What do you think?
Rate this book
Redemption #1
The Spider Catcher
Some family trees are pretty twisted and too thorny to touch. Ember Gillespie was sent away from the island of Tulukaruk when she was only a child. Now returning as a teenager, she's finding that the life she idealized from afar is actually a living nightmare, complete with a deranged family that is trying to drive her away and a town full of creepy people. Her only refuge from the constant strain comes from the subtle and mysterious Acton, who has taken her under his wing, and a dark friendship that seems to have the potential to ignite into romance. The only thing more shocking than her family's rejection is the reason they want her leave. Her sister, Thalia, confesses that the town is inhabited by demons. Their mother believes that Acton is particularly dangerous and bent on revenge. Ember knows her mother is crazy. But as she starts losing her memories and waking up to strange notes that she's left herself, she begins to believe her mother may also be right.
315 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 29, 2013
211 people are currently reading
464 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 12, 2017
https://celebrityreaders.wordpress.co...
4 Stars
This book is weird. I need to YA Horror for my book bingo and also for my read harder challenge and this one fit the bill. I think the thing I found the hardest to follow was whether or not certain things happened in the book. See there's a mind eraser in the book so you never really know what things really happened and its third person POV limited, I think. A lot of the characters lie so you have to sort it out in your head. (of course, there is the option that I just didn't understand what as going on but I like to think I'm not that dense) Which is either brilliant of the author for giving us that leeway for imagination (so we may choose which we want to believe, thus subconsciously making the character into someone we like), or incredibly lazy on the part of the author for not clarifying.
But I will tell you this. Ember is a glutton for punishment. She stays with her horrid family and 'friends' even though they treat her like shit. Not even like a little bit. We are talking FULL METAL JACKET Evil here. You can see she is only taking the abuse because she feels any attention is good attention. Which is incredibly emotionally immature IMO. But I couldn't look away. I wanted to see if Atcon would change, or if Ember would realize she didn't deserve this treatment. It was a bit of train wreck throughout and I feel the plot line could have been a lot tighter but all in all the story really drew me in and I already bought the second one so I must have liked it right?
I mean, I think I liked it. Its one of those books that I have feelings for but I can't really identify them yet. You ever read one of those books?
4 Stars
This book is weird. I need to YA Horror for my book bingo and also for my read harder challenge and this one fit the bill. I think the thing I found the hardest to follow was whether or not certain things happened in the book. See there's a mind eraser in the book so you never really know what things really happened and its third person POV limited, I think. A lot of the characters lie so you have to sort it out in your head. (of course, there is the option that I just didn't understand what as going on but I like to think I'm not that dense) Which is either brilliant of the author for giving us that leeway for imagination (so we may choose which we want to believe, thus subconsciously making the character into someone we like), or incredibly lazy on the part of the author for not clarifying.
But I will tell you this. Ember is a glutton for punishment. She stays with her horrid family and 'friends' even though they treat her like shit. Not even like a little bit. We are talking FULL METAL JACKET Evil here. You can see she is only taking the abuse because she feels any attention is good attention. Which is incredibly emotionally immature IMO. But I couldn't look away. I wanted to see if Atcon would change, or if Ember would realize she didn't deserve this treatment. It was a bit of train wreck throughout and I feel the plot line could have been a lot tighter but all in all the story really drew me in and I already bought the second one so I must have liked it right?
I mean, I think I liked it. Its one of those books that I have feelings for but I can't really identify them yet. You ever read one of those books?
May 11, 2018
What a weirdass book..
August 20, 2020
Oh. My. God. That was the most frustrating, irritating, with some parts somehow being boring, thing I have ever read! When I was reading it, I was so mad and frustrated with the main character. When I stopped reading and thought about starting back up again, my first thought was always it was boring. How a book managed to completely piss me off and bore at the same, I’m not completely sure. But moving on…
Main Character
I went back and forth at first feeling sorry and not for Ember (the main character) because I couldn’t tell if she was just naïve and desperate or stupid and desperate. I mostly though she was just stupid and it just pissed me off. If you decide to read it after this review, you’ll at the end why and how her memories got all convoluted and I can't simple say “turns out she was just stupid.”
Writing Style (This part is more of a technical review)
The story is written in 3rd person. Most of it is written from the Ember’s perspective. Towards the middle, it switches sometimes to Acton’s perspective (the protagonist). At the end, however, I honestly have no clue whose perspective that was supposed to be from. And that’s one of the biggest issues with this book and probably why people get so confused while reading it. While you can tell that the perspective has changed, it may take you a minute because there is no notice for when it’s going to happen. For example, other authors have used different chapters to signify a different perspective, or has put the character’s name at the start of the chapter or page break to signify from whose POV the story is being told. With Tyler, that’s not the case. At all. No warning. Just a change in POV. It gets confusing and irritating after a while. There are also some minor spelling errors, but those were few and far between. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I didn’t write the rest of this review.
Conclusion
Between the writing style and me just hating the MC, there’s no way I'm finishing this series. Oh, you may be wondering why I finished the book if I didn't like it so much. I was trying to hold out hope that it got better or would make more sense at the end, but... it didn't.
Main Character
I went back and forth at first feeling sorry and not for Ember (the main character) because I couldn’t tell if she was just naïve and desperate or stupid and desperate. I mostly though she was just stupid and it just pissed me off. If you decide to read it after this review, you’ll at the end why and how her memories got all convoluted and I can't simple say “turns out she was just stupid.”
Writing Style (This part is more of a technical review)
The story is written in 3rd person. Most of it is written from the Ember’s perspective. Towards the middle, it switches sometimes to Acton’s perspective (the protagonist). At the end, however, I honestly have no clue whose perspective that was supposed to be from. And that’s one of the biggest issues with this book and probably why people get so confused while reading it. While you can tell that the perspective has changed, it may take you a minute because there is no notice for when it’s going to happen. For example, other authors have used different chapters to signify a different perspective, or has put the character’s name at the start of the chapter or page break to signify from whose POV the story is being told. With Tyler, that’s not the case. At all. No warning. Just a change in POV. It gets confusing and irritating after a while. There are also some minor spelling errors, but those were few and far between. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I didn’t write the rest of this review.
Conclusion
Between the writing style and me just hating the MC, there’s no way I'm finishing this series. Oh, you may be wondering why I finished the book if I didn't like it so much. I was trying to hold out hope that it got better or would make more sense at the end, but... it didn't.
November 17, 2022
I adore The Spider Catcher. I'm a life long fan of UF and PNR. I love a villain romance, a solid enemies-to-lovers. A phrase kept ringing in my head while reading TSC: "Twilight but realistic". I mean that affectionately.
TSC is a messed up romance taken to its logical ends. Who could love a demon, but someone suicidal with no self worth? And who could a demon love, but someone who will take anything given to them and still smile at them? A true corruption romance. A sickening "I can make them worse."
Ember Gillespie is barely sixteen and all alone. She visits her estranged family on the island of Tulukaruk and they are very clear that they do not want or love her. She is here only to visit during the summer and she isn't invited back. She will do anything for a crum of belonging and its hard not to agree that she's frustratingly pathetic. Acton Knox holds Ember in the palm of his hand the moment that she arrives. It isn't a hand you want her to be in. Acton Knox is a monster and Ember is his play thing.
The first half is a well crafted psychological thriller. All we see of this island, night after night, is Acton, his brothers, and the empty blackness of missing memory. Ember's mother tells her to leave those Knox boys alone, and Ember is increasingly reckless trying to get her mother to do more than just talk. She wants to be pulled in and she is only pushed, shoved, further away. We know Ember needs to get off Tulukaruk and can only watch her dig in as everything around her gets worse.
I was so unsettled during that first half that I forgot the synopsis briefly mentioned a budding romance. Now, I picked up TSC as a freebie and I've read a lot of random self-pub Kindle freebies. Very very few of them can genre flip mid-book from supernatural horror to a satisying, mutual, consensual romance. I was sure TSC was going to drop the ball and I'm still stunned that A. L. Tyler pulled it off. Stunned I say.
I love Ember and Acton's stumbling, awkward, oddly sweet love for each other and I want Ember to leave Tulukaruk and never go back. Get out of there, grow a back bone, and grow up. Get on an anti-depressant... See a therapist... Don't forgive the boy who did unforgivable things...
I was hooked on The Spider Catcher from jump. I'm grateful I found it in the wilds of Kindle. A. L. Tyler, you've made a fan for life.
TSC is a messed up romance taken to its logical ends. Who could love a demon, but someone suicidal with no self worth? And who could a demon love, but someone who will take anything given to them and still smile at them? A true corruption romance. A sickening "I can make them worse."
Ember Gillespie is barely sixteen and all alone. She visits her estranged family on the island of Tulukaruk and they are very clear that they do not want or love her. She is here only to visit during the summer and she isn't invited back. She will do anything for a crum of belonging and its hard not to agree that she's frustratingly pathetic. Acton Knox holds Ember in the palm of his hand the moment that she arrives. It isn't a hand you want her to be in. Acton Knox is a monster and Ember is his play thing.
The first half is a well crafted psychological thriller. All we see of this island, night after night, is Acton, his brothers, and the empty blackness of missing memory. Ember's mother tells her to leave those Knox boys alone, and Ember is increasingly reckless trying to get her mother to do more than just talk. She wants to be pulled in and she is only pushed, shoved, further away. We know Ember needs to get off Tulukaruk and can only watch her dig in as everything around her gets worse.
I was so unsettled during that first half that I forgot the synopsis briefly mentioned a budding romance. Now, I picked up TSC as a freebie and I've read a lot of random self-pub Kindle freebies. Very very few of them can genre flip mid-book from supernatural horror to a satisying, mutual, consensual romance. I was sure TSC was going to drop the ball and I'm still stunned that A. L. Tyler pulled it off. Stunned I say.
I love Ember and Acton's stumbling, awkward, oddly sweet love for each other and I want Ember to leave Tulukaruk and never go back. Get out of there, grow a back bone, and grow up. Get on an anti-depressant... See a therapist... Don't forgive the boy who did unforgivable things...
I was hooked on The Spider Catcher from jump. I'm grateful I found it in the wilds of Kindle. A. L. Tyler, you've made a fan for life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 12, 2017
This book was so confusing- thankful I did not pay money for it. The first half read like the same paragraph over and over again. The concept was not terrible but the execution could have been better. The perspective changes were too abrupt to follow at times and the ending was supposed to represent an alternate reality it seems but it would have been way more effective to portray Ember’s reality to that of what her family saw side by side. The only characters that had anything portrayed about them throughout- Ember and the demons- were not even like able. I do not find the story line compelling enough to pursue the next book in the series.
September 7, 2021
What did I just read? I cannot put what I'm feeling into words because this book was just weird. Mothers choosing between their kids, girls so starved of love and affection that they'd do anything to get some, and wishy-washy demons. Most of the female characters are either being beaten, harassed, or abused in some way by men. They pass along that hurt to other women. I just don't know why this book was written!
Also, I'm going to read at least one more book from this series to see if it's just me or the book/series that sucks!
September 7, 2017
Amazing
I loved this book as it is different to books i have read before. I would suggest being 16+ at least to read this book if not older. But omg I cannot wait till I have the money to buy the next book!!
I loved this book as it is different to books i have read before. I would suggest being 16+ at least to read this book if not older. But omg I cannot wait till I have the money to buy the next book!!
December 25, 2018
Different! Not sure I liked it, or not! Slow to reveal the storyline
Would not recommend, I like a stronger main character.Ember acts like a doormat, the way she lets everyone push her around
Would not recommend, I like a stronger main character.Ember acts like a doormat, the way she lets everyone push her around
February 24, 2019
What was the point of the book?
Probably half of the book is just pointless. The rest is full of holes that the author is expecting the reader to have epiphanies over.
Between wrong words and missing words, reading this was more chore than fun.
Probably half of the book is just pointless. The rest is full of holes that the author is expecting the reader to have epiphanies over.
Between wrong words and missing words, reading this was more chore than fun.
June 17, 2020
This book is one of my favorites. It brings out a lot of emotions. Knowing how Ember's family was treating her made me sad but seeing how she changes to her own person and making her own decisions puts a smile to my face.
June 24, 2023
I downloaded The Spider Catcher, book one of the Redemption series, as a free ebook from Amazon. This was a strange and oddly unsatisfying read. The writer did a good job of building tension, but I couldn't relate to any of the relationships.
October 7, 2024
Please hire an editor!
The story was jerky—pushed and pulled into different directions making little sense at times. None of the characters had any redeeming qualities, and I couldn’t find any portion of the book to root for.
The story was jerky—pushed and pulled into different directions making little sense at times. None of the characters had any redeeming qualities, and I couldn’t find any portion of the book to root for.
March 14, 2017
Loved it
Loved it can't wait for the next one . she'll remember and he s in love with her. Good plot moms a meanie and SOS grandma hope they get what they deserve.
Loved it can't wait for the next one . she'll remember and he s in love with her. Good plot moms a meanie and SOS grandma hope they get what they deserve.
November 12, 2017
I ENJOYED THE BOOK. IT HAD A GOOD ENDING. SO MANY BOOKS LEAVE YOU HANGING IT IS REAL NICE TO GET ONE WITH AN ENDING
February 28, 2020
Ok
The main character gets drunk a bit 2 much : she needs 2 control her alcohol issues she's a bit weak
The main character gets drunk a bit 2 much : she needs 2 control her alcohol issues she's a bit weak
June 21, 2020
Intriguing
This story is confusing, but in a good way. There are so many threads tangled together and just when you think you have it figured out you are tangled again.
This story is confusing, but in a good way. There are so many threads tangled together and just when you think you have it figured out you are tangled again.
July 20, 2020
I tried hard to like this book. But it jumped around so much that it confused me a great deal.
January 14, 2021
I took issue with the main character's immaturity coupled with the fact that she was totally okay with being abused.
February 28, 2021
Imbalanced and poorly paced with flashes of what could have been.
February 19, 2016
"Family"
Ember is a girl who has been searching for her "family"
Acton is a guy who has been stone cold until . . .
When they meet, her no interferes by . . . and after . . . she deems to bring her back. But then life happens in the form of . . . that makes her . . . and determined to do something about it. Acton and his family helps her with her this along with his form of . . . But along the way, there's nothing to stop the emotions from . . . and forming . . .
Will they be together and be "family" or will they be separated forever by the same people who claim to be "family"?????
Enjoy!!!!
Ember is a girl who has been searching for her "family"
Acton is a guy who has been stone cold until . . .
When they meet, her no interferes by . . . and after . . . she deems to bring her back. But then life happens in the form of . . . that makes her . . . and determined to do something about it. Acton and his family helps her with her this along with his form of . . . But along the way, there's nothing to stop the emotions from . . . and forming . . .
Will they be together and be "family" or will they be separated forever by the same people who claim to be "family"?????
Enjoy!!!!
February 7, 2016
Gripping and mind boggling at times but a great read!
This story is very intriguing and confusing in equal measures. You are given tiny snippets of why Ember is so unwanted by her family but never enough to make you fully informed. This is what keeps you turning the pages eagerly looking for an explanation. Much is left unsaid by the end of the book which only serves to make you eager to read the next in the series. I can't wait to get some answers!
This story is very intriguing and confusing in equal measures. You are given tiny snippets of why Ember is so unwanted by her family but never enough to make you fully informed. This is what keeps you turning the pages eagerly looking for an explanation. Much is left unsaid by the end of the book which only serves to make you eager to read the next in the series. I can't wait to get some answers!
June 16, 2014
With people and a storyline reminiscent of Twilight, "The Spider Catcher" shows a much darker and more twisted side of forbidden desire. While the view tense shift is disconcerting at times, I did like it.
January 7, 2016
It wasn't the worst book, but there are a lot of things that need to be fixed. First off is the grammar at times I was annoyed by the grammar being wrong. The story line was okay but the lapses in time in the story were a bit annoying as well.
August 3, 2015
This was an absolute great book. I loved reading it. At first it was a bit confusing and slow, but farther into the book it was awesome.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews