levisamjuno's review
3.0
This was a pretty quick and fun read, but I felt the book could have used a good copy editor. I was also a bit distracted by the constant reference (from page one) to the narrator's impending demise. I guess there was good reason for a few references, but it seemed a bit forced by the fourth or fifth occasion.
I did have a local interest in reading this story as the fictional "Frankland County, Kentucky" setting is actually not too different from the part of Kentucky across the river from me. I had to laugh with familiarity when the narrator described the mobile home they moved into, including the description of what we call "underpinning"; whether that is the actual word for it I can never tell because our rural area tends to use words for things that people from a few counties away would find confusing.
The meat of the story—gratuitous numbers of ants invading a newlywed couple's new home in a new town—is very familiar to me, and invading insects is one of my nightmares. Several places in the narrative gave me those goosebumps of ickiness. The climax fed into the current craze of the living dead (referenced in the book's synopsis above), of which I am not a huge fan; but it was used just enough to freak me out.
I can recommend this for a quick scare. I would certainly like to read some of Swardstrom's other books now that I have been introduced to his work.
I did have a local interest in reading this story as the fictional "Frankland County, Kentucky" setting is actually not too different from the part of Kentucky across the river from me. I had to laugh with familiarity when the narrator described the mobile home they moved into, including the description of what we call "underpinning"; whether that is the actual word for it I can never tell because our rural area tends to use words for things that people from a few counties away would find confusing.
The meat of the story—gratuitous numbers of ants invading a newlywed couple's new home in a new town—is very familiar to me, and invading insects is one of my nightmares. Several places in the narrative gave me those goosebumps of ickiness. The climax fed into the current craze of the living dead (referenced in the book's synopsis above), of which I am not a huge fan; but it was used just enough to freak me out.
I can recommend this for a quick scare. I would certainly like to read some of Swardstrom's other books now that I have been introduced to his work.
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