From the Publisher
"Stewart amusingly but analytically profiles the baddest bugs around in quick but attention-grabbing snapshots of little creatures that pack a lot of punch." ---Booklist
The Oregonian
I should have known it would gross me out, in a deliciously creepy kind of way. It's everything you didn't know you didn't want to know about insects…” – Knoxville News-Sentinel
Knoxville News-Sentinel
This book covers many of the gross, frightening, disgusting, and awful things that bugs can do to you. And it’s COOL ... Bugs become less gross, and a lot more interesting, when put into the context of how they have changed human history.”—Scientific American blog
Scientific American bog
A cavalcade of terrors ... [Wicked Bugs] makes for an entertaining tour of creepy-crawly territory.”—Washington Post
Washington Post
[Wicked Bugs] is not a comprehensive field guide but a smorgasbord of facts—ranging from horrible, painful or otherwise discomfiting—about bugs... Stewart’s prose is simple and to the point. She lets the little horrors she describes work in the reader’s imagination without any hyperbolic help from her. Guaranteed to cause sympathy itching and other discomfort.”—Kirkus Reviews
The New York Times
Stewart offers witty capsule biographies of dozens of chitin horrors, from the African bat bug to the tsetse fly, with plenty of shout-out for the spiders who haunt our nightmares, including such familiars as black widows and brown recluses.” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
From bat bugs — yes, bat bugs — to banana slugs to the pork tapeworm, [Stewart] details the most infectious, most terrifying insects on the planet.”—NPR’s “Fresh Air”
“I read your book, and I'm all itchy.”—Dave Davies, NPR’s “Fresh Air”
“A word of warning: Some of the descriptions ahead might trigger your gag reflex.”—Terry Gross, NPR’s “Fresh Air”
NPR's "Fresh Air"
There are a number of interesting tidbits in this book, you know, things that you might want to work into a conversation.”—Linda Wertheimer, NPR’s “Weekend Edition”
NPR's "Weekend Edition"
There is a ton of well-researched, fascinating information with terrific and terrifying stories from history ... As Stewart writes, ‘we are seriously outnumbered.’ It’s best we know our enemies.”—Smithsonian.com
Smithsonian.com
If you’ve got an insect phobia, this probably isn’t the book for you. But if not, dig in, as Stewart gleefully archives more than 100 of earth’s creepiest crawlies.”—Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
A fascinatingly dark look at the world of wonders that buzzes, burrows and reproduces all around us... Stewart's research is prodigious and her writing precise, whether she's telling the tale of a caterpillar that looks like a tiny Persian cat or more about fleas than you ever wanted to know. Read this book and you'll always keep your gardening gloves on...Stewart concentrates on scarily diabolical bugs, to great effect.”—Seattle Times
Seattle Times
A fascinatingly dark look at the world of wonders that buzzes, burrows and reproduces all around us... Stewart's research is prodigious and her writing precise, whether she's telling the tale of a caterpillar that looks like a tiny Persian cat or more about fleas than you ever wanted to know. Read this book and you'll always keep your gardening gloves on...Stewart concentrates on scarily diabolical bugs, to great effect.”—Seattle Times
Library Journal - Audio
They're everywhere! Insects, arachnids, and gastropods that bite, sting, burrow, invade, and otherwise compete with humans in their effort to survive and reproduce. Stewart follows her best-selling Wicked Plants with this delightfully gruesome compilation of facts about the critters with which we share the planet. The Asian Giant Hornet, up to five centimeters long, is a recent threat in Japan. When it stings it leaves a pheromone that attracts other giant hornets to sting the same site—how nice! Bedbugs, which can live up to a year without feeding (in upholstery or bedding, for example) until a human host comes along, are a renewed threat in New York. Along with the scientific facts, Stewart also includes historical and literary anecdotes (the death-watch beetle that horrified the madman in Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"). Coleen Marlo's narration is very clear and well paced. This may not be the ideal selection for an outdoor camping trip, but it will appeal to kids and young adults as well as the general public who like creepy crawlies. [The Algonquin hc, published in May, was a New York Times best seller.—Ed.]—Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL
AUGUST 2011 - AudioFile
Fans of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” and Guinness World Records will love this quirky little science book from the author of WICKED PLANTS. The fun is in the disturbing thrill you get as you discover startling facts such as this: The leading cause of epilepsy in the world today is a tapeworm in the brain. Coleen Marlo has a grip on the creepiness factor, taking on passages that make you cringe with a gleeful intensity in her voice that brings out the dark humor. Her deadpan delivery draws you in and lulls you into letting your guard down, only to sneak up and clobber you with details that will have you shivering with dreadful delight. D.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
