HIGHWAY TWENTY BY ​MICHAEL J MOORE: BOOK REVIEW

Shape shifting giant bugs invade a small American town
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Michael J Moore’s Highway Twenty drops its cards on the table very early on in proceedings, an interesting literary tactic, as this negates the traditional build-up of suspense having its first big reveal in the opening chapter. The action kicks off with Daryle Colombo having just kidnapped a little boy he intends to rape and kill. Whilst driving the scared little boy to destination unknown we find out he has a very violent past with women, but kidnapping children, and worse, is a relatively new turn of events for him. This is presented in a very neutral and matter of fact tone that is slightly unnerving and after they leave the car and walk into a forest the boy bites Daryle in the stomach and then morphs into a giant insect. The bug-boy then bites the paedophile, paralyses him with powerful venom, and nonchalantly carries him off into the forest to do very nasty things to him, before eventually burying him alive. What goes around comes around, and you can’t say Daryle didn’t have it coming. In many ways a startling opening chapter.
 
One would guess most authors would choose to reveal their killer bugs more slowly that Michael Moore does. That is not to say this technique does not work; when I started reading Highway Twenty I knew very little about it, so when the kid changes into the bug I had a serious ‘What the F did I just read?’ moment, which are always nice. Everybody likes a surprise, even a nasty one.
 
After the bugs make their initial appearance all the subsequent action takes place in the small town of Sedrow Woolley, Washington, with car mechanic Conor Mitchell being the central character. The young man is in the early stages of a relationship with Shelby whom he really likes but is also afraid she is seeing other men and is just using him for casual sex and booze. Before long Conor comes home from work and discovers Shelby has picked up a stray dog, which gives him an irrational uncomfortable feeling, as well as weird dreams where he thinks the dog has been crawling up the apartment walls and ceiling. The next morning, when driving conditions are dicey, Conor hits a young woman with his car and eventually his conscience gets the better of him and he calls the police. Strangely, there is little evidence of any crime being committed and no corpse is discovered. As things get odder, he slowly begins to suspect things are not right in his local town and soon the bugs begin to shake, rattle and roam.
 
I sped through this book in no time at all and enjoyed it, right up to the crazy and over the top ending. It was an entertaining riff on the old Invasion of the Body Snatchers story, but considering it was a story about giant alien bugs (I think) who could disguise themselves as humans it played itself very straight and lacked any sense of humour. Other authors, the likes of Hunter Shea, Jason Parent or Michael Patrick Hicks who all write this sort of thing, would have surely added in some black humour. Highway Twenty could have done with it, instead possibly taking itself too seriously. It might have been serious, but it also lacked emotional punch which might have brought it more to life. The lack of emotion permeated into the characters and I cared little for any of them as they were murdered and eviscerated. 
 
The story was mostly seen from Conor Mitchell’s third person point of view, but it does jump to numerous others, including some characters after they have become human bugs which was strangely quirky. However, Mitchell was not your traditional hero, and although he was likable enough, he was not a strong enough character to carry the novel and I was not too invested in what happened to him in the end. In stories like this it is nice to have someone to root for. Lots of other smaller characters come and go, most have unpleasant ends.
 
At certain points the violence was very grim, nasty and will not be for all tastes. At one point a woman is tied up and about to be killed and eaten by a man-bug who has a giant claw for a hand. The manner of her death was horrifically described, and you do not need much imagination to figure out which part of her anatomy the claw is going to be inserted into. It was not pleasant reading. But these things happen in horror fiction, many of us like to be shocked, but avoid this book if that sounds like too much for your taste.  
 
There are some outstanding standalone scenes and at one point the story jumps to a group of primary school kids who are on a day trip who have been locked in a big cupboard by their bug teacher. The problem is only two of the kids can see the bug for what it really is, the rest still see the teacher, but feel there is something badly wrong. One kid takes the lead and they make a break for it but get picked off one by one by the creatures. It was nasty, but highly effective.
 
Other imagery was very freaky, with the bugs flickering between human and insect form, not to mention the unsettling dog-bugs, which were also were nasty. Or the clever idea that some people with unique eye problems might be able to see them, this was reminiscent of the sunglasses used to see the aliens in John Carpenter’s cult classic They Live.
 
If bugs are your thing there is grim fun to be had in Highway Twenty (this is the road where a lot of the action takes place) and although it takes itself very seriously and the leading man is slightly square-jawed, there is enough entertainment on offer to make it well worth a look.
 
3.5/5
 
Tony Jones

An engineer from out of town disappears.Then Conor Mitchell’s girlfriend. Then his parents. The townspeople of Sedrow Woolley, Washington are vanishing at a horrifying rate. But they come back. They all come back days later, and they’re different: Hungry. Insectile. Creatures posing as humans. Because Conor knows the truth, and because the entire police force has already been changed, and because there’s nowhere to run from an evil that only wants to spread, his sole option is to fight. But they have no intention of letting him leave town.

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