Arachniss, by Shawn. C. Butler

Characters

In terms of characters, four leading ones took centre stage: David, Alicia, Franzia, and Arachniss.

David, a devoted father and children’s book author had a truly traumatic childhood which led to him being stuck in the foster care system. He has never forgiven himself for what happened to his family, even though none of it was technically ever his fault. Now, David is part of an unhealthy marriage to wife Alicia, who beats him relentlessly as time goes on. Despite his wife’s repeated abuse, David continues to try and make things work, anxious about the repercussions if he tries to leave. Despite his reluctance to leave his abusive marriage, I considered David to be a brave character as he has taken in so much trauma and pain throughout his life thus far, persevering through it all. I watched him go from a broken man at the start of the story, to a man who was willing to do anything to protect the ones he loves, to use his anger at the situations in his life to save himself and his son.

Alicia, David’s wife is a Denver city prosecutor, who at first seems loving and quirky. However, as the story progressed, she became more and more unhinged, socially isolating David and being unnecessarily cruel toward him. I really didn’t like her character; she was cruel and manipulative and always seemed to be playing some sort of power game with David. Although she’s sneaky and it was often hard to tell if she really was abusive at first, she soon showed her true colours as a truly heinous human being.

Franzia, a government engineer is apologetically blunt and truthful. She is also bubbly and ‘loud’ in her own way, with an overly friendly nature. She was also oddly and hilariously funny, able to poke fun at herself, which allowed me to warm to her gradually over time. Seeing her become close friends with David was nice as it enabled both of them to share their personal traumas and to have a friend with which they could confide in during times of extreme duress.

Finally, we come to Arachniss, the antagonist of the story. At first, this primarily-featured member of the Arach (a supernatural alien species) appears to David as a strange blur. This otherworldly entity is not quite a true living consciousness, but a sort of advanced AI. Both mysterious and deadly, Arachniss seems cold and unfeeling at first glance (borderline psychopathic by human standards), but later we see his sense of empathy and his own ‘humanity’ so to speak. He is highly intelligent, considering the extent of his race’s actions at great depth. Although I initially disliked Arachniss, I couldn’t help but like him in the end as he was written in such a way that evoked a sense of humanity which lives within us all at our deepest cores.