Written by: Victoria Irwin on May 6, 2014 and posted at TheGeekGirlProject.
FIVE STARS!
Shallow Basin by Suzanne Cowles is part-monster story, part-tale of the frightening behavior of human beings. Set in a small Southern town of Stray Oaks, the novel follows high school senior Beau Boudreaux as he navigates the dangerous waters of pending adulthood and the creature of the swamps known as the Creepler. Beau is the son of a World Famous bass fisherman and a sweet Christian woman with a troubled past. His girlfriend is a wannabe actress named Saylor, known for her cheerleading and wicked attitude. As Beau approaches the end of high school, he must confront his father and tell him that he does not wish to be a lawyer. All the while, a wicked Mayor and his lackey are trying to steal land from a witch in the bayou. The Creepler, a vicious reptile-like creature, protects the land and begins to kill those who venture into the swamp. Beau has to survive not just his day-to-day life, but also the dangers of the Creepler.
While the Creepler does sound like a cool creature and total monster-movie fodder, he unfortunately takes a serious back seat to the more frightening drama of a small town community. Cowles describes every affair, every mistake, every unplanned pregnancy of the characters in this book. The feeling at times can be overwhelming and reminded this reviewer far too much of spending time with my relatives from the South. Witchcraft and murders plague the town, while the terrifying Creepler seems innocent compared to the cover-ups and plots of the townspeople.
Shallow Basin makes it hard to actually care about any of the characters. All of them are tragically flawed or just terrible people in general. However, how many of the characters meet their ends seem to be too over the top to match their transgressions. Saylor, for example, may be a total nightmare of a human being, but her attack is both incredibly violent towards women and utterly horrifying. Her ordeal reminded me a great deal of the film Prometheus, with equal levels of terror.
If you’re a fan of family drama and swamp monster movies, Shallow Basin is your book.
