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The Swarm

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What to expect

From the bizarre and audacious imagination of horror author Andy Marino comes a harrowing tale of the insect that will herald the apocalypse…

"The literary equivalent of swallowing a wasp that's crawled inside your Coke can. Do yourself a favor and read this book." – Nick Cutter, author of The Troop

"Creepy, crawly, and endlessly dark, this is Marino's best novel yet." – Gabino Iglesias, Bram Stoker award winning author

It begins with cicadas. It will end with the swarm. 

When a bizarre murder case lands on the desk of Detective Vicky Paterson, it's just the start of her nightmare. On the same day, her young daughter, Sadie, is swarmed by cicadas emerging off-cycle from their seventeen-year pattern. Sadie barely survives, and her condition is critical.

Across town, Will and Alicia, two dysfunctional private investigators, are on the trail of a missing girl and the shadowy cult involved in her disappearance. But after the first wave of insects hit, they are forced to barricade themselves in a motel where they must work together with a group of strangers to outlast the invasion.

Soon the infestation is impossible to contain. Humanity rests on the knife's edge of extinction. And there is a terrible purpose behind the emergence – one that Vicky, Will, Alicia, and a small group of unlikely allies must unravel if they are to survive.

"Marino's work is unlike any other's in the genre – horrifying, complex, fascinating, and utterly unique." – Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author

"Relentless, brutal, and brilliant. An apocalyptic tour de force." – Craig DiLouie, author of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

"Marino has taken the safety of sensations away from me. Every prickle along my arm, the slightest buzz anywhere near my ear – it's all fodder for nightmares now. Suggesting your skin will crawl after reading this unnerving novel doesn't come close. Your flesh will fly away." – Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters

Critics Review

"Moving with the relentlessness of a winged insect coming straight for your face, Andy Marino's The Swarm is a fiendishly compelling assault on the senses. Its procedural elements are reminiscent--in all the best ways--of horror classics like The Wolfen or The Manitou, while its more apocalyptic scenes are as thrilling as the best that subgenre has to offer. This is a weird, wild ride you'll want to revisit more than once every seventeen years."—Nat Cassidy, author of Nestlings
"Relentless, brutal, and brilliant! Andy Marino's The Swarm reads like an apocalyptic tour de force, a Michael Crichtonesque fever dream that goes all the way with its terrifying premise. A five-star read."
 —Craig DiLouie, author of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive
"The literary equivalent of swallowing a wasp that's crawled inside your Coke can, The Swarm is a burst of bright, unexpected, feverish prose blazing straight across your brain-pan. If you like that kind of thing (and I very much do) then do yourself a favor and read this book." —Nick Cutter, author of The Troop
“Marino’s work is unlike any others in the genre—horrifying, complex, fascinating, and utterly unique.”—Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of The Foxglove King
“Andy Marino’s The Swarm is gruesomely visceral and painfully heartbreaking; an ambitious, terrifying tale that will burrow beneath your skin only to lay eggs that will hatch as nightmares. It’s a no-holds-barred apocalyptic epic that will forever change the way you view the status—and future—of humans on this planet.”—Phllip Fracassi, author of Boys in the Valley

"Creepily good ... Marino juggles a great cast of characters and does a superlative job of creating an atmosphere of fear, paranoia, and claustrophobia."

—Booklist
"Andy Marino has taken the safety of sensations away from me. Every prickle along my arm, the slightest buzz anywhere near my ear -- it's all fodder for nightmares now, thanks to The Swarm. Suggesting your skin will crawl after reading this unnerving novel doesn't come close. Your flesh will fly away."—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
“Andy Marino’s The Swarm is a weird, bloody, tense, fast-paced horror novel with a dash of crime that starts fast and only accelerates from there. Creepy, crawly, and endlessly dark, this is Marino’s best novel yet. Read this and you will forever worry about what hides in the song of the cicadas.”—Gabino Iglesias, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil Takes You Home
“Andy Marino understands horror in a way that very few writers do, and in The Swarm, his most visceral and ambitious book, you’re along for the ride. I read this and now I never want to go outside again.”—Keith Rosson, author of Fever House
"Marino has a good eye for genuinely disturbing imagery. This novel hums with a terrifying momentum."—Kirkus on It Rides a Pale Horse
"Marino draws readers in quickly, creating sympathy for the characters, unveiling the necessary details to immerse them in a world of art, siblings, deadly intrigue, and a centuries-long nefarious quest. Dread is present from the start, but it quickly escalates into a disorienting cosmic terror that touches everyone. Booktalk it to readers as The Twisted Ones, by T. Kingfisher meets Slade House, by David Mitchell with a touch of Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff."—Booklist on It Rides a Pale Horse

"A visceral, disturbing story about the power of art and ritual."

—Paste Magazine on It Rides a Pale Horse

“It Rides a Pale Horse is a bizarre thrill ride from beginning to end. Captivatingly surreal.”

—San Francisco Book Review on It Rides a Pale Horse

"Marino offers horrors both existential and visceral. From a stunning opening, the sense of dread just builds and builds."

—M.R. Carey on The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess

"Odd and dark and fascinating . . . Not quite like anything I've ever read before. A strange, compelling, late-night page-turner. It kept me reading way past my bedtime."

—T. Kingfisher on The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess

"Andy Marino’s The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess is a gripping portrait of addiction and an innovative take on demonic possession, delivering a shocking ending and powerful themes of how love heals but can also be corrupted."

—Craig DiLouie on The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess
Author Andy Marino
Narrator Candace Fitzgerald
Duration 15 hours and 43 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781668644560
Format Audiobook
Publisher Hachette Audio
Genre Adventure fiction, Horror and supernatural fiction, Science fiction: apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic
Availability US

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