Zero Day

I normally don't read the third book in a series without reading the other two but this was next on my alphabetical list and ain't nobody got time to read 3 books about killer spiders. That being said, I really enjoyed this silly apocalyptic story. There were a TON of perspectives that got a little confusing at times but the characters were likeable and memorable. A lot of this book focused on the politics of the situation and the science of how the “Hell Spiders” worked. I don't know if realistic is the right word but the dilemmas the characters faced were believable and kept me on the edge of my seat. I really enjoyed how there wasn't a true “bad guy” because nobody really knew what the right thing to do was and everyone was just doing the best they could to save America.

I'm low key afraid of spiders (like most people) so the imagery did make my skin craw a few times. Picking up this book I thought the spiders would be giant, like kaiju size, but it was more about giant waves of millions of normal spiders with some giant queens here and there. I'm honestly not sure which would be scarier. The most disturbing element of the book was definitely the fact that half of the country was nuked and is now a nuclear wasteland. I was just imagining what that would be like and which relatives and friends I would lose (plus all the states I would never see).

My two main gripes with the story would be the Peru subplot and the ending. With the parts in Peru, I just didn't see the point in the characters. Pierre and Bea just bitched at each other the whole time and then Pierre got dumped by Julie in the end. They honestly served no major purpose to the plot. The ending I wasn't in love with because A. the “kill the queen, kill them all” solution was pretty cheesy and took away a lot of plausibility (they had me going with the explanation of hatching cycles and cicadas but this made them seem like robots instead of prehistoric creatures?) and B. the epilogue was very “Happily Ever After” cheesy with everyone marrying everyone and getting promotions etc. I'm not against happy endings or anything but considering what just happened to America I would expect a mourning period or something. Something a little more somber.

All in all this was a quick, entertaining read that I was able to zip through during my commute.