Wormsday Worm: Arc 1: Gestation + Interlude 1

[rachelmanija]

In which Taylor has a fun day at school, works on an art project with her classmates, and meets some people in the neighborhood.

This is the discussion post for Arc 1 of Worm, by Wildbow. Any and all comments welcome! Spoilers for events later than this arc must be encoded via rot13.com. Spoilers for this arc should not be encoded.

Want to jump in?

1. Read it online. If this makes your eyes bleed...

2. Email me at Rphoenix2 @ gmail and I'll send you an epub. If you do this, please pay Wildbow something via his PayPal or Patreon. This is not an offer with an expiration date - I'll send it along any time.

Spoilers!

For me Taylor's bullying is one of the darkest and most disturbing parts of the entire book, because it's so painfully realistic. I didn't ever eat lunch on the toilet, but the general bullying and refusal of the school to do anything about it is all too familiar. If I'd gotten Taylor's power I'd have been unable to resist immediately using bugs to torment my bullies. They'd have never had a bedbug-free night for the rest of their lives. Honestly Taylor shows an immense amount of restraint.

The cranberry juice getting dumped over her has got to be a deliberate nod to Carrie, given that Taylor actually references it.

Taylor opening her eyes to see bugs covering the bathroom is so cinematic and spooky. It reminds me of the crows on the jungle gym in The Birds.

I love how organized and efficient Taylor is at getting the spiders to weave her costume. She rotates the spiders on a weekly basis!

Taylor trying to block out the feedback from her bugs on the exact shape and size of Lung's junk as they bite it cracks me up. So does her exchange with Armsmaster where he says she doesn't look like a good guy (mean!) and she defensively replies that her costume came out edgier than intended.

The interludes are some of my favorite parts of the book. This one is a bit info-dumpy, but it's intriguing info. Also, ouch at Danny thinking Emma stopped spending time with Taylor because she was afraid of the bullies.

Comments

[mific]

Yes, the bullying was very hard to read and I really wanted Taylor to set a horde of biting insects on the bullies! Her power is such a difficult one for good PR though - almost everyone's a bit freaked out by bugs except the occasional entomologist, so the public are inevitably going to see her as one of the villains, I'm afraid, despite her good intentions. I was a bit baffled as to why Emma suddenly turned and became one of the worst bullies. I wonder if I'll find out why later in the book? Or maybe I'm just naive about the fickleness of teenage social hierarchies!
I loved the cosplay and the illustration on the ebook cover as I'd had difficulty envisioning her spider-woven costume until then. The cosplay goggles are super cool!

[rachelmanija]

We do find out what's up with Emma later, but teenage social hierarchies can be horribly fickle.

I LOVE the cosplay. That is exactly how Taylor must look in costume. Now imagine that accompanied by a swarm of bugs, and yeah, definitely a PR problem.