'Breeding Ground' – Sarah Pinborough (Leisure Fiction)
It's not just zombie books that I will drop everything for, now it's giant spiders too. What's not to like about giant spiders trashing the scenery or doing that thing where you think everything's ok until you see a giant spider leg uncurl behind some poor unsuspecting soul... Nope, giant spiders are great; it's the little spiders living in my bathroom that creep me out. But anyway...
I actually read 'Breeding Ground's' sequel, 'Feeding Ground', a long old time ago and it's taken me all the time since to find a copy of 'Breeding Ground' for a price that didn't make me wince. Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right places but... I got there in the end :o) I was so pleased, when the book came through the door, that I didn't even hang around for the 'Books for the TBR Pile' post, I just got straight into the business of reading. Let me tell you all about it...
Life was going well for Matt and Chloe. They were in love and looking forward to their new baby. But what Chloe gave birth to isn't a baby, it isn't even human... It's an entirely new species that uses humans only for food and as hosts for their young.
As Matt soon learns though, he is not alone in his terror. Women all over town have begun to give birth to these hideous creatures, spidery nightmares that live to kill... And feed. As the infestation spreads and the countryside is reduced to a series of web-shrouded ghost towns, will the survivors find a way to fight back? Or is it only a matter of time before a once familiar world becomes a breeding ground...
I like to go into the office pretty early so you'll normally see me trying to catch up on my sleep as I take the bus in. Not yesterday though, yesterday was all about trying to read as much of 'Breeding Ground' as I could and I had so much fun reading it. Honestly, I couldn't put it down. Pinborough clearly knows what makes a creepy book creepy and uses all those tricks to great effect.as the reader is effortlessly taken from being merely unsettled (with a hint of creeping fear as Matt's wife changes) and thrown straight into the depths of body horror, and that's just the first two or three chapters. From then on in, you're either looking at having your nerves played with mercilessly or having your face rubbed in all the viscera that you'd expect with giant spiders on the hunt. It's brilliant, all of it. Pinborough doesn't fall into the trap of letting things get too predictable either; anything can happen and no-one is safe either (seriously). All good reasons to keep reading especially when it's all set against this web strewn background that gets in your head, just like the webs in the book do...
So a lot of fun then but not quite the book that it wanted to be and that's mostly down to our 'hero' being, well... To be frank, a little too eager to shag his way across this post apocalyptic landscape and I could understand that if he hadn't just lost his wife and unborn child in the most horrific way (and that's your content warning for miscarriage, Pinborough doesn't pull any punches here) But it happens and Matt isn't long out the door before he's making eyes at female survivors and going on to do more than that. Is Matt dealing with a traumatic event in the only way that he can? Am I just a closet prude? Probably, on both counts, but it still didn't sit quite right with me and when Matt is the person whose eyes we're looking through... I didn't find Matt as engaging a character as he could have been, your mileage will vary though.
It's a small(ish) quibble though when the rest of the book was so much fun to read; I'm glad that I finally got to give 'Breeding Ground' a read :o) And now, it's straight onto 'Feeding Ground'...
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