While I value the place of spiders in the world and the work
they do in the garden, they scare the bejesus out of me. There is something
about the speed with which they can run or sail, the ease with which they bite,
and the squishiness of some of their bodies that just puts me over the edge. So
of course I read an anthology of horror stories with a spider theme.
The entire e-book gave me the willies, but some were worse- better?-
more effective than others. Christine Morgan’s ‘The Fate Spinners’ is one of
the scariest things I’ve read, because I’ve had spiders come down from the
ceiling onto me when I’m sleeping and to the arachnophobe, it’s only a small
step to giant spiders coming down from the ceiling. There are multiple stories
where people are held captive in spider filled basements, but they each have a
different take on it. The spiders aren’t always evil; sometimes they are the
persecuted, wanting revenge and sometimes wanting only to live. ‘The Golden
Rule’ is one of those stories where you can see where it’s going, but go along
for the ride anyway just to see how horribly it turns out for the people. ‘The
Rules of Magic’ has a sense of irony in it, like what would result if O. Henry
had written horror fiction. Sometimes, as in the last two stories, the spiders
come in disguise and lure their victims in by seeming harmless. Those may be
the worst, because you trust the faces they wear right up until the end.
If you like horror and are scared of spiders- or at least
admit to their possibilities as monsters- this book will be right up your
alley.
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