Tens of millions of people around the world are dead. Half of China is a nuclear wasteland. Mysterious flesh-eating spiders are marching through Los Angeles, Oslo, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, and countless other cities. According to scientist Melanie Gruyer, however, the spider situation seems to be looking up. Yet in Japan, a giant, truck-sized, glowing egg sack gives a shocking preview of what is to come, even as survivors in Los Angeles panic and break the quarantine zone. Out in the desert, survivalists Gordo and Shotgun are trying to invent a spider super weapon, but it’s not clear if it’s too late, because President Stephanie Pilgrim has been forced to enact the plan of last resort: The Spanish Protocol. America, you are on your own. – Goodreads.com

I just finished the first book in this series in early summer (review here), so everything that happened was fairly fresh in my mind or came back to me pretty easily.  The Hatching primarily acquaints the reader with numerous characters and their stories and reveals the origin and invasion of the spiders.  Skitter is more along the lines of ‘the world is going to hell in a handbasket if somebody doesn’t think of something’ kind of book.  And the future isn’t too bright since the spiders seem wicked intelligent and continue to outsmart the humans.  The author does an admirable job with characterization of this diverse cast, and some story lines converge for various reasons.  Tough decisions are made, but a solution still isn’t in sight.

Again, I didn’t realize there would be another book in this series.  As with the first novel, many pages are spent on characters and their backstories that aren’t integral to the plot and I wonder if this series could have been condensed to two books instead of three (I’m assuming there’s not a fourth?).

This is a quick read with adequate pacing and conflict that I’d recommend to horror/sci-fi fans.  Skitter is scheduled for publication May 9th, 2017.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.