Book Review: Invasive Species

Title: Invasive Species

Author: Hildy Silverman

Date: 2023

Publisher: Neo Paradoxa

ISBN: 978-1-949691-26-9

Length: 105 pages

Quote: "The Unscaled (aka humans) eventually became more difficult to avoid. Of course, Stan had no way of knowing why, but the fault was mostly his own."

"Cryptids" is the trendy word for the half-human monsters that populate local legends. Despite passing mentions of Sasquatch and Jersey Devils, this is a cheerful, mostly wholesome though not nonviolent, novella about a Swamp Lizard Man and a Catawampus. 

The Catawampus, a super-cougar-woman who may be of Shawnee origin but has parallels in European and Asian legend, is intelligent and fairly civilized in human form; she can get jobs, and worked for the county welfare office for a while. Being a long-liver if not immortal, she's had five different names, and slightly different looks, in order to keep her home through several human lifetimes, transferring the title to a relative whenever people who think she's their age think she's getting ready to retire. She growls at the term "wampus" and prefers to be called a Cat Shifter. She's a nice, solitary lady who cares about children, except that, when she spots a case of child abuse, she likes to shift into wildcat form and eat the abuser.

The Lizard Man, however, has less of a brain. He calls attention to himself, and gets into a hostile relationship with humans, when he's unable to steal cans of butter beans, his favorite food treat. It's hard to read his story without suspecting that, despite the fearsome drawing of him on the cover, his character was really based on a brain-damaged shelter dog.

The story is about how they get into a conflict with each other and some humans, with a memorable minor role for a teenager who whines that camp is for the bears but, when her father confronts Lizard Man to defend her, loyally creeps up behind Lizard Man with a weapon and threatens to kill him.

All who enjoy cryptid stories should enjoy this piece of frivolity. (Does it have any kind of mortal or social message? Hmm. Maybe that cryptids are human too...well...sort of.)