Small Spiders is a book based on events that really happened and I'm always intrigued by fiction based, however loosely, on fact or actual events. So that's what initially attracted me to this book. The novel is set mostly in the early 1970's during the Nixon administration and follows several characters through the years to the Watergate scandal. One of the main themes is the premise that the CIA created and implemented a program called MK Ultra where they used mind control and hypnosis to create the perfect assassin. A program that will give any conspiracy theorist ammunition to say this type of program was behind assassins like Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley Jr. Could it be possible? Maybe. Definitely gives you some food for thought.
While the characters were well drawn and the plot was an interesting one, it was a somewhat difficult to follow because of the constantly shifting viewpoints. It was told in third person, but almost every chapter was following someone different. Everyone's path eventually crossed and they were all tied together in the end, it was still rather hard to follow at times. There were a few flashbacks and things introduced that never went anywhere. The introduction of Ted Kaczynski was one that just didn't work for me. I think it it had been fleshed out more, it would have made more sense in the story, it was more of an afterthought or something to better try to explain MK Ultra and some of the other rather scary programs run by the US Government during the post WWII era.
The story itself is one that's pretty scary for anyone who has or had blind confidence in the US Government. It's not hard to see why there was so much distrust and dislike of the Nixon administration. Some of what they got away with was pretty frightening and who could ever say what else they did? So much information was destroyed, burned and shredded that I don't think anyone will ever know the truth behind not only MK Ultra but behind Watergate. Using hypnosis to create the perfect assassin to get rid of your enemies? How far would they have gone? Who else was on their list? Pretty frightening stuff.
I did enjoy the story but wished that it flowed together a bit better. There were also some pretty glaring grammatical errors and some timeline inconsistencies. At one point Artie was not feeling well due to something he eat earlier in the day but a few pages later he was suddenly starving, having realized he hadn't eaten anything all day. While they didn't really detract from the story all that much, they were still a bit of an annoyance. I would still recommend this to anyone who wants to delve a bit more into the conspiracy theories of the late 60's and 70's. The story does start a bit slow and there are times where it is hard to follow, but all in all a good effort.
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