Today we have a fun killer animal book! We read this in April as I participate in something called Old School April. Once you read what I thought, go on over to Barb's blog at Booker T's Farm to see what she thought. :)
“Bats” is a fast‑paced horror thriller about a massive swarm of vampire bats invading the southern United States and developing a deadly taste for human blood. The novel follows the terrifying arrival of bats migrating north from Central and South America. At first, they appear as scattered groups, but soon they gather into thousands, forming a black cloud of predators sweeping across wetlands and small towns. As the attacks escalate, it becomes clear that these aren’t ordinary animals—the bats have grown aggressive, coordinated, and increasingly fixated on human prey.
So I love a good killer animal book, but you never know what you're going to get when you start in on one. I am happy to say that this one was pretty decent. It's from 1993 so it probably has a few things that some people might not like but that never bothers me.
Johnny is an ex-military man was pretty high up in intelligence and has settled down in a Louisiana parish where he has built himself a kind of fortress type house that nobody is going to get into without him knowing as he does have a few terrorist organizations that would love to get ahold of him. He kind of comes off as a man who is extremely hardened and, in a way, he is but he also has a soft spot in there too. One of the things I really liked is how well he took care of his dogs.
One day, his dogs were acting really weird and he heard a weird noise outside. He didn't think much of it until later when heading to town he finds a dead cow on the side of the road, but it wasn't just dead it was drained and had a bunch of bites on it. A trooper was coming by, and he flagged him down and this is how Johnny gets involved with a battle with Bats. He realizes these are not ordinary bats and he goes about protecting his home, making a wire mess area outside for his dogs to do their business and the bats can't get to them. (Great pet owner!)
Some scientists show up, and a veterinarian named Blair, who ends up staying at Johnny's. They get video of the bats when try attacking Johnny's house and these bats are not ordinary bats, they are larger, smarter and just plain creepy. Before they would find out how to kill them, they decimated several parishes, or at least those who refused to evacuate when told about the danger.
A lot of government bureaucracy and things that would just drive you mad happened while they tried to figure out how to get rid of these bats. It was filled with a lot of blood, gore and carnage and was a medium paced book. My real big complaint about this book was that it took to long to end. There was a point when you thought oh this is the end and then it kept going and it was at this point where it was just the author doing as much damage to people and so more blood, gore and carnage.
I really liked the characters in this one, Johnny though hardened and said he would never marry anyone, just sort of fell into a steady routine with Blair as she stayed there and you knew she wasn't leaving. A couple displaced kids also end up staying there. The cops were not stupid and worked well with Johnny in trying to get rid of the bats. Only stupid people were the ones who wouldn't listen, but they didn't last long. :) Now, there were animals killed in this book, but it was expected. It kind of gets a pass because the two dogs of Johnny's were so well taken care off.
4 stars
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