Pathosis - The Year of the Spiders

A Dark Evolution, Book 1

By: Jason LaVelle

Narrated by: Melanie Ewbank

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Isla Perdida has been untouched by humans for hundreds of years. Until now. A team of researchers has landed on the rocky shores of this dangerous landscape and discover that a horrific predator is waiting for them. It doesn't take long for this deadly arachnid to make its way from the humid island jungle to the American mainland. As this new threat terrorizes Southern Florida, a murderous infection begins to spread. Victims are piling up, and death is not the worst of it.

Kala is a high school sophomore. She's tough, smart, and just a little awkward. She watches as terror grips her hometown, and the people she thought she knew turn against each other. Kala, her family, and her best friend, Abigail, band together and struggle to survive this dangerous new place that was once their peaceful home. Pathosis is an adventure through a landscape of horror.

©2015 Jason LaVelle (P)2016 Jason LaVelle

Best Plague Book Ever

Kala, typical high school sophomore girl by day, awesome closet scientist, and loving big sister by night. But it is what happens to their city that changes everything.

This is not exactly a zombie book, but it is one of the best plague type books I have read, well listened too. I loved the side story that explained how the virus got to Florida in the first place, that was really cool, especially since I don't live there. It also really liked the how the story shows how the virus spreads and the only way to stop it as of that time. The book was very precise without the reader knowing it, no facts and figures but still precise.

I had the audio version narrated by Melanie Ewbank and she does a awesome job. There was one spot I knew it was coming because I actually did the books backwards, but she was so good with her voices and the emotions she puts into them she had me crying. Ms. Ewbank is just a awesome narrator and this is just a awesome book.

Big ass creepy spiders!!!

Well firstly, this has spiders in it! Secondly, this has big ass spiders in it and thirdly, this has big ass deadly spiders in it!!! I think I forgot to mention the spiders this has in it ;) *Shudders*.

I'm not a fan of spiders, just in case you couldn't tell, but I wanted to give this a try cause it sounded too good to pass, and while it may be totally unbelievable, it was such an entertaining read. I think if you go into it with the attitude that it's simply a great story then you will enjoy it. Don't go into it expecting a believable story because this isn't it!

The plot was fast paced, creepy and totally shudder inducing. The idea of an unknown species of deadly spiders the size of your palm was extremely and utterly terrifying. The idea that they contain a deadly virus was even worse, then add in the fact that it spreads to the mosquitoes, well that was just the icing on the cake!!

Anyway, this book caught my attention from the very first page and didn't let go till the very end. It's a well thought out and executed story and one that will stay with me for a while, I still check every shoe I put on just in case ;) Not for the faint of heart but a book that I highly recommend.

Melanie Ewbank was awesome. There are quite a few characters but she manages to make each one separate and gives them their own voice. She was easy to listen to and drew me into the story.

*I received a copy of this for review. This in no way affected my thoughts.*

Scary What Ifs

If this book doesn't bother you,I Don't know what would. I like to never have finished it.I know there is a series to come. This story will stay with me for a LONG TIME. I think this could happen.

Typical Action packed Spider Zombie Madness

Story was pretty straight forward, with just the right amount of character development, and just enough "wtf" moments where the characters do stupid stuff that make you want to yell at them, which is almost required in Horror. This is more of a syfy saturday matinee than a classic that will stand the test of time. What I'm saying here is don't set your sites too high, its entertainment folks. The reader almost killed it with her flat reading, but she warms up about a third of the way into the book. Hang in there. Interesting premise and exciting scenes keep this book on the high side of three stars.

Captivating and scary

An exciting, well thought out audiobook that captures your attention from the very start with great hooks both in the first sentence of the prolog and at the start of chapter one. Once you are hooked it is difficult to put the book down, as the story captures your imagination and scares the pants right off you. The occurrences in this book are not outside the realms of possibility, and I think it is that, more than the spiders, that makes this book so creepy. If you are afraid of spiders though, this book defiantly won't help you overcome that fear. They are big, nasty and aggressive but they are really only the lead into a more complex story that illustrates just how fragile human kind is and how nature really has the controlling hand. The narrator did a great job, the characters were well defined and she managed to convey the emotion, tension and horror contained within the book. It is a creepy, captivating story that, once you start, you won't be able to put down. I received this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review

This was hard to get thru.

The story was just ok with some long winded sections. I think the narrator made it worse. Sorry to say that but I just finished the book because I paid for it.

Surprisingly good

I was very surprised by this book. I recommend it. Lol it is very different from my normal genre yet I’m glad I gave it a chance.

Uninspiring addition to the zombie genre

Although the use of exotic spiders as a vector for transmission of a parasite which causes 'zombie' illness is an interesting idea, it is not particularly well-thought out in this novel (IMO). Nobody looks to monster books for logic but even so you need to be able to sell your plot for at least the period of time it takes to read your story. Pathosis heaps improbability upon improbability with happy abandon.

First we are asked to believe that there are an undiscovered species of spiders living on a remote island which have not only killed all the life there (what were they living on before the human smorgasbord arrived in the form of a scientific expedition), but then were successful in attacking, infecting and over-running the humans on the expedition and the ship who go insane and begin killing each other. The ship is found and brought to a Florida port with the spider cargo alive and well but the human cargo dead. The Coast Guard is asked to investigate and then things really fall apart.

From a Coast Guard lieutenant named Emily who makes off with a critical ship diary which describes the expedition in detail and its disastrous finish, to a pest control man who gets scared by one of the spiders in the hold but refuses to tell anyone what he saw, to mosquitoes eventually replacing the spiders as villains, to DDT use as a kind of secondary villain, arbitrary events pile on each other thick and fast in a way that doesn't make much sense even in a genre famous for not making sense.

In addition to the plot problems, I had trouble caring about the characters. For instance, Jack the pest control guy, who deliberately misleads Emily of the Coast Guard concerning the thoroughness of his pesticide application in the cargo hold, is also shown as griping constantly about his customers or alternately being a kind father to his children. He doesn't so much seem like a person as an outline for a person. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to see him sympathetically or not and so on for most of the other characters in the book including the main character, Calla (her survival at the airport toward the end of the book is just as improbably mind-boggling as most of the other events).

Final summation...the book is not absolutely terrible because I kept listening to the end but it could have been better.

creepy good

great read...creepy...easy flowing...plausible plot...good narrator. .. overall worth my precious reading time. looking forward to the next book.

Love these kinds of stories!

Thank the author for knowing that profanity overuse is not welcome! That being said, this book kept me on the edge of my seat! Even knowing what was about to happen didn't dilute the thrill! I wish I'd never listened to this book so I could listen all over again!