fast! And the descriptions of how the 'spider was chewing the thin skin off of the kids eyelid......' YIKES!!! It was so well done!! With this being 423 pages long, it is a quick read, however if you get the chance to listen to it on audio, do it, it was so effective! Maybe this read did not interest me in my early 30's because maybe I just did not care about it.....but after reading other readers comments of how this is one of their faves by Saul, now I realize why!!! LOVED THIS BOOK!!!

5

Scary.. and imaginative!! This is the one that I liked most of Saul's.

Love all of John Saul's books. He focuses on teenagers, at least all the books of his that I've read were that way. I empathized with his lead characters because I always feel like an outsider, which his characters always wind up being. Saul mixes it all up with some Sci-fi to boot.

Meh. This was cornball stuff. It had its creepy moments, particularly if insects give you the willies, but there was just too much about this book that was subpar, so one star is all I can muster.
Having just read John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, I was underwhelmed by Saul's writing. Yes, his words moved the plot along, but there were no sentences worth reading twice, no passages to really savour.
But what sank this book for me was Chapter 26. I actually felt like dropping the book in the street, a rare feeling for me. Two characters, Molly and Ben, made a series of ridiculously boneheaded, contrived decisions that were utterly unbelievable (including carrying a large dog out of a second floor window to urinate). At the same time, Saul granted Kevin the ability to resist the parasitic organism inside him and warn Molly away, something Saul spent the better part of 200 pages establishing was impossible to do. The whole thing reeked of contrivance, and lazy plot tricks.
Cheesy writing, I can stand. But character actions have to be at least a little believable.
One last thing. John Saul really likes to use exclamation points!

4.5

Ich bin froh, diesen Autoren entdeckt zu haben.
Das ist jetzt das zweite - und bestimmt nicht letzte - Buch, das ich von John Saul gelesen habe. Es hat mich unterhalten und war angenehm zu lesen; irgendetwas an der Art, wie das Buch geschrieben ist, hat dafür gesorgt, dass mir nicht langweilig wurde, selbst wenn von Anfang an klar war, wer den Virus (in Ermangelung eines Besseren Wortes) wie ausgelöst hat. Der Autor hat es außerdem geschafft, dass mir die Charaktere (vor Allem die Familie Spellmann) nicht egal waren und ich sie mir gut als Individuen mit Persönlichkeit vorstellen konnte.

Es gab ein paar einzelne Stellen, die mir unrealistisch oder etwas "lazy" vorkamen (in einem Buch über Insektenzombies wow), zum Beispiel, dass Ellen scheinbar aus dem Nichts auf die Wahrheit kommt. Auch die Offenbarung von Carls Vorgeschichte auf den letzteren Seiten fühlte sich etwas reingequetscht an.

Die Lektüre hat mich spannungstechnisch zwar nicht komplett mitgerissen, aber ich habe sie durchaus genossen und freue mich auf mehr.

Read it, finished it but only because I bought it. More suitable for YA.

Most of the story was very good; however, I can't rate it higher because the story didn't really end.

Wow what a thrill ride. The Homing does such a wonderful job of tapping into very primal fears. This book literally will make your skin crawl.

picked this up at a book fair for a dollar:: 2.9/5 stars? it was FINE. just a shallow, entertaining read. I didn't care for any of the characters, so I stayed to read how this would end. Every character was extremely incompetent, save for one kid and the sole town doctor (and even she...hm). The deputy was a man of questionable ethics, and I think he was written like that unintentionally lmao considering he became a (below-average) hero at the end. There were plot holes, but they were forgivable...I also wouldn't consider this a horror, but I will say that not being able to show or articulate how much physical pain you're in to people who want to help you sounds like hell.
tldr: bzz bzz