Zero Day: A Novel (The Hatching Series)

Zero Day: A Novel (The Hatching Series) - Ezekiel Boone I’ve looked forward to Zero Day, the third book in the Hatching trilogy, for quite a while now. (You can find my reviews of The Hatching and Skitter by clicking on the titles.) Even though Skitter disappointed me with its not-so-tasty-cream-filling status between the decent parts of a cookie, I still held strong for the series. I fully expected Ezekiel Boone to deliver epicness in spades for the wrap up to this eight-legged three-volume arachno-terror. Expecting anything epic from anyone is always setting yourself up for disappointment. How much you like the author’s writing in general means the disappointment will vary from “Eh, figures” to “My god, good sir, how could you do this to me?”

I was somewhere near the “Eh, figures” end of the scale.

Zero Day started off with some word play that had me laughing. “Like two bullfrogs mating on a cymbal” is just classic imagery. However, by the halfway point, the humor felt as forced as when Marvel does an all-star cast superhero movie and tries to give everyone the snarkiest line in the script. It starts off with chuckles, and by the end of the movie, you’ve stopped listening to the painful dialogue and started mentally organizing your to-read-list for the next six months. Luckily, that was me exaggerating a bit, as Zero Day wasn’t quite that bad. I was only tempted to organize the next month’s or so. I think Boone was trying to embrace the B-movie cheese that these books have the potential for.

It wasn’t until there were roughly 80 pages left in Zero Day that it felt like the author started to really draw everything together. Finally, things started to happen that involved the spiders and not politics or other human drama. (Not that I minded the touch o’ love scene with Abuela, mind you!) I was happy at this point, and began to get fully immersed into the story. Bring the pedipalps, the teeth, the eight-legged freaks. I was ready for some monster killing!

And then at about 30 pages left, I stared at the page. That was it? That was the grand climax? Nope. Not happening. He was going to pull something at the very end. … Yep, apparently he was. And gah! C’mon, it wasn’t even his first time! It’s understandable when someone cuts loose a bit too early and a touch too unskilled on their first time! Queue footage of me mentally stomping around in my head and throwing things, before forcing a grin and pretending that it was okay. That it ended just fine. I was fine with the touchy-feelies and warm’n’fuzzies afterward and not in the least bit dissatisfied.

Except, no. NO. My happy was not had. He got me riled up and rarin’ to go, and then he finished before I was ready for it. Grr.

Okay, overall, when taking into account that the Hatching trilogy is Ezekiel Boone’s first series (and first three books on the whole, at least according to Goodreads), he didn’t do bad. I think the first book is definitely the best of the three. It’s clear, though, that he had a vision, and he did his best to stick to it. Writing a trilogy about the world being overtaken by spiders was an ambitious project, to say the least, especially since it had mass release and the expectations that went with it. He did a decent job, all things considered.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.