This one sucked me in right away and if I had to put down for any reason I was on pins and needles until I could pick it up again. Yes, it reads young but the main characters are teens so it was expected.

The only reason this didn't get 4-5 stars was the rushed ending. I needed to know more. It's like people just woke up and the nightmare was over. I think I ended up asking more questions at the end of the book than I did the entire time I was reading.

This was such an engaging, fast read. It's definitely YA with just enough gore and suspense to work for a variety of audiences. If you're looking for a great spooky season read, give this one a go whether you're into horror/Apocalyptic books or not. You won't be disappointed!

This is a book about twins name Shore and Keen they’re best friends Jennifer and Nathan and their toddler brother Sean who they call “little. “ while the teens are in first period sShore looks out of the window to see a humongous monarch butterfly and what she brings it to her friend Jenny’s attention she alerts everyone to the butterfly out of the window. Soon they’re telling everyone to go to the gymnasium but instead of doing as they say Keen his sister and their best friends decide to leave school and go to their house after stopping to pick up Little. It’s while making their way home that they see some people just standing around, some people are panicking and before they make it to the neighborhood they see the local bakery owner being attacked by one of these “butterflies.“ when they finally make it home Shore is trying not to let her anxiety get to 10 and she’s also prepping to batten down the hatches. Keen Who doesn’t take it as seriously as his twin spends his time playing games and entertaining toddler Little it seems even though ever since the death of their dad, Shore’s anxiety can be crippling but even win infected people try to get in the house even after Jenny is bitten by a zombie butterfly it seems to always be her who saves the day. There is so much more to this book they even have a gang of black clad individuals who go around in the truck shooting at the butterflies the days until the butterflies fight back bite them and infect them. Shore has a lot to deal with The power has gone out the food is running out and she has no idea how long this will last the only bright side is her brother‘s best friend Nathan says as soon as it is over he wants to bring her out on a proper date so there’s always a silver lining isn’t there? I have said many times that teen horror is my favorite genre and although this was a little sparse when it comes to action and in the beginning I did get tired of all her talk about prepping not that it was a lot but it doesn’t take much for me to be over reading about list and meal prep but having said that I still really enjoyed this book it has a definite solid four star read the monsters are believable and the eye rolling is definitely at a minimum… If any? I have never read a book by Jennifer Lilly but I will definitely be on the lookout for more of her books. Not everyone can be great at riding teen horror but it seems Miss Lily definitely has the nak and the talent. I want to thank SourceOfBooksFire a andnet Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This one was pretty fun. Butterflypocalpse? Yes please. This was a nice change of pace from the other end of the world type books.

Wow this was right up my alley! Horror, creep factor, atmospheric, and bugs! I’m really into creature feature books and I thought this book is a good start for those thinking about digging into the genre without it inherently advertising itself as such.

This was a book I really enjoyed! :D Had me turning the pages right to the end. Thank you netgalley and sourcebooks for this arc!

Content Warning: body horror, violence, big bugs

I was so curious about this book because of the cover and title. Scary butterflies? How?! Butterflies are such beautiful creatures!

And then I read the book and yes I can imagine huge, people sized butterflies being creepy and scary especially with their legs and other body parts that isn’t their wings. Shur, along with her family and friends rush home after seeing a swarm of these butterflies in the sky at school. But it’s not only at their school – apparently it’s taking over the world and being bit from you makes you turn into a very scary, nasty creature. They get holed up at their house trying to survive without adults, without electricity, and just whatever they have.

I think teens who like horror and survival stories will love this books. It’s got some gory parts especially when they have to fight off whoever is trying to come into the house. I felt like how the kids survived was realistic and brave of them really. There was definitely a reference to COVID in here and we all remember how the world basically went on lockdown in 2020 and that’s what this book kind of felt like, minus scary butterflies outside out doors. COVID was the scary butterfly for us.

There wasn’t much explanation for the creatures in the book but I just went along for the wild ride this story took me on.

My Final Thoughts:

This one definitely gave me flashbacks of being in lockdown during COVID but I think I’d rather deal with that than carnivorous butterflies! The teen characters did a pretty good job surviving without any adults around. The story has scary butterflies, zombies, and killing said creatures with whatever they go, so if you like some gore, you will like this one. This one will appeal to teens, the younger YA crowd who likes horror and survival stories.

I wish I could rate this as a 10 stars. It is SO GOOD. I could not put it down - seriously, people say that all the time, but I dragged my tablet all around the house, taking even a few minutes of downtime to read. I was sorry to see it end - I mean I LOOOOOOVED this book.

I am a huge fan of YA survival stories, mostly with snowstorms, but while this book only touches on snow at some minor point, it uses a very clever idea - taking butterflies, which are traditionally loved and considered beautiful and turning them into, basically very efficient contaminating/killing machines.

My skin basically crawled the entire book and I will never look at a butterfly in the same way again. The description of what these beautiful butterflies turned into is a bit shocking and extremely well detailed, making it easy for the reader to imagine.

The fact that these YA were basically sheltered into place, trying to keep one step ahead of the butterflies and their prey was nerve wracking. The fact that anyone bitten turned into something akin to zombies (but not exactly) was a nice touch that made the book even more creepy.

Now that I think about it, this book could easily have taken part of its plot straight from the COVID pandemic - except we, obviously, did not have to deal with zombie issues. However, the shelter into place, the not knowing, the horrible infections and the overall contagion of the virus can easily have inspired the author.

The characters are well fleshed out (no pun intended) and while I did not like the fact that there was a young child AND a cat stuck in the house with these YA, I ended up thinking it was a great addition to the story as it moved it along well.

The strengths of this book are the exceptional pacing - such a good job of moving this at just the appropriate speed and the author's vivid descriptions of the butterflies, the (sort of) zombies and the fear each character felt and lived throughout the story.

You have to read this book. I am so jealous that you get to read it for the first time!

Read my other reviews, very few are 5 stars and very rarely do I praise a book so much - but this story is worth it.

This book was an enjoyable read. It went on a little longer than expected, with the epilogue being a whirlwind, but the tension was there. I was never sure if the author was going to kill someone off or not. Every scene with Little rang with authenticity. Sometimes people just don’t get writing little kids, but not this time.

A little gorey, which is to be expected, and a great idea of a new kind of monster that could rise with climate change. I would read another book by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS fire for this opportunity to read rate and review this arc which is available November 7,2023!!

I am now scared of butterflies. Butterflies with fangs that mercilessly merc ppl. Also if you have teens or preteens who love horror this is the perfect scary book.

So this book is about Shur, her brother Keene and their 2 besties. Shut first sees these flying terrors with fangs on a September morning in history class. She thinks the giant winged freak of death is too pretty to be a concern. That is until everyone’s phone ding with an emergency alert. Then it becomes a fight for survival. And what comes after the winged terrors of death is much much scarier.

I am not spoiling what comes after the fanged butterflies but I legit scared myself reading this outside. I freaking loved it. The tension was top notch. The pacing was great. Characters were well developed. I am also now scared of butterflies.

On a sunny September morning, the creatures first appear. Shur sees one of them hovering outside the window in history class: it looks like a giant butterfly, at first too beautiful and strange to seem like a threat. But when emergency alerts light up everyone's phones around her, she realizes something very, very wrong is happening outside. These… things are everywhere.
By the time Shur makes it back to her house with her brother, Keene, and their two best friends, it's clear they must face whatever comes next on their own. A terrifying species the world's never seen before has suddenly emerged, and few living things are safe. As the creatures swarm and attack outside, life for Shur and her friends becomes a survival game. They board the windows, stockpile supplies, and try to make sense of the news reports for as long as the power stays on.
Yet nothing can prepare them for what follows. The butterflies are only the beginning. The next onslaught will be deadlier, and even closer to home.

This is an example of one of those hidden gems. Great plot, great characters, great pacing… great book.

This was a book that I read in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down… I was hooked from the get go and Lyle created an unlikely band of characters that I was immediately drawn to and connected with. I genuinely was on the edge of my seat in panic and worry, frantically reading on to make sure everything turned out okay.

An amazing disaster/sci-fi story, with coming of age tropes and a whole lot of heart, definitely would recommend this as much as I can.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for allowing me to read an eARC of this book for an honest opinion.

I will never look at a butterfly the same again. This books was CREEPY and GORY, and FABULOUS!

Shur, who suffers from crippling anxiety, first sees the giant butterfly from the window in her history class. Her twin brother Keene tries to keep her calm.
Then the Emergency Alert sounds on everyone’s phones, and the announcement comes from the office to follow tornado shelter-in-place procedures.
Shur, Keene & their best friends, Jenny & Nathan:
**decide to leave the school
**try to call their parents, but phone calls/ texts are not going through
**pick up the twins’ 4 year old brother (Little)
**head to the twins house
On the way home, a butterfly clings to the windshield wiper, and they get to see this monster close up. Then they see a woman trying to get a butterfly off her arm.
They make it to the twins house and inside safely, knowing that they will have to rely on themselves to survive the swarm.
But the butterflies are only the beginning…

I really can't say much more without giving away too much. I love the characters and their friendship. I will definitely be purchasing this one for my high school students.
There is some language and LOTS OF GORE.

This is a story about monsters.

This book is pure nightmare fuel. It made me want to scream on multiple occasions and I’ll be treating moths with suspicion moving forward. The characters weren’t my most favorite? But it only felt minimally relevant bc this was definitely a book you read for the horror of it all.

Thank you so much @netgalley & @sourcebooksfire for this eArc!

Over the years I’ve read more than my fair share of creature features, for both adults and kids, but I think giant killer mutant (one to around two foot long) butterflies is a first! Swarm hits the ground incredibly fast, teenager Shur, who narrates in the first person, is daydreaming in school looking out the window and spots a HUGE butterfly. Shortly after the emergency sirens alarm, like there was an active shooter, and all the kids head for the sports hall. Instead Shur and her twin brother Keene break away from the crowds with two other friends and grab their little brother and run home. What followed was a very quirky, atmospheric and restrained apocalyptic tale where most of the action takes place in the family home (with no adults present) with little information about what is going on outside. It quickly becomes apparent that these butterfly monsters are vicious and the group witness others being killed by the creatures. Slowly but surely the plot reveals more about the butterflies and we realise that a bit could lead to horrific side effects and a clever variation on the zombie story.

Shur was a great lead character, suffering from severe anxiety she is balanced out by her considerate brother Keene. I felt Keene deserved his own narrative, YA horror is totally dominated by female voices, and considering they were twins and the story was predominately set in one location a second perspective might have broken the story up slightly and we could have seen the anxiety attacks from the brother’s perspective. Even though it was a very creepy novel and there were lots of terrific scenes with the teens (I loved the two friends Jenny and Nathan) as the survival aspect to protect the house from predators increased. And in the background there was further worry about where their mother was. Swarm was great character driven entertainment, and the monsters gave a serious yuck effect, but it did end rather abruptly and I felt there could have been more explanation. AGE RANGE 13+

I have to say, this was an exhilarating read. Dark, moody, kind of gross in parts. I really liked it. There was a bit in the way of language that may not jibe with my 6th graders, but it was just so cool the way it all went down. Part survival story, zombie story, reanimated dead story (not really zombie, something more sinister actually), and of course love story (not outright though). Shur was a capable heroine and I appreciated her narration, anxiety, and other aspects of growing up that kids deal with. There were moments of true fear and stress. I will say, if possible I’d probably go with a 4.5 star rating based solely on the ending. And maybe not going far enough with the zombie stuff. It could have been really gory and gross. I suppose, when you have a character who is a teen and she is in charge of keeping everyone alive, there’s only so much one can do. All said, dope read and one I’ll definitely recommend to my more mature sixies.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Swarm by Jennifer Lyle.

Now I can say a HUGE thank you to Jennifer Lyle for writing this book. I feel like there is a massive hole in the YA world, and that hole is sci-fi. Swarm really hit all the things I love about sci-fi and adventure:

1. Unnatural being? check.
2. Scary side effects? check.
3. A group of people trapped in one place, needing to work together? check.
4. A growing sense of dread? check.

On the surface, this is a pretty straightforward survival story; go deeper, though, and you'll find a story about anxiety and grief. I related so much to these characters. I couldn't put Swarm down, and I can't wait to share it with my students.

I was captivated and hooked from the first sentence of this book when the mutant butterflies first appear. I love survival stories and the creepier they are the better. Shur, her brother Keene, their toddler little brother (who you will love), Nathan (Keene's best friend), and Jenny (Shur's best friend} make it home from school and soon realize that they are trapped and on their own. They learn from the news that when people are bitten by the butterflies, they become infected, and their body begins to decompose as they turn into something zombie like and not of this world. Lyle does a beautiful job painting a vivid picture of the terror with well detailed descriptions of the monsters (those that fly and those infected on the ground). It's a fast-paced story full of adventure and those that love apocalyptic stories will greedily devour this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Swarm was a fun book. I’ll warn you now: it reads pretty young. It is YA, and I didn’t mind that, because I was distracted by the horrifying bugs hanging out outside their window, but the narration does have a young voice, and I know that won’t be for everyone.

I do think there were a couple small issues. 1) there were a few typos I noticed. 2) I would’ve liked the science behind the bugs to be a big more fleshed out, or for certain things (like what the bites did) to make sense, perhaps in an epilogue to the epilogue and 3) I would’ve liked a longer ending. It felt a little rushed at the end, and I was invested in the characters enough that I wanted to see a bit more about their end.

All in all, though, I enjoyed Swarm and read it quickly. I’m a fan of apocalyptic/dystopian, so creepy bugs and fighting for survival? Right up my alley.

"Swarm" by Jennifer Lyle is a gripping tale that takes place on a normal day, which quickly becomes terrifying as carnivorous butterflies appear worldwide. Shur, our protagonist, finds herself confined to her house with her twin brother Keene, younger brother Shawn, and their friends Jenny and Nathan. For someone with severe anxiety like Shur, this is undoubtedly the most challenging situation she could ever face.

Lyle's vivid storytelling kept me thoroughly engaged throughout the entire book. The story masters the art of blending survival elements, gore, and science fiction tropes, making it an ideal candidate for a horror film. It captivated me with its well-developed plot, continuous action, and suspenseful moments. My only critique is that the ending felt slightly abrupt. I believe a couple more chapters could have been beneficial to explore how the butterflies were ultimately eradicated. Additionally, the story falls short in terms of exploring the political nuances that could have added depth, but this is subjective and depends on personal preference.

Overall, "Swarm" is an excellent thriller with a gripping pace. It kept me on the edge of my seat, provoking adrenaline-inducing jumps almost every chapter.

This is a really clever variation on a zombie attack! The giant butterflies, which may or may not be something prehistoric, are only the first wave...although they're terrifying enough. The real trouble comes when they start infecting people, turning them into mindless bags of rage who only want to spread the infection further...a little like The Last of Us in that way. Shur ends up with her twin brother, her toddler brother and a couple of friends, barricaded into their house (parts of which are lost and become available again at different times during the story due to various invasions.)
The claustrophobia this occasionally brought on surprised me - I didn't expect it to be that strong! It reminded me a little of Life as we Knew It, where the protagonist's world got steadily smaller as the novel went on. I also loved that there was no hanging around getting to know the characters and setting up the world when it was about to change so severely - the butterflies appear in the first sentence!

This is a fast paced, brilliant read about people coming together in extreme circumstances, and it has a great ending. Highly recommended.