 a great book with an enjoyable style and a good mix of darkness and humor. Jason Parent is definitely an author I will read more of, and encourage others to try his books if they have not already To be honest – I’d read this book’s sequel, Victoria, about a year or so before I’d read What Hides Within. I really enjoyed Victoria – it was packed with action and humor – and so I bought What Hides Within, and enjoyed it as well. What Hides Within is a quieter book than its sequel, but it is full of darkness and humor so it was a great read! The main character is a mediocre man named Clive. Most of the book is spent from his POV, but not entirely. Clive goes kayaking with his friend-with-benefits, Morgan, and takes his kayak under an unused bridge. He is covered in giant spider webs that are so big he never makes it to the other side. He soon experiences a clogged ear and passes it off as trapped water. His doctor cannot find anything wrong with his ear, so nothing can be done. Eventually, the thing in his ear starts talking to him. Since it’s coming from inside him, he wonders if he’s going crazy and hearing voices. Clive even undergoes brain surgery because a neurosurgeon later saw what looked like a mass on his brain. But when the doctor opened his skull, there was no tumor. So he sews Clive back up again and apologizes for the misdiagnosis. While Clive is recovering in the hospital, the voice’s owner reveals herself. She is an ancient, translucent spider who has been burrowing inside Clive’s head since he disturbed her home under the bridge. He’s not overly concerned at first, since he’s on heavy pain meds and is not entirely convinced the spider is real. He names her Chester. After Clive is released from the hospital, Chester makes it known that she is a permanent resident in his head for as long as she likes. She eventually convinces him that she can improve his life if he would relax and follow her cues - and for a time, it does. Eventually, Chester’s desires become more sinister, and unfortunately, she doesn’t feel like leaving. I don’t want to give any more of the plot away, but it was overall a very enjoyable story. There is a lot of humor mixed into this book, as it was with Victoria. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the quips from Clive and a few other characters. And the author made some very realistic and believable characters. So it was pretty easy to buy-into the characters, and find ones I loved and ones I hated. This book is a little longer than ones I tend to read, but for a long book, the pace didn’t drag anywhere. It kept my interest throughout. The ending may have been a touch rushed, whereas the rest of the book had a very steady cadence and nice flow. The ending was very satisfactory and I can see how it played well for the sequel (although I enjoyed the sequel without having read this book first). I enjoy Jason’s style of writing - it’s flowy but not too poetic; the dialogues are very natural; and the steady dry humor is fantastic. Overall, this is a great book with an enjoyable style and a good mix of darkness and humor. Jason Parent is definitely an author I will read more of, and encourage others to try his books if they have not already. RATING 5 OUT OF 5  Clive Menard is just an ordinary guy living an ordinary life. But when a talking spider crawls inside his head, things get a lot less ordinary…and people start dying. Could an itsy-bitsy arachnid be behind the killing spree terrorizing Clive’s community? To evade a sharp detective and find a murderer among friends, Clive must shake the cobwebs loose and piece together the puzzle of his life, all without falling prey to a dark force beyond his comprehension. A genre-twisting dark comedy, What Hides Within is an EPIC Finalist and Independent eBook Award Runner-Up for Best Horror. “I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes horror. It will make you cringe. It will make you shudder. It will make you want to take a shower. But you won't be able to put it down.” - Thomas W. Everson, author of The Rain Experience Trilogy   Comments are closed.
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