"This is a book about phobias and obsessions, isolation and dark corners. It's about families, friendships, and carefully preserved secrets. But above everything else it's about love. Finding love - in any of its forms - and nurturing it. Miss Hayes has a new theory. She thinks my condition's caused by some traumatic incident from my past I keep deep-rooted in my mind. As soon as I come clean I'll flood out all these tears and it'll all be ok and I won't be scared of Them anymore. The truth is I can't think of any single traumatic childhood incident to tell her. I mean, there are plenty of bad memories - Herb's death, or the time I bit the hole in my tongue, or Finners Island, out on the boat with Sarah - but none of these are what caused the phobia. I've always had it. It's Them. I'm just scared of Them. It's that simple. A spellbinding debut novel about a boy with severe arachnophobia by an exceptional new young British talent."--Publisher's description

Greg is cripplingly shy, afraid of spiders, and obsessed with Breakfast at Tiffany's. He goes out of his way to avoid talking to anybody he doesn't have to. And it doesn't help that he has a severe lisp. His English teacher, Miss Hayes sees that Greg is insightful and sensitive beyond his years, and maybe-- just maybe-- he'll use these strengths to break out of his shell someday. She urges him to keep a journal, and he begins to write about everything in his life. When Greg begins to take an interest in a girl at his school named Alice, he realizes that he will have to face his most paralyzing anxieties if he wants to befriend Alice and help her escape from her violent family life.