The Swarm
A Novel
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- 7,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
From the bizarre and audacious imagination of horror author Andy Marino comes a harrowing tale of the insect that will herald the apocalypse…
"The literary equivalent of swallowing a wasp that's crawled inside your Coke can. Do yourself a favor and read this book." – Nick Cutter, author of The Troop
"Creepy, crawly, and endlessly dark, this is Marino's best novel yet." – Gabino Iglesias, Bram Stoker award winning author
It begins with cicadas. It will end with the swarm.
When a bizarre murder case lands on the desk of Detective Vicky Paterson, it's just the start of her nightmare. On the same day, her young daughter, Sadie, is swarmed by cicadas emerging off-cycle from their seventeen-year pattern. Sadie barely survives, and her condition is critical.
Across town, Will and Alicia, two dysfunctional private investigators, are on the trail of a missing girl and the shadowy cult involved in her disappearance. But after the first wave of insects hit, they are forced to barricade themselves in a motel where they must work together with a group of strangers to outlast the invasion.
Soon the infestation is impossible to contain. Humanity rests on the knife's edge of extinction. And there is a terrible purpose behind the emergence – one that Vicky, Will, Alicia, and a small group of unlikely allies must unravel if they are to survive.
"Marino's work is unlike any other's in the genre – horrifying, complex, fascinating, and utterly unique." – Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author
"Relentless, brutal, and brilliant. An apocalyptic tour de force." – Craig DiLouie, author of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive
"Marino has taken the safety of sensations away from me. Every prickle along my arm, the slightest buzz anywhere near my ear – it's all fodder for nightmares now. Suggesting your skin will crawl after reading this unnerving novel doesn't come close. Your flesh will fly away." – Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sprawling apocalyptic epic from Marino (The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess), an unholy swarm of cicadas threatens the end of life on Earth while a group of survivors attempt to stay alive and piece together the insectoid contagion's origins—and how to stop it. Detective Vicky Paterson is interrupted during a murder investigation in a sleepy town when the cicadas brutally attack her daughter, sending her on a harrowing mission for answers. Meanwhile, Will and Alicia, two mercenaries tasked with rescuing a kidnapped girl named Violet Carmichael, are taken by shadowy intelligence forces who believe they might be connected to an insect-worshipping cult at the root of the terrible swarms. A third story line follows Dr. Rebecca Perez, who realizes that her family's past is connected to the same mysterious cult, with disastrous consequences she must address in the present. Marino excels at bringing the cicada swarm to horrifying life while still giving the human drama at the center of the story plenty of room to breathe. Unfortunately, the X-Files–style premise can't quite justify the hefty page count, and the downtime between the visceral, gore-filled action sequences sometimes robs the narrative of forward momentum. Still, fans of The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone will find a lot to love in this squirmy tale.