Terry Hayes’ The Year of the Locust) was my July read. 

A light summer read ended up being a bit of a tough book to crack.

See, the thing is, I absolutely loved Terry’s first book, I Am Pilgrim, which I read as part of book club a few years’ ago. 

Book review of The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

Locust has a print length of 652 pages.

Although touted to be the second book to read after Pilgrim – which also is a chunky brick-esque read at 705 pages – it really isn’t a sequel.

The plot of Locust sees CIA spy and key protagonist Kane embark on a global adventure to  exfiltrate a man who holds vital information for the safety of the West and wider mankind.

He comes up against a vicious man and deadly adversary who will stop at nothing to see the downfall of the West. 



The book is supposed to be a spy thriller but midway through the book we enter sci-fi territory. 

The two genres, spy thriller and time travel are two very different scopes of writing.

Locust was not my favourite book to read.

The bar was set sky-high with Pilgrim, which is one of my favourite books of all time.

If I was reading Locust without reading Pilgrim, I think I may have enjoyed it better. 

The book was well written, however I couldn’t get past the mashing up of two genres. 

Loyal fans of Terry Hayes will undoubtedly lap this book up, for me, I think I’ll just re-read Pilgrim and forget all about Locust.

For more information about The Year of the Locust and to buy the book click here.