The Swarm

September 1, 2024
Cicadas hasten the end of the world in this unnerving novel. In Fort Halcott, a small city in upstate New York, police officers Vicky Paterson and Ken Grimes investigate a dead body found with its fingernails, toenails, and teeth cleanly removed and no sign of insects feasting on the remains even though the woman has clearly been dead for several days. Elsewhere in town, Will Bennett and Alicia Bennett, a divorced pair of "fixers," track down a young woman who's fallen in with something called the Order of Hemiptera. When they encounter the cult, it's in the midst of a bizarre ritual that changes something in Will, prompting him to occasionally utter things like "The signal begins in the soil." Gradually our heroes note that the hum of cicadas is omnipresent, a year ahead of their scheduled appearance. Readers who savor bugs and body horror will find plenty to enjoy here, though if you find these things icky you may get nightmares. Gradually the scope of the novel widens to incorporate the perspectives of Rebecca Perez, a forensic entomologist, and Anton Hajek, the founder of a possibly failed tech company. (The board meeting that introduces the company feels a bit digressive but also provides some of the funniest moments in the book.) As the reason cicadas are attacking people becomes clear and the scope of the problem expands far beyond one city in the Adirondacks, Marino weaves in more and more elements, from mysterious World War II-era experiments to philosopher Timothy Morton's concept of the hyperobject. It's a lot--at one point, a character summarizes the story thus far as "Possible occult bug ritual sparks a mutant cicada uprising. Comm networks go down. Unknown force cordons off the entire city"--but the book's blend of ambition and viscera works more often than not. Shaggy, kinetic, and relentless.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2024
Marino is mostly known for his books for young readers (the Plot to Kill Hitler trilogy, for example), but he's written a few solid novels for adults, the most recent being It Rides a Pale Horse (2022). His new novel is creepily good, a story of an apocalypse triggered by an unexpected swarm of insects. Why have they suddenly appeared, in the millions, without warning? Why are they behaving in such an uncharacteristic--even murderous--way? Who's controlling them, and why? Marino juggles a great cast of characters (including a cop, an entomologist, and an ex-husband-and-wife combo who rescue people from cults) and does a superlative job of creating an atmosphere of fear, paranoia, and claustrophobia. His approach is rigorously logical; the story might be on the fantastic side, but it develops in a carefully structured, entirely plausible way. We really believe this could happen, which makes it altogether more frightening (and, it must be said, icky).

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September 23, 2024
In this sprawling apocalyptic epic from Marino (The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess), an unholy swarm of cicadas threatens the end of life on Earth while a group of survivors attempt to stay alive and piece together the insectoid contagion’s origins—and how to stop it. Detective Vicky Paterson is interrupted during a murder investigation in a sleepy town when the cicadas brutally attack her daughter, sending her on a harrowing mission for answers. Meanwhile, Will and Alicia, two mercenaries tasked with rescuing a kidnapped girl named Violet Carmichael, are taken by shadowy intelligence forces who believe they might be connected to an insect-worshipping cult at the root of the terrible swarms. A third story line follows Dr. Rebecca Perez, who realizes that her family’s past is connected to the same mysterious cult, with disastrous consequences she must address in the present. Marino excels at bringing the cicada swarm to horrifying life while still giving the human drama at the center of the story plenty of room to breathe. Unfortunately, the X-Files–style premise can’t quite justify the hefty page count, and the downtime between the visceral, gore-filled action sequences sometimes robs the narrative of forward momentum. Still, fans of The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone will find a lot to love in this squirmy tale.

October 1, 2024

Detective Vicky Paterson is called to investigate a death at the home of a hoarder; she quickly realizes that something is off. The house is a festering mess, but the area around the body is completely clear of debris. There's not a single bug feeding on the dead corpse, and the body itself has weird markings. And why are the cicadas so loud outside? Then Vicky returns home in the morning and witnesses her daughter being incapacitated by a swarm of cicadas. Following four well-developed and intriguing characters as they fight to save themselves and others in an apocalyptic landscape, Marino (It Rides a Pale Horse) provides a high-stakes, action-packed, and compelling band-of-survivors tale that not only wrings the most out of readers' discomfort with insects but also makes them consider the choices humanity has made in order to live convenient and comfortable lives, which have played a large role in the swarm's attempt at annihilation. VERDICT A solid example of bug horror, much like the "Hatching" series by Ezekiel Boone or The Colony by A.J. Colucci. Will also appeal to those who were chilled by the character-centered social-commentary horror of Chuck Wendig's Wanderers.

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