February 13, 2024 by Delacorte Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Angelo, Naira, Gus, and Hallie are all given a Saturday detention for their part in a food fight. They are met at the gate of their school, which backs up to the Dread Wood in an undetermined part of England, by the groundskeeper, Mr. Larrick, who tells them to go to student services. There, they meet Mr. Canton, who gleefully confiscates there phones, puts them in his fanny pack, and marches the students off for a fun day of exercising, bonding, and feeling remorse for their misbehavior. Right off the bat, there is a horrible, inhuman scream, and the group goes to the animal enclosure to investigate. Unfortunately, Mr. Canton is soon swalloed up by a gaping hole in the ground... and a huge, skulking, creepy creature! Angelo is narrating, and we see how the students, who all have secrets they are trying desperately to hide, investigate in the school to see what is going on. When Mr. Larrick smashes up the insect lab, narrowly missing finding the children hiding there, the group climbs out onto the roof to try to escape Larrick and his wife, whom they have previously seen gleefully throwing a chicken down a well! The pair have also thrown chickens out onto the school's yard, where they are quickly consumed by massive trapdoor spiders. The kids don't have any luck, and the Larricks see them. Feeling that there might be clues to be had in the Larricks house, they take off to investigate. There's a brief interlude while we get some valuable information about the Larricks, and also learn a bit about why the four have been assigned detention. They realize that they all had bad interactions with one student, who is related to the Larricks, who are hiding massive secrets. After they leave the house, Hallie gets sucked up into the well. Will the three remaining kids be able to figure out what is going on with the infestation of giant spiders before people come to pick them up from detention?
Strengths: Wow. Just wow. Think Durst's The Lake House or Stroud's The Screaming Staircase, but with SPIDERS. Giant, violent spiders that shoot hairs covered with an irritant and can spring out of the ground and swallow riding lawn mowers! Evil villains with a fun back story! Kids with secrets who are sorry for their misbehavior! The kids' problems were included just enough to give a bit of breathing room when the spider action got too intense. The coolest school. I wondered a bit at first about a school that was part old mansion and part layers of additions, but this is set in England, so why not? (In the US, we usually turn old mansions into senior living facilities or office buildings.) I was so enthralled with the building, which backs up to the Dread Woods, that I wanted to know more about it. It was a relief at the end to know the building survived.
Weaknesses: I'm not scared of spiders, but it turns out there is only so much stomping and squelching I can take. Might have skimmed over some of the spider fighting in the middle, but my students will relish every crunching carapace.
What I really think: Buying THREE copies. This was spectacularly creepy, and like nothing I've read before. I've read a few books, so that in itself is remarkable. Why aren't there more creepy horror stories with spiders? (Sadly, The Alarming Career of Sir Richard Blackstone hasn't circulated well, and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the book about a giant spider I read during the 48 Hour Books Challenge... ten years ago?) There really are not many, unless I have missed some. And I'm still sad that Dean Carter's 2005 The Hand of the Devil was read to bits. Giant, killer mosquito.)
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