The Spider Beside Her

Graveyard School #28

by Tom B. Stone

What has eight legs

And dresses in webs of silk

And sucks up people

Like they were glasses of milk?

Ask Ari Spinner. She likes spiders. They don't make her scream. They make her smile. She and the spiders are best friends. And there's nothing you wouldn't do for a best friend. Is there?

112 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Tom B. Stone is a pseudonym used by the published author Nola Thacker.

Reviews

[A.D. Aro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing on with the full Graveyard School series read!
The final book of the series, and what a mean-spirited way to go out. The writing in these books is often quite cynical (which I love), and this story in particular was the most cynical so far. If you have arachnophobia, this book isn't overloaded with spiders, but it is filled with lots of horrifying body horror scenes.
"The Spider Beside Her" is also one of the saddest kids horror books I've ever read. The character Ari doesn't just live alone without parents, but she also has no friends whatsoever. This line in particular really got me: "I never thought about you," Mel said honestly. "Nobody did. You just kept to yourself so much we figured you didn't want any friends, so we just... forgot about you."
Ouch.

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 2 out of 5]

4.25/10

Didn’t expect much from this one and it didn’t deliver, it wasn’t bad by any means, and I enjoyed some scenes, but the characters, the pacing just weren’t it. And there was so much filler and relatively pointless scenes.