Book Title:
There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed
Book Author:
Edgar Cantero
Book Series:
Dark Corners, #3
Page Count:
24
Publishing Date:
September 27th, 2018
Publisher:
Amazon Original Stories
Date Read:
February 26th, 2021
Format:
Kindle Edition
Source:
Prime Reading

Synopsis

The thrill of a sleepover becomes sheer terror as kids voice their greatest fears into existence in this cheeky, vividly cinematic tale by New York Times bestselling author Edgar Cantero. Lights out.

It’s bad enough that its venom-dripping chelicerae can slice through flesh like warm butter. Worse? It’s right there under the bunk. It’s a fact now. To make it through the night, the children must obey the rules: don’t get out of bed, stay out of the shadows, and don’t wake the beast. But as the threats multiply, so do the rules of survival. And with the safety of dawn still hours away, the fun is just beginning.

Edgar Cantero’s There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider under Your Bed is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.

My Review

There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed is the third book in the Dark Corners series from Amazon. This is the shortest story so far, with only twenty-some pages, and it didn’t take very long to read at all – only about the same in terms of minutes.

“‘There’s a giant trapdoor spider under your bed!’
Noah stopped dead, like a god had slammed the universe’s Pause button.”

Noah and Ian are having a sleepover. These two friends start off the sleepover by trading scary “ideas” they wish on each other – including a giant trapdoor spider that would eat them if they stepped off the bed onto the carpet.

“‘It dug a hole. And if it senses you treading on the carpet, it will jump and snatch you with its forelegs and drag you under the bed, and it will devour you alive in the dark. It’s a fact now.'”

With the boys both trapped on the bottom bunk bed thanks to the spider, the threats continue to multiply as two girls, friend and sister, barge into the room, with threats of their own following.

As the night goes on, the four kids have to work together to get rid of the threats – or die trying.

Originally, this was one of the stories in the series that I was the most excited for. I loved the whole premise for the plot – a sleepover filled with horrifying things that the kids would have to deal with. I had a feeling it would be right up my alley – and at first, it kind of was.

The main thing I had problems with in the book was the constant references to Harry Potter. Now I honestly don’t mind the occasional reference to something popular like that, but there were a lot of them and for only so many pages in the story, I felt like that was just way too many.

I really did like the author’s writing style, and I would definitely be open to reading more of his work.

There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed felt like (at least to me) that it suffered from the “too short and trying to do too much” thing that usually make me avoid short stories in general. This, if made into a longer story, or even better yet – a novel, I think would have worked out so much better. It felt rushed and confusing – especially at the end.

I think that maybe if the story had even been just a tiny bit longer, a lot of things would have made a bit more sense and worked out a bit better.

Unlike the two before it, this book wasn’t written with a horror and thriller feeling; but rather it was written in a way that just screamed scary story. I’m okay with this. In fact, I really like scary stories, so I was excited by that. And there were a few spots in this story that made me glad that I was reading this book during the daytime instead of at night. In the dark.

3 stars
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