February ScaredyKIT - Spiders, Snakes and other Creepy Crawlers

This month's reads are all about those creepy creatures that just unnerve most people. Spiders, Snakes, and other Creepy Crawlers.
Let us know what you are reading and don't forget to update the wiki here
You may choose to read a classic like:
The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe
The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
The Valley of the Spiders by H.G. Wells
The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf
Or any other creepy book like:
The Fire Ants by Saul Wernick
The Mist by Stephen King
Creepshow by Stephen King
What Hides Within by Jason Parent
The Ash Tree by M.R. James
Violet Eyes by John Everson
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Don't Move by James S Murray
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Slither by John Halkin
Locusts by Guy N Smith
Mandibles by Jeff Strand
Slugs by Shaun Hutson

You can also use the Spider, Snake, or chosen Creepy Crawler as a word in the title or a photo on the cover. The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine is good for this.
Happy Reading and don't let the Bedbugs bite.

Or you may choose to just read a non-fiction book about one of the creatures.
I am reading The Private Life of Spiders by Paul Hilyard and hope to read The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe

Hmmm, I've wanted to read The Wasp Factory for a while.

But I think I will read Perdido Street Station.

>3 JayneCM: Just a FYI...my friend told me there are various incidents of animal torture in The Wasp Factory.

>5 Tess_W: I can confirm. Here is the relevant line from my review: "The animal torture seemed gratuitous and inserted for shock value only." I didn't like the book.

I was considering The Troop for this month's theme, but was also put off by the reviews mentioning animal torture. I'm not sure what I will read now, although a book I did recently finish and highly enjoyed would have qualified. I'll put the title under the spoiler tag but just be aware this may be a spoiling detail for you: The Last House on Needless Street--the creepy crawlies are snakes.

Here are some recommendations for books involving snakes:
Horns by Joe Hill
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
The Burn Palace by Stephen Dobyns

Here are some recommendations for books involving insects:
Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters
The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones

For anyone who likes biographies/memoirs and doesn't mind snakes, I strongly recommend The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James--it was fantastic. I adore snakes, and pretty much all creepy-crawlies that bother folks--so it didn't bother me, but I'm sure others would be horrified by plenty of the passages! In any case, it was fantastic.

One of the few creepy-crawlies that does bother me is cockroaches. I'll likely regret it...but I've been enjoying reading of the 'Paperbacks from Hell' re-releases, and one I've got handy is The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas. So, looks like this is where it goes....

>7 whitewavedarling: That is one Paperback from Hell I didn't buy! Cockroaches are not my thing either, although I've gotten less squeamish about them as we are having an invasion of them where I live now and it's pretty much impossible to keep them out of the house, even with a pest control service. They're the kind that live outdoors mainly but come inside seeking water (so through pipes and such) and they're huge! They get into my dishwasher. I've gotten rather good at stomping the buggers.

I'll definitely be looking for your review of that one!

>8 sturlington: Yeah, they're my main ick-factor when it comes to normal fears :( With any luck, this will desensitize me a bit! Or else I imagine I'll be extra jittery/jumpy/screamy and drive my husband up the wall lol.

I am planning on reading Arachnoid by Michael Cole which I picked up for a reduced price for the Kindle, but I suspect it may be a little over-the-top and cheesy.

Has anyone read Home Before Dark by Riley Sager? It came up with a tagmash of snakes and horror. Just wondering if snakes are really a part of the story... or maybe a big enough part of the story to read for this? Thanks!

I don't like crawly things at all, so I was about to say I don't have anything to fit this theme, but then I found This Book Is Full of Spiders on my shelf. Spiders are the worst, but I'm gonna do it.

So I found this book at the library and it sounds interesting enough that I'm going to give it a try: Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science. It has an entire section titled "Creepy Crawlies."

>8 sturlington: We have relatives in Florida, and cockroaches are a constant problem, even with having pest control and their house tented every 2-3 years. However, they have informed me that they don't call them cockroaches--that's too "bougi." They are to be called palmetto bugs!;)

>14 Tess_W: Ha. We call ours water bugs. Doesn't that sound nicer?

For this month's theme, I got the book Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science from the library. This is a selection of expanded blog articles on a variety of topics, all of them macabre, taboo, or disgusting. There is an entire section called "Creepy Crawlies," with articles about roaches, rats, maggots, mites, etc. These essays were pretty gross, but I found the section of essays about the brain's delusions, creepy clowns, and psychos more interesting, which I guess says something about me.

>11 LibraryCin: I would say no - the snakes are probably two or three pages of the book.

>17 JayneCM: Thank you!

For anyone looking for snakes...I just read Reunion Special by Carson Winter, and the snakes were a big part of things. It's a horror novella just published in 2020, and kind of fantastic. Especially for a fast novella, it packs a punch and has some great atmosphere.

From the back cover:

"No one's ever seen Deserted. But people talk about it.

The "reality television event that never was" crashed before it ever took off. Now, all that survives is snippets--images of contestants staring off into space, the heads of snakes peering out from the backs of their throats. Eighteen years later, host Edgar Reyes invites them back to the island, for a reunion special. But as the truth begins to slither out, the host and contestants question who's really pulling their strings."

The author is an indie who can really use reviews also, so if you happen to read it and love it, consider leaving a review on various sites.

I read The Gold Bug, published in 1843. The bug wasn't an integral part of the story, but a needed catalyst.

Not horror or scary, but plenty of creepy crawlies!

Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects / Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
4 stars

The subtitle pretty much says it all. Chapters include insect anatomy, sex, the food chain, symbiosis between insects and plants, insects and human food, insects as “janitors”, industries, and more.

I found this really Interesting, but I’m afraid I won’t remember much. There were so many little tidbits of information, it will be hard to remember. I have heard it before, but even if they are pests, insects really are beneficial, and humans would be hard-pressed to live on a planet without them.

It took a number of clicks to get to the wiki, so I thought I'd post it here to make is easier for others:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2022_ScaredyKIT#February:_Spiders.2C_Sna...

Thank you >22 LibraryCin:. I totally forgot about attaching the wiki link

I have completed my read of Arachnoid by Michael Cole, this was an ok read, reminding me of a B movie - full of action, gore and cliches.

I read two books this month.
Tales of Suspense by Edgar Allan Poe which contained The Gold Bug, which did not contain anything creepy but the rats in The Pit and the Pendulum filled that spot. God, I hate rats.
The Private Life of Spiders by Paul Hillyard was informative, but several of the facts were creepy.

I also read The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe. It started out very interesting, but lost my interest at about the 1/2 way point.

Finished The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas. Just a 3* read for me. Full review below...

The science and the way Douglas writes insects are (or should be) the primary reason for picking this book up. It's got a lot of fantastically interesting info about bugs, incredibly creepy scenes, and the sort of extended passages of gore that make one understand why it was picked out for the republished "Paperbacks of Hell" series. That said...the book has quite a few issues, not least of all the way women are written. Despite being published in the late 70s, the book reads as if it takes place in the 40s or 50s, and I can only imagine that the author wanted to use science from later decades or would have been better off placing it earlier. If anyone wants an example of how to NOT write women and romance, this is a good one.

That said, if you like gore with your horror and can handle some comically cringe-worthy moments involving the writing of women/romance, you might enjoy this one. I had a hard time with it, admittedly, though I'm not sure I've ever been more creeped out or impressed with the writing of insects, and I may come back to this for inspiration the next time I need to write a gory, extended death scene.

Thanks to everyone who joined this month's challenge.

Just read an enjoyable middle grade for this prompt - The Spider Ring by Andrew Harwell.