Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
Bugs. Honestly, I don't particularly care for them. They seem to like munching on me, even though I'm pretty sure I'm not the type who is made of sugar and spice. I also suffer from arachnophobia; I absolutely, positively despise spiders. Those hairy bodies, those spiny legs, those googly eyes. Spiders truly freak me out. So, I guess I should start...
more Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
Bugs. Honestly, I don't particularly care for them. They seem to like munching on me, even though I'm pretty sure I'm not the type who is made of sugar and spice. I also suffer from arachnophobia; I absolutely, positively despise spiders. Those hairy bodies, those spiny legs, those googly eyes. Spiders truly freak me out. So, I guess I should start by thanking Mr. Carter for not making the bug in his story a spider. On the other hand, he made the bug in his story this ginormous, otherworldly red mosquito who managed to give me nightmares. I guess that means his story was effective; it also means I'm suffering from hallucinatory mosquito bites just from reading THE HAND OF THE DEVIL.
Ashley Reeves is twenty-one, a bright guy who works as an investigative journalist for the magazine Missing Link. Where they once centered around inexplicable stories based on alien sightings and the like, they now focus on freak of nature stories that deal with facts and scientific proof. Ashley still finds himself dealing with a lot of hoaxes, so when he receives a letter from one Mr. Reginald C. Mather, he's undeniably excited. Mr. Mather has asked for Ashley to join him at his home on Aries Island to view the Ganges Red, a very unique mosquito that he claims to have in his possession. Curiosity piqued, Ashely sets off to visit Mr. Mather and his mosquito in the middle of Lake Languor.
It turns out that Reginald Mather was telling the truth. He does, in fact, own the Ganges Red, also known as The Lady or The Devil's Hand. Reginald delights in telling Ashley stories about his very unique, and slightly frightening, bug friend. Some of the stories seem outrageously fantastic, such as the fable that The Lady is the reincarnation of a woman from a Vietnamese tale. Or that the Ganges Red has been alive for hundreds of years, killing and destroying numerous humans on its voyage.
As Ashley finds himself trapped on Aries Island during a storm, he realizes that although The Lady seems to be more than just a simple insect, the danger he's finding himself in might actually be coming from Mather himself. It seems the former doctor, now turned recluse and devoted keeper of the Ganges Red, is hiding a murderous secret of his own, and it's just Ashley's luck to have stumbled upon it. As Ashley fights for his life from the wicked Mr. Mather, he will have to suspend everything he's ever thought to be true to understand the true nature of The Devil's Hand and her hold over Mr. Mather.
If you're looking for a book that will unnerve you, mess with your mind, and play on all of the fears you've ever had, then THE HAND OF THE DEVIL is definitely the book for you. Unable to stop reading even while I was scratching at my faux mosquito bites, this is one story that will stay with you long after you've finished it--whether you want it to or not.
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