Reviews

This novel may be the ultimate stomach turner. Saul follows his standard theme: a group of dangerous young people must be destroyed for the world to be safe. The story begins with Julie falling victim to a strain of bees whose venom is unusually toxic. The man who developed the bees, and their antitoxin, is a serial killer. Not wanting Julie to survive, he switches the antitoxin for an untried substance that turns out to be a new species of insect that requires a mammalian host for survival. Julie survives, infested with internal insects, and spews them forth to infect her friends. The horror of her condition is thoroughly detailed. Saul also gives us a splendidly creepy bug-infested house of horrors and a fitting revenge for the villain. Not for the weak of stomach, but essential for any library that has Saul fans. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/94.]-Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.

Bestselling horror writer Saul's 18th novel features a mad entomologist and serial killer whose latest experiment causes insects to control the mind of a teenage girl, forcing her to implant the bugs into other innocent teens. (Aug.)