Roberta Writes – Book reviews: Bugbies by Dave Williams #readingcommunity #bookreview

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Picture caption: Cover of Bugbies by Dave Williams in black and yellow

What Amazon says

These are not traditional zombies. These people have been zombified by parasitoid wasps. These are bugbies.

They don’t roam in search of brains to eat. They serve as hosts for wasp eggs and larvae, which aim to grow into adult wasps and find new hosts for the next generation.

Bugbies is about several people who are impacted by this fantastical shift of one wasp species to jump hosts from another insect to humans. Charlotte, who was nearly turned into a host. Isha, the neurosurgeon who treats her. Lucia, an entomologist who is brought in as an advisor. Brock, who wishes to buy a bugbie and show it off to his friends. His wife Daniella, and their gardener Lewis, who deal with that decision and take action in response.

My review

I really enjoyed this unique and interesting story. I am not sure what genre it is, but for me it’s a mix of sci-fi, dystopian fiction, family drama, with just the right amount of non-fiction information to make it work. The novel is told from the points of view of several characters from different backgrounds and social standings and I really liked that. It gave insight into the themes and main story line form a variety of different perspectives and was a clever way to share certain fact patterns and information. The author also made use of other innovative ideas like sharing the content (in writing) of homemade you tube videos shared on the internet and also blog posts. Another unique way of sharing events and information outside of the main characters lives and scope of knowledge.

The story starts off with Charlotte who is feeling unwell. Within a short period, Charlotte slips into a coma and her husband races her to the hospital. Charlotte undergoes a series of tests and astonishes the neurologist and the world when the tumours in her brain turn out to be something different to everyone’s experience and expectations. Charlotte is the first, but she is far from the last. The country is soon in the grip of anxiety and paranoia equal to what we experienced during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Lucia Ramirez is a young professor at a university. She is an expert in her field and she introduces different thoughts relating to the unusual situation. She also lectures young students which facilitates the introduction of ideas and thoughts about the situation from the younger generation. Clever! Lucia is a great role model for women as she has worked towards a goal and achieved her aims in a world that has historically been dominated by men.

Danielle Hawkins is the spoiled and wealthy older woman in this story. Her husband is a wealthy man who is desperate to keep up with the Jones or, even better, to be ahead of them. Their son is a spoiled rich kid but he has some redeeming characteristics, as does Danielle. Mr Hawkins is a selfish and egocentrical man who will stop at nothing to show off to his friends and family. I didn’t like him and he didn’t develop any redeeming qualities. He was, however, typical of a certain type of rich man and his actions and behaviours were very believable.

Lewis was my favourite character. He is a young father who has taken a job below his abilities due to need and circumstances. He works hard and tries to improve himself and take good care of his family. He is certainly not perfect and makes some silly decisions, but he is a good guy and he was easy to give wholehearted support too.

I thought this unusual story was well written and nicely paced. I read it quickly and was a bit sad when I reached the end. The ending was satisfying but I really liked some of the characters and could have spent more time with them.

Purchase Bugbies by Dave Williams from Amazon USA here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C9SHLY1V

About Dave Williams

Picture caption: Dave Williams author picture

Surely many people are named “Dave Williams” and this particular Dave is a redheaded one who enjoys writing speculative fiction, drawing, and reading. He lives in Maryland with his wonderful wife, two inspirational daughters, and two cats (a lazy one and a playful one).

Dave Williams blog: https://davewilliamswriter.wordpress.com/

Dave Williams Amazon US author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dave-Williams/author/B08662D961

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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67 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Book reviews: Bugbies by Dave Williams #readingcommunity #bookreview”

          2. I don’t know. Cult behaviour is very foreign to my way of thinking. I have a tendency to push against most ideas and concepts rather than embrace them slavishly which seems to be what cult followers do. I don’t, however, have personal experience and only know about cults from books I’ve read.

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    2. When I learned more about parasites on an episode of Radiolab, I was fascinated. That led to me reading about wasps, and eventually to including a species in the story. It was wild to learn about the ways that parasites survive.

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      2. Yes, that is interesting. The first time I read about it was after we saw a Tarantula Hawk (did not  know what it was at first) flying around and then landing on a Tarantula spider that was in the grass. Then it dragged the spider about 100-150 feet to its nest. My daughter wanted me to put the pair in her jewelry box, but I am glad I didn’t. I read about the Tarantula Hawk afterwards. We also have a lot of other kinds of spider wasps as well as cicada killers.

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  13. This sounds like a cleverly constructed read, Robbie. I like the way you described Dave’s using different perspectives to add dimension to the story. The whole idea of humans as hosts for parasitic insects is creepy! Great review and congrats to Dave.

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