'Infestation' – Matt Shaw


I'm not sure what led me down the rabbit hole of 'Spider Horror' this week (well, apart from the evil looking spider in my bathroom, and the other one I found trying to sneak into my flat, but anyway...) but I've read a couple of excellent books off the back of it so won't complain too much about it. I mean, now I'm even more jumpy about movement seen from the corner of my mind but that's kind of the whole point of these books (right?) so I'm calling the experiment a success. And if I don't go near 'Spider Horror' (or just spiders in general) then I'm sure you'll understand ;o) Yesterday's read was Matt Shaw's 'Infestation' collection (containing Books 1 and 2), let me tell you about it.

One bite is all it takes. Your blood cells turn to spider hatchlings which then come crawling from your every orifice. You scream and thrash around but you are already dead, you move and scream because of the spiders under your skin and on your vocal chords...

And if you thought that blurb was grim... Well, just wait until you read the rest of the book (well, books but you know what I mean). I'd read some of Shaw's work, years ago now, and knew that he was capable of going 'full on dark' but apparently I'd forgotten just how dark that could be. You might want to bear that in mind but if you do pick this collection up, I reckon you'll get a lot out of it.

What's worse than a morbid fear of spiders...? Having a morbid fear of spiders in the middle of a 'spider apocalypse' (spiderpocalypse?) where the little bastards grow inside you and push your eyeballs out of the way in their hurry to get out and get busy. Shaw gradually eases us into the apocalypse (and of course it would start with a traffic jam, this is England after all) and then throws us right into the middle of it with a fireball and a man who cannot possibly be alive, and isn't... This manic opening sets the pace for the rest of Book 1, a tense mix of spiders and a growing realisation that the end of the world will inevitably bring out the worst in people. Shaw delights in showing us what this means for our leads, with only a couple of details spared. And even when those particular details are glossed over, you're still left in no doubt as to what happened (and damn...) Shaw is that good, he really is.

Book 1 is a whistle stop tour of the apocalypse from the point of view of two people at the very heart of it. It's fast and it's outright brutal, just like an apocalypse should be.

And then we're onto Book 2, a slightly more thoughtful (and short) affair that looks at how the rest of the world reacts to events in the UK (along with some interesting hints about the root cause which I'm hoping to find out more about in future books, if there are any...) By it's nature, Book 2 doesn't hit the same heights as Book 1 but it still gives you plenty to think about as Shaw shows us what UK refugees are potentially escaping into, albeit not for very long. I can't help but wonder if another book was planned but Book 2 ends at just the right moment and on a note that suggests that maybe, just maybe, people will work out how to get along (even if it's ultimately too late this time round).

The 'Infestation' books were published back in 2017 so once again, my poor sense of timing has left me as probably the last person to pick these books up. If you're a fan of Matt Shaw, or 'Spider Horror' in general, and you haven't read 'Infestation' (1 or 2) yet... Definitely give these books a go, they're well worth your time.

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