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I love the cover for Aquifer by Gary A Barnes. That alone would have had me grabbing this, but add alien alligators…I love a good creature feature and we have one here.

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MY REVIEW

I was looking for a Q for my reading challenge and this popped up. An alien alligator? Oh yeah.

In the Ozark Mountains, in the 1950s, in the hillbilly town of Ellington, Doc was enjoying the slow pace, after life in the busy city.  Life is just what you would think, live off the land, uneducated people, no money, but they lived their life to the fullest.

Dr. Thomas Clayton came from there and was back as a herpetologist to do an ecological study. What are the ramifications of pollution on the frog population?

Amidst the croaks of the frogs and the song of the cicadas, a blinding flash, a sonic boom, and…we’re off.

Tina’s home life is comfy cozy, with all the characters sharing, eating, playing. I remember catching fireflies and putting them in a jar with holes punched in the top. Do you? It’s always fun to read a book that brings back pleasant memories. Makes the book seem real…sorta. If you believe in aliens and mutant creatures.

I love how two collegiate city slickers meet the Ozark hillbillies and learn they have more in common that they could have possibly believed.

I was freaking when tina and Larry were sitting n the rock at the lagoon.

The slow building suspense allowed me to get to know and love the characters. To get the feel of the terror that is coming, feel IT coming now…NOW? I do wonder how many of them will survive.

Of course, we gotta have one lizard lover. Don’t hurt ’em. Let’s coexist. Well, maybe they don’t want to. Maybe we are their breakfast, lunch and dinner. MMM…hungry.

I love these B type creature features.

Plenty of time was spent in world building and character development. It was great to watch them grow and change, as they spend more time together, learning from each other.

I knew the ending and loved it anyway. If you are looking for a great alien, creature feature, look no further. We have all the requirements here. All the gory, grisly deaths, mixed with loss, love and romance.

4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

Dr. Thomas Clayton was born to an unwed teenage daughter of an Ozark share-cropper. He was adopted at birth without ever knowing the identity of his biological mother or of his backwoods roots. He now unwittingly arrives in the Ozark community of Eminence as part of an environmental research team studying the pollution affects of the logging industry. Clayton has nothing but contempt for the hillbillies of the area, while they in turn suspect that he is part of a Federal conspiracy to take over their land.

Shot down by the military, an alien spaceship crashes into the Ozark Mountains. The alien crew is killed, but the destruction of the spacecraft allows an aggressive alligator-sized amphibian to escape into the continental aquifer which extends from Canada to Mexico. The amphibians quickly multiply and begin devouring the livestock and ultimately the citizens of Eminence. A military unit from Ft. Leonard Wood attempts to eradicate the aliens only to be destroyed themselves by the aggressive creatures.

With the destruction of the military and the impending destruction of the citizenry, Clayton and the town folk join together to obliterate the creatures using only the resources available to a backwoods farming community. Failure would doom the entire nation as the amphibians could travel through the aquifer to wreck havoc throughout the country.

With the annihilation of humanity in the balance, Clayton discovers the key to destroying the aliens. But using it would require him to intentionally spread the pollution he has sworn to prevent. In an explosive pyrotechnic battle with the creatures, Clayton wrestles with the morality of blatantly destroying a new species or somehow capturing it for preservation before it destroys mankind. Does he prevent the spread of pollution or proliferate its spread to save the world? In the process, Clayton makes a stunning discovery that brings him full-circle to his Ozark roots and the family he never knew.