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Victoria Kindle Edition

4.4 out of 5 stars 40 ratings

In the shadowed corners of Victoria's mind, Chester the spider spins webs of ambition and control, challenging the very essence of a young girl’s identity.

At sixteen, Victoria Menard is no stranger to adversity. An orphaned thief with a past shrouded in mystery, her only companion is Chester, a chattering spider residing within her mind. Together, they've journeyed across continents, mastering languages and leaving chaos in their wake. But as Victoria yearns for freedom, she finds herself ensnared in Chester's far-reaching web.

As tensions rise, the boundaries between host and parasite blur. With Chester's grand schemes threatening to consume her, Victoria faces an agonizing dilemma: how does one evict an intruder that knows no boundaries?

Victoria is a riveting exploration of identity and power, set in the haunting world of What Hides Within

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Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
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From the Publisher

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Where Stories Come Alive

Since its founding in August 2012, Crystal Lake has quickly become one of the world’s leading publishers of Dark Fiction and Horror books. In 2023, Crystal Lake officially transitioned into an entertainment company, joining several other divisions, genres, and imprints, including Torrid Waters, Crystal Lake Comics, Crystal Lake Games, Crystal Lake Kids, and many more.

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4.4 out of 5 stars 3
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Category Novel Novel Novella Novella Anthology Novella Novel
Blurb White Death plunges readers into the chilling and treacherous world of the Great Plains in 1888, where a deceptively warm winter day quickly turns into a fight for survival. Black Wattle’s residents are plunged into a nightmare of infection and blood-curdling transformations. Perfect for fans of middle-grade horror, spooky adventures, and spine-chilling mysteries, Scareville is an unmissable series that will keep young readers on the edge of their seats. Three stories. One terrifying truth: we are not alone! In this supernatural creature feature, the fight against nature’s deadliest predators becomes a fight against something far darker lurking in the depths. A suicidal nudist strolls into traffic. An eccentric Buddhist claims he can occupy other people's bodies. All the while, whispers of a new form of entertainment blow through town.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The elegant prose mixed with the dark and twisted imagination of the author brings horror to a new level."—Amazing Stories

"A delicious, horrifying, cringe-worthy, Kafka-esque, and hilarious story that takes readers deep into every arachnophobe's worst nightmare."—Sarah C., Line Editor, Red Adept Editing

"Jason Parent is a master storyteller. From the first word, you will be lost in the story."—Confessions of a Reviewer

"Jason Parent's new collection, Wrathbone and Other Stories, includes some wonderfully original tales of horror... If you have yet to discover Jason's work, this book will serve as a worthy introduction."—Cemetery Dance

"An enjoyable thriller that will appeal to fans of many different genres and Jason Parent is definitely an author to watch."—The Horror Bookshelf

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CLLD9V5W
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crystal Lake Publishing (October 22, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 22, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.0 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 243 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B0CLP8VCJ1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 40 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
40 global ratings

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Arachnophobia, anyone?
4 out of 5 stars
Arachnophobia, anyone?
Although Victoria is What Hides Within #2, the second book in a series, it is a stand alone book. Victoria is a young woman who has been an orphan most of her life, but she hasn’t necessarily been alone. At a very young age, Victoria was infected with a parasite. Chester is a spider living inside Victoria’s head. Chester isn’t any ordinary spider. She is an intelligent, endangered species who has taught Victoria to steal, fight, fend for herself, and to kill. Chester needs to get her way and doesn’t care what it takes. Blood spills everywhere Chester goes, even from the inside of Victoria’s head if she disobeys the spider. Now, becoming an adult and having a brief taste of a life without Chester, Victoria will do anything to free herself from the possession, even if it means death for them both. ——— 4 stars to Victoria. I really enjoyed this book. It begins with a lot of action. Things settle down a bit about 40-50% through and plateau for awhile, but the last several chapters are non-stop, blood-slinging, ear-tingling action. I’m not bothered by spiders as long as they aren’t crawling on me, but Victoria made my ears itch inside a few times. I wasn’t expecting things to end as they did, and that hurt.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2024
    I loved this book. When I found out What Hides Within had a sequel, I knew I needed to read it. I was not disappointed. I loved both books and would highly encourage someone to pick up both. It does give us a little more information on what Chester is. There is still a little mystery which I want answers to. Maybe there will be a 3rd book?! Either way, Jason Parent did a fanatic job and you want to read What Hides Within and Victoria🙂
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2019
    Review copy

    Victoria is set just a few years in the future, but it really began when Victoria Menard was just a little girl and she made a friend. Her name was Chester.

    "My friend is gone now...sort of, because I always feel her presence. She hasn't spoken to me in many years but in a way, she will always be with me."

    Orphaned at seven, her uncle dies as well and passes his affliction on to her, a spider who promises friendship and adventure. Chester comes to live in her ear and teaches her everything she needs to know to survive and much, much more.

    Jason Parent tells Victoria's story with a flippant attitude that's fun to read. As we get further into the tale we learn more and more about Chester's kind. She's so much more than a talking spider. Dare I say the story takes on the cosmic overtones of an H.P. Lovecraft tale.

    Victoria is older now and Chester has her searching for secrets in the Vatican. Enter Armani Giancarlo Scarpetti who is part of a clandestine body within the Church whose sole purpose is to safeguard humanity against an ancient evil. I loved the dynamic between Victoria and Armani. Do they want to kill each other or find comfort in each other's arms? One thing is certain in Victoria, you can't trust anyone...people or spiders.

    At its heart, Victoria is a thriller novel with a rather strange subtext. Although a sequel to Parent's earlier work, What Hides Within, it is not necessary to read the prior work first.

    If you come in with an open mind, I think you're likely to enjoy Victoria, I know I did. Recommended.

    Published by Bloodshot Books, Victoria is currently available in both paperback and Kindle formats. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited you can read it at no additional charge. Also, if you are an Amazon Prime member you can read it for FREE using the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

    From the author's bio - Jason is an author of horror, thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, and dark humor, though his many novels, novellas, and short stories tend to blur the boundaries between these genres. From his award-winning first horror/mystery novel, What Hides Within, to his widely applauded police procedural/supernatural thriller, Seeing Evil, Jason’s work has won him praise from both critics and fans of diverse genres alike. His work has been compared to that of some of his personal favorite authors, such as Chuck Palahniuk, Jack Ketchum, Tess Gerritsen, and Joe Hill.

    Jason grew up near Fall River, Massachusetts, the setting for several of his novels. He has lived in New England most of his life, currently residing in Rhode Island.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2019
    All I can say is "Wow"! Victoria is a stand alone sequel to What Hides Within, Jason Parent's 2012 debut masterpiece. This book takes place 8 years after the conclusion of WHW and has taken Victoria and her evil freeloading hitchhiker Chester all over the world. Now 16 years old, Victoria has decided she wants to be free of the parasite that lives in her head, dictating her every move. But this doesn't set well with Chester and her plans to reunite with others like her. What ensues is a fast paced, action filled novel that will keep you on the edge of the seat and checking your ears everytime they itch. Victoria is yet another example of Jason Parent's complete mastery of the genre. This was a book I couldn't put down and left me wanting more. I highly recommend this book.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2019
    Victoria by Jason Parent is an action-packed battle between good and evil filled with delicious, unexpected plot twists. The main character, Victoria, lost her parents at the age of seven. The vulnerable little girl became host to a small spider called Chester who used Victoria to search tirelessly for other “Chesters” in the world. At first I thought maybe Chester wasn’t real, that she was an imaginary friend generated as a response to the trauma of losing her parents. But no - Chester is really an ancient evil demigod called a Gal-zu who wishes to team up with others of her kind so that they can take over the world. Chester’s cumulative knowledge and evilness manipulates Victoria into living a life of crime, so Victoria picks up some pretty handy skills and is mentored by some pretty talented thieves in the process.

    Much of the story takes place in Italy, where Chester sends 18-year-old Victoria to sneak into the holy library at the Vatican in search of ancient texts from the Kassites (an ancient Babylonian civilization) that may mention the existence of other Gal-Zu creatures. The church tries to hide evidence of the Gal-Zus and the only people who know of them are a small number of people in the church tasked to destroy them. At the same time Victoria and Chester are searching in the depths of the library, a young man named Armani is trying to destroy another Gal-Zu in another part of the library. They actually meet while they’re both escaping from the explosion Armani created trying to kill his targeted Gal-zu, whom Armani calls X.

    The rest of the story follows Victoria and Armani, as Victoria tries to rid herself of Chester and Armani tries to destroy X. Can Chester and X be destroyed before they come together and bring destruction to civilization as we know it in preparation for their Evil Kingdom?

    I really enjoyed Jason’s writing style. He is very good at describing fast-paced action scenes without leaving out important details. I hate when there are action scenes and the character starts out holding a gun, but then all of a sudden doesn’t have the gun, but you don’t know where it went (for example). Not the case with Jason. You can tell he put a lot of thought into elaborate action scenes because it’s written out like how it would play in a movie.

    A favorite chapter of mine is one told in Chester’s point of view. Chester can leave her host for only short bouts of time, as it’s safer for her to nestle within a host’s brain so that she can be protected from predators or getting squashed. One night Chester walks out of Victoria’s ear and tries to use her laptop to search the Internet for recent information on other Gal-zus. I had a lot of chuckles reading this chapter. I never really thought about life from the point of view of a spider, and here we are watching Chester work out how to use a computer she’s seen Victoria use hundreds of times. In fact, there was a line, “Then she backed that ass up,” that cracked me up. I didn’t expect to read that. But Chester is a wise-ass, so hearing from her was pretty amusing.

    The pace of the book is very steady. I don’t recall any real lulls in the storyline so the book kept my attention. I sometimes felt the book was a little long, but I don’t think anything should have been left out of the book because every twist and turn plays well into the overall plot. The ending was unpredictable, almost made me mad, until I realized it was necessary to the overall story.

    This was the first book I’ve read by Jason Parent. Apparently while this is a stand-alone story, he has an earlier book called What Hides Within which also features Chester. I think you could read Victoria before or after reading What Hides Within because I didn’t feel like there were any plot holes for me even though I read Victoria first.

    I will be reading What Hides Within. I like more horror/scary books, and these books feels to me more like an action/crime books, but I will be giving it a try because I like Jason's writing style. Victoria was fabulously written. I highly recommend Victoria to anyone who loves getting lost in an action-packed crime story.
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