TITLE: Swarm
AUTHOR: Jennifer D. Lyle
GENRE: YA horror/thriller
RATING: I usually give a max of 5 stars - but this one is 10 stars
First, I want to thank Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an e-galley of this book.
I wish I could rate this as a 10 stars. It is SO GOOD. I could not put it down - seriously, people say that all the time, but I dragged my tablet all around the house, taking even a few minutes of downtime to read. I was sorry to see it end - I mean I LOOOOOOVED this book.
I am a huge fan of YA survival stories, mostly with snowstorms, but while this book only touches on snow at some minor point, it uses a very clever idea - taking butterflies, which are traditionally loved and considered beautiful and turning them into, basically very efficient contaminating/killing machines.
My skin basically crawled the entire book and I will never look at a butterfly in the same way again. The description of what these beautiful butterflies turned into is a bit shocking and extremely well detailed, making it easy for the reader to imagine.
The fact that these YA were basically sheltered into place, trying to keep one step ahead of the butterflies and their prey was nerve wracking. The fact that anyone bitten turned into something akin to zombies (but not exactly) was a nice touch that made the book even more creepy.
Now that I think about it, this book could easily have taken part of its plot straight from the COVID pandemic - except we, obviously, did not have to deal with zombie issues. However, the shelter into place, the not knowing, the horrible infections and the overall contagion of the virus can easily have inspired the author.
The characters are well fleshed out (no pun intended) and while I did not like the fact that there was a young child AND a cat stuck in the house with these YA, I ended up thinking it was a great addition to the story as it moved it along well.
The strengths of this book are the exceptional pacing - such a good job of moving this at just the appropriate speed and the author's vivid descriptions of the butterflies, the (sort of) zombies and the fear each character felt and lived throughout the story.
You have to read this book. I am so jealous that you get to read it for the first time!
Read my other reviews, very few are 5 stars and very rarely do I praise a book so much - but this story is worth it.
I am a huge fan of YA survival stories, mostly with snowstorms, but while this book only touches on snow at some minor point, it uses a very clever idea - taking butterflies, which are traditionally loved and considered beautiful and turning them into, basically very efficient contaminating/killing machines.
My skin basically crawled the entire book and I will never look at a butterfly in the same way again. The description of what these beautiful butterflies turned into is a bit shocking and extremely well detailed, making it easy for the reader to imagine.
The fact that these YA were basically sheltered into place, trying to keep one step ahead of the butterflies and their prey was nerve wracking. The fact that anyone bitten turned into something akin to zombies (but not exactly) was a nice touch that made the book even more creepy.
Now that I think about it, this book could easily have taken part of its plot straight from the COVID pandemic - except we, obviously, did not have to deal with zombie issues. However, the shelter into place, the not knowing, the horrible infections and the overall contagion of the virus can easily have inspired the author.
The characters are well fleshed out (no pun intended) and while I did not like the fact that there was a young child AND a cat stuck in the house with these YA, I ended up thinking it was a great addition to the story as it moved it along well.
The strengths of this book are the exceptional pacing - such a good job of moving this at just the appropriate speed and the author's vivid descriptions of the butterflies, the (sort of) zombies and the fear each character felt and lived throughout the story.
You have to read this book. I am so jealous that you get to read it for the first time!
Read my other reviews, very few are 5 stars and very rarely do I praise a book so much - but this story is worth it.
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