This Book is Full of Spiders – David Wong (aka Jason Pargin)
“You know how sometimes when you’re drifting off to sleep you feel that jolt, like you were falling and caught yourself at the last second? It’s nothing to be concerned about, it’s usually just the parasite adjusting its grip.”
This Book is Full of Spiders is the 2nd book in the comedy cosmic horror series John Dies at the End.
David continues on from the first book, telling us his and his best friend John’s story. This part involves transporter portals and invisible violent spiders that take over people and kill a lot of people.
David is attacked by a spider-like creature that only he can see and he fights it off. The invisible spider takes over the police officer who arrives to investigate the disturbance. The spider lays eggs in David’s room and when they start hatching, David and John burn the house down but the spiders take over the responding firefighters.
The town is locked down by the military and David is taken to a quarantine area as he’s the only one who can see the spiders. John, David, and David’s girlfriend Amy, eventually reunite and work together to try to stop the military from bombing the town off the map.
You won’t regret reading all of the JDATE books: John Dies at the End is the first, What The Hell Did I Just Read is the third, and If This Book Exists, You’re In the Wrong Universe is the fourth and will be released on 18 October 2022.
Clowns vs Spiders – Jeff Strand
Clowns Vs. Spiders is a comedy horror story.
Jaunty the Clown and four fellow clowns are fired from the circus because the world doesn’t like clowns anymore. Even though they’d rather entertain families with wholesome antics, they still have to eat so they take jobs as scary clowns at the Mountain of Terror, a popular haunted attraction.
However, on opening night, millions of huge spiders emerge from a cave and begin their invasion. It’s up to the clowns to save the day.
“I’m not afraid of a spider,” said Christian. “I’m afraid of spiders that enveloped an entire ship in their webbing, yes.”
The Hatching – Ezekiel Boone
The Hatching is the first in an apocalypse horror trilogy.
An ancient species of spiders is awake and coming for humanity. It starts off with a tourist devoured in the jungles of Peru. Seemingly unrelated incidents all around the globe soon point to a horrifying pattern. A plane crash, an earthquake, a nuclear bomb.
A mysterious package is delivered to a Washington D.C. laboratory and the contents want out.
Book 2 is Skitter. Book 3 is Zero Day. If you read one, you’ll need to read them all.
“The man saw Miguel and screamed at him, but Miguel couldn’t make out the words…It looked to Miguel like a black river rushed up behind him. The man had only managed to get to his knees before the dark mass rolled over and around him.”
Cult of the Spider Queen – S.A. Sidor
Cult of the Spider Queen is one of a series of novels set in the 1920s in the Arkham Horror Files universe. The novels provide background on some of the investigators. This one is an adventure horror novel.
A reporter travels to the Amazon in search of a missing actress.
The actress was digging into the legend of the Spider Queen. She’s been missing for a year and is presumed dead. Until the reporter is sent a film reel and a note telling him the actress is still alive.
He puts together a rescue team of explorers and a folklore specialist, hoping this will be his defining reporting moment. But, deep in the jungle, the team finds more than they bargained for.
“Maude Brion is very much alive! Well, hot damn, this was a story.”
The Boy with the Spider Face – AJ Franks
A science fiction body horror novella, The Boy with the Spider Face, tells the story of Jeff, a boy with, you guessed it, a spider-like appearance.
Jeff is bullied and denigrated by most of his peers until Aarav Jain transfers to his school. Aarav accepts Jeff as he is, which sparks hope inside Jeff that maybe his life won’t always be like this.
But Aarav has a dark secret, one that Jeff is finding it hard to contain. When his friend is threatened, Jeff finds a sinister side in himself that he never knew was there.
“Morning sun filtered through shear curtains and across carpet to reflect off the mirror. The boy squinted his human eyes, while the six surrounding arachnid lenses gave little reaction.”
Screams of the Jungle – Zach Cutler-Orrey
Screams of the Jungle is a science fiction horror story.
Dr Hale and a team of researchers head into the jungle of equatorial Africa. What they, and the rescue party sent in after them, discover is a nightmare that might just revise what science thinks it knows about spiders.
“In the canopy above them, something moves slowly through a tree. Attracted by the movement below, it wanders closer and closer.”
