Bats

by William W. Johnstone

A frightening tale about a swarm of vampire bats that have developed a taste for human blood--from bestselling author Johnstone (Watchers in the Woods). The great black cloud of terror appeared one evening in the southern U.S. --first hundreds and then thousands. No one knows how to stop the deadly shadows, but someone has to find a way.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Animals, Novels

255 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

William W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before serving in the army. He went on to become known as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century." Visit him online at WilliamJohnstone.net.

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars ⭐️

Holy bat shit, Batman! I KNOW! That was so corny 😂🤣



I want to suck your blood...



....and eat your eyeballs and eat your skin to the bone. And so forth and so on!

Another awesome read for my Horror Group Challenge! I keep forgetting to mention that. 🤔. Anyhoo, I loved these characters! And I love how Johnny loved and took care of his dogs. I mean naturally. But, the characters were fun and I had no idea this is the same author my mom reads his western books! Learn something new all of the time!!

BTW: I love bats, especially fruit bats, but not these bats!

Happy Reading!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnny turned onto a dirt road and about five hundred yards later, he saw the two dead cows. Even from the road, they looked shrunken. Blair said, “Bats take very small sips of blood. Do you realize how many bats it would take to drain a cow of blood?” Johnny had never been more serious when he said, “More than I ever want to see. That’s for damn sure.”

When a plane filled with genetically modified giant cunning mutant bats with a taste for human blood and flesh too crashes, because of the the devil answering the prayers of a local coven of Satan worshippers, or more probably just because of fate, hell unleashes on unlucky and unaware Louisiana parishes.

And the feasting had only just begun.

“I didn’t know you had an electric fence. If it’s not posted, that’s illegal, Johnny.” “Phil!” “Oh. Right. Are you sure about all this?” “It’s on film.” “They can think and reason?” “Sure appears that way. Before we go into those woods tomorrow, we’re going to have to do some serious talking about suiting up.” “You damn sure got that right!” The sheriff sighed.

Last July my wife and me, while spendin’ summer in my family summerhouse, were awakened at night by the noise of a bat sneaking inside from an open window and being our guest for two days flying around the house at night and sleeping inside a small niche atop the rooftop wall at day, before leaving us after two nights of thrills, insomnia, and nightmares with my daughter luckly sleeping all time.

‘You’re certainly welcome. Good night, Blair.” “’Night, Johnny.” “The door to your bedroom locks, Blair,” he said with a smile. “I don’t think I need to lock it,” she replied. “Besides, with those things crawling around out there, I’d stay here if you were a convicted serial killer!” Johnny laughed and turned off the lamp in the den. The outside lights remained on, and the fence stayed fully charged.

You know, he was just looking for some spider or insect to feed himself after all, but seeing him spreading wings and jumping from a wall forward me, I just felt my blood gettin’ cold and slammed my bedroom room’s door screaming like a kid.

“Captain Alden will be here any minute,” Mark said. “He wants to see the film you shot.” “He can have it. I made several dubs last evening.” Mark looked down at the dead bat and shuddered. “Would you just look at the teeth on that thing. Those fangs could tear a man’s throat out.” “Did you see the bodies of that old couple?” “Yeah,” Mark said softly. “And?” “Their throats were ripped out.”

So, after two nights closed inside the bedroom with bat’s noises inside the house, that winged rat just left us coming back from where he belonged, leaving my daughter sad because she wanted to see him, and my wife and me with a new one added to our list of phobias…

Johnny blinked. “Excuse me?” “Incantation.” “I heard that. You mean to sit there with your face hanging out and tell me that members of the most highly sophisticated intelligence gathering organizations in the world believe that some self-proclaimed voodoo prince or princess tossed a few chicken bones and feathers on the ground, did a little dance around a skull, and made a pact with the devil to produce these bats?”

Besides that, I needed a bat-themed book for an halloween challenge in the Horror Afficionados Goodreads group and this novel just seemed a decent creature-feature one, so I pulled myself together and told me: “Ok, let’s do it.”

It was approaching a carnival scene by late that afternoon. Somebody leaked the deaths of the Morrison couple and that blew the lid off. Bats attacking people was rare enough; but giant, bloodsucking bats that ripped the throats out of people was really, really hot stuff.

Surprise, this Bats from late author William Wallace Johnstone was far better than expected for me: a funny and intereresting gore-fest filled with action, thrills, black humour and a badass testosterone-fueled 90s main character that I kept imagining with Chuck Norris’ features while reading it.

Something slammed against the heavy wire protecting the dog’s outside area and Blair jumped despite herself. “Take it easy—all of you,” Johnny said. “They can’t get inside.” “Then why do we have these loaded shotguns?” Blair asked. Johnny smiled. “In case I’m wrong.” “Do you mind if I get under the table with the dogs?” Blair asked.

Not a masterpiece at all, but I was looking for a funny creature-feature to read and this one delivered exactly what I was looking for.

"“Dick ...” She held a hand to her mouth for a moment. “Sorry. I thought I was going to be sick. These... things, they don’t just drink blood. They eat flesh.” Dick burped. “I noticed, Linda. I really, really did.” He glanced at the luminous hands of his watch. 10:15. “It’s going to be a long night, dear heart.”

Let me say, monstrous men-eater mutant bats with human-like intelligence, delused devil-worshippers willingly infecting themselves with rabies and going on a deadly rampage, with poor people of Louisiana caught in the middle in an insane gore-fest filled with plenty of action and humour: what’s not to love in it after all if you are into horror?

Louis Bankston had not gone to work that day. Yet. But he had plans to do so. He also had plans about his co-workers. Dark, evil plans. He had taken their taunts for years. Now it was pay-back time. He knew that several of the teachers stayed after classes were dismissed. Wouldn’t it be fun when the kids came to school tomorrow and found them? Oh, my, yes. And if they weren’t at the school, he knew where they lived.

Sadly no human-shaped mutant man-bat popped up in the ending, otherwise this could have been a nearly top-score five stars read for me.

Dickson moved to Woloszyk’s side. “I think the bats are gathering, Lieutenant,” he whispered. “Look around you and listen. No dogs, no cats, no birds, no nothing.” “I won’t take a chance on you being wrong. Get a bullhorn. Give the orders to clear this area. I ...” Before he could finish the sentence, the bats came, silently and deadly, hundreds of them, and struck hard.



And now I’m not so much scared about bats anymore... right?

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars!

Bats is a re-release:it originally flew free back in the 90's and that's one of my favorite periods for the horror genre, so I requested it from Net Galley right away. I'm sad to report that I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

You can probably guess from the title that this is a creature feature, so you know going in that's it's most likely not going to be a literary classic. (Which was fine with me, sometimes that's exactly what I want.) However, I do expect the writing to be of a certain quality, and I'm not talking Cormac McCarthy level here, but I wouldn't think that a James Herbert level would be unrealistic. Unfortunately, I don't think the Herbert level was reached here.

That aside, the story itself was a lot of fun. Most especially because these weren't just normal bats, they were mutants. Incredibly large with huge fangs, they were also capable of immense intelligence. That's all I can say, because this is where all the fun of the book is and you should read it for yourself. One thing that bothered me in the narrative itself, was the repetitiveness of "stupid people deserve what they get" mantra. Alright, we get it, they're too stupid too live. Move on.

Overall, Bats did deliver on the FUN its cover promised, but the writing itself and repetitive nature of a few viewpoints soured me on the book as a whole.

*Thanks to Kensington/Lyrical Underground and Net Galley for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review! This is it.*

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the paperbacke cover: by William W. Johnstone
this is the new kindle book cover:
comes out to buy 9/27/16


Wings of Death

They’d flown north from Central and South America, appearing one day in the southern wetlands of the U.S. like ominous ink stains in the twilight sky. With each sunset, more appeared, first hundreds then thousands. Massing into a great black cloud of terror, the vampire bats were beating their wings in time with the panicked heartbeats in the towns below.

No one knew how to stop them as they fell onto their prey like dark, deadly shadows. But someone had to find a way. Because somewhere in the night, they had become a threat to more than wild animals and livestock. Somewhere in the night madness took hold as these vampire bats developed a taste for human blood.

And the feasting had only just begun




What did I think of it:


Five stars all the way:


First off I want to say this isn't the first time that I've ever read this ,I actually had a copy of it in the paperback and I loved it, read it until the pages turned yellow,unfortunately when we movied back in 2011 , it was with a box of books that got lost ,.


Now we skip to now : When I first saw it I was on NetGalley just looking to see what they had and the title Bats caught my attention so I had to check it out and read the synopsis, and after that I knew I had to request it , so glade that I did even though at the time I didn't recognized it at first , but when I started to read it , that's when it came to me,


even though its been a long while since I've read it , there's this one scene that stayed with me and that the one that I remembered when I was reading page 2, with that said I'm so glad that I requested and got to re read, just like before it still one of my all time favorite books to read.


list of why I 100 % love it .


1:one of my favorite novels by William W. Johnstone


2:suspense-filled story


3: pulls you in and keeps you hooked all the way though the story


4:remember this book terrifying the first time I read it and its still very much so terrifying


5: it makes you makes you realize that even to this day we don't know every thing about the animal kingdom like we think we do.


Its a most read, with that said I would love to also say that I received this book from the NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review and that these are 100 % my own thoughts to what is truly a great book ,and to give them a Really Big Thinks for letting me re find one of my all time favorite books.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book for about 60% of it. It was your typical "creature feature" fair of the type one would expect from the 90's.

But sometime around the 60% mark, things got very political, and I did not care for what I was reading. I'm not opposed to political views that do not agree with my own, but Johnny declares that America should be overthrown in a civilian uprising. After the events of January 6th, this made me uncomfortable because the seeds of the craziness we see today are planted in books like this.

This is also most definitely a Pre 9/11 written book because there is a scene where several military planes are stolen and everyone just looks the other way. Other than that this is what I expect from a 90's pulp story. The hero is uber skilled in all things, his every decision is right and lesser mortals look to him for advice and guidance, no matter their skills or experience.

Read for the "Bat" portion of Horror Aficionados 2021 Halloween Season Reading Challenge.

[Michael Jensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't normally write reviews of books I don't finish, but I want to warn people who aren't raging conservatives to stay away from this writer and book. Why? Because based on what I managed to wade through in Bats, William W. Johnstone appears to have been a hardcore conservative who probably would have loved Trump. At pretty much every opportunity the characters in Bats are given, they yammer on and on and on about how stupid federal officials and federal government is. To hear them tell it, anyone higher up than the local sheriff is a complete moron. Except the hero who used to be a spook in the CIA. But whatever.

And the writing isn't exactly scintillating either. Johnstone is one of those writers who can't leave "he said" alone. At least half of the time it is "he said, derisively," "she said, seductively," "he asked, angrily." Apparently Mr. Johnstone never heard of "show, don't tell."

Curious about Johnstone, I looked over the rest of his oeuvre and discovered that he and his nephew (who has continued Johnstone's works are "THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY." If you say so, William.) But the west they write about apparently features story after story of stern-faced white men clutching guns as they face down "bloodthirsty Indians" and "marauding Utes." Perhaps Mr. Johnstone was actually highly evolved and his books also share how white men, like the ones on his covers, stole the land from American Indians, massacring them along the way.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Johnstone's also got a book called Tyranny, which is blurbed as "explosive story of citizens’ rights, government wrongs, and freedom’s last stand—deep in the heart of Texas…AMERICA UNDER FIRE"

So basically the Bundy standoff in Nevada and the Malheur Wildlife Refuge takeover where rightwingers seized federal land because they know best.

Johnstone was obviously free to write whatever kinds of books he wanted. But I think readers who would rather not have a political diatribe disguised as a book have a right to know what they're in for.

[Russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like animals-attack books but this was pretty lame. Neither scary nor amusing. With Covid-19 we’ve learned about the threat of bat-borne disease, so a really chilling story is possible, but this wasn’t it.

[Irene Well Worth A Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a vintage horror from way back in 1993 when the creature feature was still the rage. William Johnstone has long since passed and his books were out of print for years. Many of them have been re-released for Kindle and I grabbed a few plus some used paperbacks from the thrift store.

Our hero is some kind of former spy CIA guy or some such special ops thing that you will probably picture as Liam Neesan or at least I did since he is described as solid and fit but not too good looking. Luckily he pretty much already lives in a fortress since his retirement so his house is the safest place in town.
Some of the language is a bit cringe worthy, and I don't mean swearing. I was a bit put off by the number of derogatory terms the author chose to use because I don't think that was cool even back in 1993. If you can look past that, it's a decent classic horror about giant vampire bats swarming a town, with a high body count, lots of gore and chewed up eyeballs. If that's not enough they've also been spreading rabies to the local wildlife and to the crazy group of satanists too who think these giant bats are the answer to their dark prayers. All in all a it was a pretty good read if you're in the mood for a horror from days gone by.
4 out of 5 stars.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

William Johnstone was a staple for pulp horror lovers in the 80’s. Lurid paperback covers and often even more lurid stories within made him a pretty safe bet for your money. “Bats” is no exception. I am sure that I read this one back in the day and I am just as sure that I loved it.

It is a little harder to be as enthusiastic now. The characters are interesting and often funny and Johnstone clearly doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is definitely a plus. He is a seasoned writer if not a great one. If you are a fan of pulp and of Johnstone in particular you expect religious characters to prevail and those with an off kilter moral compass, who for some reason in Johnstone’s books are always Satanists, will receive their punishment. I do roll my eyes a bit as it seems from his novels that every town has its own Satanist group, and even more interesting, everyone knows about them and doesn’t care that they hold relatively important positions in the community—until, you know, when bad stuff starts happening. What were they expecting?

The bats are quite nasty and the confrontations are well done. The plot is a bit long and repetitive and the “plan” being followed by the super intelligent, super large, super vicious, and practically demonic bats, when finally revealed, struck me as a bit odd. It didn’t really bother me that much because this a pulp horror novel about giant vampire bats after all and it plays for fun—and delivers. Johnstone is more Edgar Rice Burroughs than Michael Critchton.

Many people have commented about the heavy handed politics in Johnstone’s work, which is about as prevalent as the apparent high incidence of Satan worshipers hiding under ever rock. I knew about the political agenda going in so I wasn’t really bothered. Anyone who has ever read a Dean Koontz novel knows the drill—whenever characters sit around a table with cups of coffee just feel free to skip to the end of the chapter, you won’t miss any of the action.

Johnstone is vintage 80s horror pulp and “Bats” is a good example of his work.

Really 3 stars but I rounded up to 4 just because I like his books for the nostalgia they bring.

[Kelsi - Slime and Slashers · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down for GR. The only reason this gets an extra half-star is for the ridiculous lines that made me laugh out loud. Lots to criticize about this book in terms of writing quality, but if you're familiar with Johnstone's style, then you won't be surprised by this. I think Bats suffers from too much dialogue as well as too many "veiled" political statements while also not providing the reader with enough creative carnage.

[Jeri · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG!! I really loved this book! Not only because it features my home state of Louisiana, but it features the area where I live. Also, who wouldn't love a horror book featuring blood sucking bats!! I mean come on, you know you have that fear of a bat landing on the back of your neck when you are out after dark and taking a bite of you!

Mr. Johnstone really nailed it with the characters in this book. I especially loved Johnny. He really shows the self-reliance of those of us living out in the woods and swamps. Anyway, Johnny, is an ex-military man and ex-spook from the government with a price on his head by foreign governments. So he has built himself a bit of a fortress in the woods and is very self-reliant. He pays close attention to his surroundings and the cues his dogs give him. One morning, his dogs get scared and he hears a noise overhead. What else could it be but a swarm of thousands of bats and they are hungry and no one is safe.

This book is being re-issued by Lyrical Underground (Kensington Books) and I was given an eARC through the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bats" is absurd escapist horror for the turn-off-your-brain-and-just-go-with-it crowd on roughly the same level as Leigh Clarke's "Carnivore". And like my review of that book, I will admit readily that "Bats" is awful. I will also cop to the fact that I don't care, because like "Carnivore", once you start it up you just have to keep going until you reach the last page. So shut down the cerebrum, deactivate your logic circuits, prepare for plenty of Johnstone's blend of conservative/survivalist/military hawkish political philosophy espoused by his main characters, and dig into the first chapter. Hell, I don't agree with half of what his good ol' boy, former full-bird Colonel-turned-government-spook survival expert protagonist spouts off, and I'm STILL giving this book four stars. Maybe I am as crazy a liberal nutjob as Johnstone would have thought? :)

As one might gather from the title, the antagonist comes in the form of those winged rodents of the night. But these aren't your ordinary everyday brand of fruit bats or vampire bats. Oh no. These are genetically-engineered, science-bred, Christianity-defying, slavering-fanged hellspawn bats (and I wish I was making even one of those labels up): rabid, pissed off killers out to destroy everything crossing their path down in one unlucky parish of Louisiana. I'd say you can't make this stuff up, but clearly the book sitting here in my hand tells me otherwise. Published today this would be the sort of Kindle-only eBook that struggled to compete in the marketplace of dinosaur-themed erotica and "me too" versions of "Fifty Shades", but fortunately for all of us, Zebra was around to give it the legitimate attention it deserves and 90's horror is all the better for their unfettered zeal.

Johnstone might create characters so two-dimensional they're effectively invisible when viewed from the wrong angle, but the man never claimed to be writing great literature, and so I won't judge it as such. "Bats" works because, while Johnstone might struggle to make well-rounded characters, he has no trouble at all producing scenes of horror and violence to keep us turning pages. What's more, he approaches the subject matter with an almost insane desire to showcase a plausible outcome from such an implausible scenario. His approach is one of chronicler, not storyteller. "I was there," his narrative suggests, "and I saw what happened. Now I'm telling you about it." That it's fiction doesn't matter--you'll be checking the night sky regularly for a few weeks afterwards because 'what if...?'. For this reason, the book gets four stars. I read "Bats" for the first time all the way back in high school, and twenty years later I still think about it from time to time. I don't care how ridiculous the storyline is, if you're thinking about a shelf-worn paperback horror novel you checked out from the library two decades later, the book did something right, and I'll happily award those props.

Perhaps the best thing "Bats" does, far better than "Carnivore" could manage, is generate atmosphere. "Bats" generated in me a very strong sensation of a siege mentality, because the characters (and thus I as a reader) never knew where the attack would come from next, and Johnstone had no problems drawing out the suspense and even head-faking us a few times. His creature features are both intelligent and cunning. It takes everyone a while to get a grip on exactly what's happening, and just like in Jaws, human stupidity ensures that even when the proverbial poop begins dribbling on the fan blades, most of the characters are still caught off guard. These animals lay traps, target stragglers, draw their targets out into the open, and then strike with otherworldly ferocity. Necks are ripped open, eyeballs plucked out, hair torn off, skin peeled to the bone, and Johnstone's hapless characters soon understand just how close they are to involuntary exsanguination at all times. I was ready to reinforce the windows and rig up some electric fencing myself by the time I was done reading; fortunately my mother let me do nothing of the sort to our condominium.

Johnstone usually manages to offset his dead-serious characters with a few clowns and caricatures, and this book's no exception. Deputy Mark is the guy who can't stop joshing around and is also apt to eat you out of house and home, but for true comedy gold, you cannot beat the dynamic duo of the die-hard KKK-supporting white supremacist and his dyed-in-the-wool militant Black Panther-flag-flying counterpart-slash-nemesis. The apocalypse has come upon these two racist yahoos, each of whom is bound and determined to blame the other's entire race for the plague of winged fanged fury descending upon the state, and one of the absolute funniest scenes in the book involves the pair of them being handcuffed together in the back of a police car and 'accidentally' left to work out their differences. Stereotypical? You better believe it. Gut-bustingly funny anyway? You ain't just whistlin' Dixie, son. The plight of two reporters (one male, one female) trapped in a bat-covered car who realize A) they won't be getting out anytime soon and B) they REALLY need to pee is handled with equal levity. I don't remember the exact quote, but it's something along the lines of the girl telling the guy, "I'll trade you a rubber band for a cork." I laughed hard enough at this to convince my wife I was still thirteen years old. =D

"Bats" is not literate. It is not intelligent. You will not improve your social standing, get the girl/guy of your dreams, or become any better of a human being for reading it. It contains no great truths, a lot of political ranting of the right-wing variety, and pages of utter carnage. Your life will not change upon completion. That's because it's a horror novel about a bunch of enormous goddamn bats murder-fanging everything in sight. It's just what you're looking for to kill a few hours on a cold winter's night...even if you're a left-wing libtard pacifist snowflake sort like Johnstone no doubt would have categorized me had we ever crossed paths. If that isn't high enough praise to get you to read this schlockfest, then I've got nothing left to sell you on it. Read it to laugh, read it to cringe, just don't read it expecting Voltaire or Nabokov. Read it to expect Satanic bats, because that's what you're going to get.

[Carolyn Injoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bats by William W. Johnstone is a fast moving horror story. It was described as wings of death. I gave it three stars. It was a good against evil storyline. However, I found flesh eating giant vampire bats too far fetched to be believable.

One reference to the bat's pattern of attack said they don't know what they look like...bats are blind; hence the expression: Blind as a bat.

I received a complimentary copy from Kensington Books and NetGalley. That did not change my opinion for this review.

Link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Bats-William-W...

[Elke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a solid, though not original, story about a horde of mutant bats attacking a small town and a group of people fighting the creepy creatures. It was a great mixture of gruesome scenes, humorous dialogues and some light romance.

I understand that this is an reissue of a book that was first published in the nineties, and the whole book breezes this old-school charm which I really appreciated (and was one of the reasons I chose to read it in the first place). So at first sight this appeared to be a perfect read for me, if not for the two big BUTs that kept bothering me:

One was the perfection of the main character, an ex 'spook' named Johnny, who accidentally lived in exactly the place the bats visited most. Of course, he had an answer to everything and always knew what had to be done to fight the bats and naturally became the leader of the group fighting the bats. Add to this the constant praise of his abilities by the other characters, I craved for some weakness to show which would have made him more human and less superhero.

The second thing, which was the most annoying, was the constant bitching about the abilities, or rather inabilities, of either press/judges/politicians/you name it who where all portrayed as useless or even hindering obstacles. This holier-than-thou attitude - not only expressed in dialogues, but also in snide comments by the narrating voice - combined with the overly ridiculous actions of said parties was a real turn-off.

Another OK creature feature, but you won't miss anything if you miss this one.

(I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

[OutlawPoet · Rating 3 out of 5]

My exploration of William W. Johnstone's horror fiction continues with Bats, a reissue of a book originally published in 1993.

For me, this one was a little bit of a misstep. I love books where animals get all chompy on humans, but I found this one wanting. The explanations were light, the satanic issue (a Johnstone theme) is barely explored - mostly hinted at and includes a rather humorous group of satanists. Even the character development was light on this one, with only hints of what we expect from Johnstone's warriors.

It's still action packed, gory, and fun. It just wasn't the well developed horror I've come to expect.

I'm still glad I read it, and largely enjoyed it, but if you're just getting to know Johnstone's horror, don't start here.

[DJMikeG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, this isn't a good book. I know that. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? Yes. Ludicrously entertaining pulp madness from beginning to end. As clunky as the writing is here and there, the pacing is set at such a fever pitch and there is just so much crazy stuff crammed into this book, it is a blast to read. Johnstone just makes so many odd, sometimes very ill informed choices with his writing, you never really know what you will get from page to page. There are some attempts at broad social satire that really haven't aged well, but again, the thing is just odd that you can't help but be amazed at the choices Johnstone makes. Absolute pulp lunacy.

[Tonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those early 1990's horror books where every character is spelled out in a nutshell within a paragraph of their entrance on the scene and the 'meat' of the book is about the blood and gore.

A good fluffy horror book without a whole lot of plot, character building, or scientific mumbo-jumbo.

Oh and if you're not a conservative you will totally hate the main character who is supposed to be a super secret CIA spook but goes ahead and just tells everyone that...

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked enjoyed this book and was kind of sad it was over! Reminds me so much of a creature feature with the humor, characters, and overall feel of the plot. It was also a different take on bats I hadn’t heard before, so that was interesting. If you’re looking for some fun, this one delivered for me :)

[Syvannah Tewes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this as a young teen, I remember this book terrified me. I had nightmares for years, and still do from time to time. Rereading it as an adult, it's disquieting but not terrifying. The cliches run rampant in these pages, and the rivers run with blood. Still an enjoyable read to me!

[Reva Nowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable!

I liked the story. Not sure what else to say. I don’t like writing reviews. I enjoyed this book, enough said.

[David Stephens · Rating 1 out of 5]

It might be a good idea, in some cases, to skip over a story’s setup or pass over a long, drawn out build up. With a title like Bats, and a cover that shows a giant bat with large fangs cast against a blood red sky, this might seem to be one of those cases. What else could happen but a small community getting attacked by ravenous vampire bats? Let’s get to the bloodshed already!

And yet not only does William Johnstone’s epic masterpiece of the desmodus rotundus skip over this setup as well as any dread or world building that might come with it, it rushes its way through everything that might make this story fun.

The book’s problems begin with its hero, Johnny MacBride, a former intelligence officer who keeps to himself and solves every question surrounding the skittering noises he hears at night and the cows drained of blood with the speed of Adam West solving one of The Riddler's puzzles. It’s bats! I’ve seen this before! MacBride’s other attributes include the following: being a hunter, an avid reader, having a keen self-developed intellect, listening to classical music, being a ladies man, becoming an amazing parent in seconds, being fully self-sufficient in every way, having a perfect intuition in all cases, and hating on government officials and journalists. He also loves animals, which is, perhaps, his one redeeming quality.

Most of the other characters other than MacBride are about as dim-witted as can be. Journalists are just out to get a sensational story with no regard for their own lives or the truth. Government officials are totally inept or just want to get in the way or cover things up. Environmentalists and scientists (aside from the “moderates” like MacBride) want to protect the killer bats even if it means more deaths.

Anyone with a critique of out of control American gun culture or police brutality is presented as helpless: “The young man who was filled with self-importance and righteous indignation over what he perceived as police brutality, had his world darkened forever as a bat swooped silently down, wrapped its wings around his head and began eating his face.” And, as any good Objectivist would tell you, the masses are weak and undeserving: “In the surrounding parishes the night brought on a terror like none had ever experienced. When the horror struck the river parish, only a few in the surrounding parishes had the foresight to think and act on the assumption that the bats might eventually move. The majority, as usual, sat around with their thumbs up their butts and did nothing . . . hoping that somebody else would come along and help them. They had adopted the philosophy that has helped turn America from a first rate nation into second class: Give me something for nothing, I got a right, man.”

Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of combining pulp horror and politics, and there is probably a way to embed a conservative perspective here, but accenting a story about bat attacks with diatribes on laziness and media bias–what amounts to little more than an ongoing strawman–is not the way to do it. You merely come off sounding bitter and bringing your story to a halt everytime this happens. When the two main characters explain to a ten year old kid that some people won’t listen to the police even though they’re only here to protect us, he responds by saying, “Then those people are stupid!” And this is exactly how William Johnstone sounds every time he goes on a tangent about the oppressed real Americans.

Aside from its bad politics, the storytelling is atrocious. Johnstone continually undercuts his own attempts at suspense by having the bats disappear and then telling us exactly where they’ve gone and what they’re thinking. Moments that are serious are unintentionally funny. Moments that are supposed to be funny are painful. And there are so many missed opportunities. The bats infect satanists and other animals with rabies, which could make for some exciting carnage, but these portions of the book end quickly, and, instead, we return to the same kind of bat attacks over and over again. This book couldn’t be over soon enough.

[Justin Fraxi · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be clear, this book is not rated five stars based on quality. I rated it purely based on the amount of fun I had reading it, and the amount of times I laughed at things that weren't meant to be funny (I don't think?). It's kind of like if Dean Koontz had smoked a shitload of crack back in the early '90s and wrote a monster book, so I'm giving it 5 out of 5 rabies-infected Satanic cult members.

(I started listening to Random Number Generator Horror Podcast No. 9, and I love Cecil and Jeffrey's rating system, so I'm stealing it.)

[Nicholas Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book held my interest for a while. It's about an ex-spook for the CIA who is confronted with mutant bats that attack the citizens around him. I got the feeling like the book was written from a hermits perspective, like, this is what a paranoid hermit thinks of himself; a hero. All the characters are never really in harm's way, so there's never any sense of dread over a character's existence. The only real characters that die are the ones the narrator dubs as stupid. And, SPOILER ALERT, the ending was so lame! The book could've ended much sooner when they napalmed the warehouse where the bats roost, but the book decided to continue past the possible anticlimactic ending to give us an ending where littler bats from all over the region attack the mutant bats and save the day, which was... such a fantastically dumb ending. But this book had one redeeming moment where a reporter got what was coming for him. The scene was pretty good. But other than that one scene, I didn't care for the main characters, I didn't care for the satanic cult, and I didn't care for the police department. Like I said before, there never is a sense of dread. It's a good "Creature Feature" and if you don't mind the at times conservative writing, I'd say give Bats a shot. It gets two stars from me though, and I think that's a good rating for it.

[Jeanine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific writing style, well developed characters, engrossing plot makes for a great book.

[Lora Milton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt this had a shaky start, rushed in some places and not something that would have drawn me in if I hadn't heard it was good, but the author did their research on the species of bat depicted and that always sits well with me. By the end of the first chapter, it started to flow better.

The plot did seem to move too fast in places. That's an unusual thing for me to say because I hate slow books, but there was no build up of suspense before we get a good look at the bats and as an old Horror B-movie fan, I felt that was woefully missing. It did get good, although the characters all seemed overdone, like caricatures of certain 'types'. The story itself felt well written apart from the lack of suspense. It was literate and descriptive with few typos, but the characters just weren't believable.

Just past halfway some really amusing action reminded me of something that would require Leslie Neilson and the cast of Airplane to depict in a movie adaptation. Hilarious, but not realistic. Downright silly in places, but I think it was intentional.

Overall the book was an interesting read and I do love animal/monster Horror, but I think most of the last third needed to be either cut or fleshed out. I got the feeling at that point that the author had become bored with his own story, alternating segments of 'telling' to say what became of peripheral characters or groups with descriptions of bat attacks that sounded like visual notes for a movie script. Also believability waned.

I kept reading because I wanted to know how the situation resolved, which I would call acceptable. Nothing gripping or emotional, just as I felt no emotional involvement with the characters. A generally entertaining read, worth finishing once started.

[Deacon D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few decent horror scenes can't do much to save this one.

For some reason, Johnstone was quite popular, but his writing just plain sucks, and his frequent nutty right-wing rants add nothing to his stories.

I paid a buck for this stinker back in 2017, so I figured I should finally clear it from my TBR list. And then, I happily deleted it from my Kindle.

[Sasquatch Night Fever · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bats is terrible. And gets worse the more ya think about it.

The novel doesn't deserve further explanation.

—

Sighhh, fine.

In the swampy wilds of Podunk, Louisiana, our ostensible hero–one Johnny McBride [not his real name, because he's a retired super-spook who "worked for ASA, CIA, DIA, NSA, and a dozen other intelligence-gathering organizations all over the world" and in hiding from All The Planet's Bad Guys]–hears the titular bats on Page 2, and finds desiccated, bloodless livestock less than ten pages later.

Potentially interesting, as the hero knows about the furry threat from the get-go; usually, with these Animals Amok™ books, the beastie menaces lurk on the periphery until rampaging about two-thirds through the story. But, nope! Vampire bats are namechecked in the last sentence of the first chapter.

About Johnny McBride: He's hunky. He's wealthy. He drives a cool car. He built a bayou Wayne Manor equipped with secret hatches and an arsenal that puts militaries to shame. Best of all, he's COMPETENT, with the sort of calm, cool, collected, confident, always-right mojo that makes all Good Government Officials kowtow in reverence and all Bad Government Officials scoff to their inevitable exsanguinary comeuppance.

Chapter Two introduces us to Dr. Blair Perkins, the female McBride (gorgeous; financially sound; armed; COMPETENT) who, upon investigating the aforementioned livestock, intones, "We're in trouble. I think we're in a lot of trouble."

Chapter Three has the leads capture footage of the bats, discovering they are enormous (four-foot wingspans!), active 24/7 (being diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular, and everything in between), number in the tens-of-thousands, slobberily rabid, and intelligent enough to circumvent electric fences and detect / bypass boobytraps.

"'Well, I'll be goddamned!' Johnny said. 'The bastards can think and reason!'" (p. 38)

Thanks to our heroes and the discovery of some draculized human corpses, by the end of Chapter Four, anybody and everybody knows about the bats. Knows they're smart. Knows they're carnivorous. Knows they're Deadly-with-a-capital-D. Knows they probably number in the millions. Knows that potentially apocalyptic events are about to transpire.

Oh, what further genre-bending thrills-n-chills await us over the remaining three-hundred pages?!!!

And, whoa! Chapter Six amps up the weirdness!

Some rando mentions decades-old, unsolved vampiric murders where everyone involved moved away, was sworn to silence, and / or deceasified (killed or suicided), introducing the threat might be supernatural! Ooh, a twist!

A mysterious NSA Agent, one "Mr. Smith"–yes, really–shows up, alluding to secret government experiments and bioweapons and Top Secret toxic waste dumps causing mutations. Ooh, another twist!

There's also a cult of 1970s-Satanist-voodoo-hippies-as-written-by-a-1990s-Dittohead who love drugs, orgies, and the blackest of masses. Ooh, a third twist!

THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!1111!!!!!

—

That's about as far as the book goes in the first fifty pages before turning into a joyless, repetitive slog [before that, it was just a slog-adjacent]. The text is perfunctory and boring, making humdrum scenes agonizing and the (theoretically rollicking) setpieces perfunctory text blocks, and the next two-hundred-fifty pages play out essentially the same.

McBride fortifies his home / base of operations.

McB issues grave warnings to all the surrounding city and county governments about The Bats (with frequent author's-true-feelings, Dale Gribblean lamentations about liberal judges, liberal newsmedia, liberal gun-control activists, liberal welfare recipients, and all the other liberal soft folks Who Can't Do What He Does™).

Perkins agrees.

Everyone scoffs, and goes barhopping / mall-crawling / Friday Night Light-ing without care.

The Bats attack, blinding, eating, and / or infecting everyone. (There are sooooooo many mentions of plucked eyeballs and ripped-out tongues and throats, but they're just... there.) And the winged menaces intentionally leave power / phone lines undamaged (yes, they could destroy 'em if wanted) to lure in more victims like "Send More Paramedics!" undead.

Rabies-zombies [the devil-hippies got bitten on purpose, and spread the contagion] attack the uneaten.

Law enforcement kills the rabies-zombies but dies via The Bats.

Medical personnel rush in to save law enforcement but die via The Bats.

So heroic duo re-fortifies their homes / bases of operation.

Then warn the next batch of towns.

Repeat ad nauseum.

—

Everything above should create a bonkers, gonzo, crazy-go-nuts blood-romp, but it's so tragically, brutally boring. Absolutely no panache nor suspense. Even all the nausuems are dry and flavorless.

Remember all the weirdness introduced in Chapters Five and Six? It's all pointless and useless.

Mr. Smith is never seen or mentioned again.

Speaking of waste, the other NPCs (mostly police) are all but identical and interchangeable, with only told-not-shown one-line quirks to distinguish them (like, the sheriff resenting a deputy because the latter "eats too much on meal tabs" and the deputy resenting the sheriff because "it was only one instance of eating too much on a meal tab". Every time the two are on the same page at the same time (which is blessedly rare), they bicker about the food incident.

(McB and P also adopt some bat-induced orphans, and only mentioned because it's perhaps the most hand-wavingly preposterous part of the book.)

Regarding those unsolved vampire-murders? Turns out the Satanist leader did 'em. Just a throwaway line about it, too.

Oh! Same about The Bats being atomic mutants. Again, in one line, it's revealed that they're not hybrids resulting from Forbidden Science / Mother Earth Seeking Revenge, but seeeeecret bats that have been around since The Dawn Of Time and show up every century or so to cause mayhem.

All of the above are reasons to loathe Bats, but it's the unmitigatedly galling idiocy that really gets me.

Let me count The Dumb.

1) The Bats, about halfway through the book, get even more dangerous by figuring out how to open any and all doors–residential knobs, shopping center push / pull handles, and even car door latches–so there's no way to escape 'em.

But that info is conveyed exactly like this: "The Bats learned to open doors."

There's no discussion of the physiology involved, nor the reasoning process. Just—BOOM!—they can.

2) Turns out The Bats have intentionally picked their civilian targets (which now encompass almost all of The South, all the way up to Washington, DC and out to Texas and Florida) to create, when connected dot-to-dot-style on a map, a goofy picture of a bat because–I kid you not–THEY HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR.

3) And then there's the last fifty pages. Krishna H. Vishnu, the ending.

A wizened, mysterious, inscrutable South American professor–who happens to be The World's Foremost Chiroptera Expert–flies to Louisiana to join our heroes. He has some theories, see, that will save Humanity if he's right or doom it if he's wrong.

What are this Yoda's theories, you ask? Don't bother–he won't tell, because he doesn't want to offer false hope!

And he really doesn't have to say a word, because the solution becomes apparent in the literal last ten pages of the novel when MILLIONS OF REGULAR, GARDEN VARIETY BATS OF ALL SPECIES FLY IN OUTTA NOWHERE TO CHOMP HOLES IN THE SWARMING BATS' WINGS, CAUSING THE BAD BATS TO CRASH INTO THE EARTH AND DIE.

Yes, that's the ending. Deus Ex Flappina saves the planet. This ritual, too, has seemingly been going on since The Dawn Of Time, so the heroes ultimately do jack and squat to stop the bat invasion.

And, as the genre demands, some last-page Evil Bats escape to breed again....

In conclusion, Bats fucking sucks.

—

Final Review Score: One Jerry Dandrige outta five.

[Bookish_predator · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVE 'creature feature' books so when I saw this I knew I HAD to read it. Does it have animals? Yes Does it have evil animals? Yes Does it have gratuitous violence involving said evil bats? Hell yeah!!

The characters are likeable, although they make friends and get into relationships very, very quickly, the story moves at a good pace, violence increases well and I loved the ending.

I will definitely be looking for more books by this author especially if they're 'creature features' too.
Highly recommend!!

*Huge thanks to William W. Johnstone, Kensington Books, Lyrical Underground and NetGalley for this copy which I chose to read and all opinions are my own*

[Ziggy Nixon · Rating 2 out of 5]

If (they) were not victorious … it could well mean the end of human life on earth.

2 stars. Though I do not remember ever reading any of his books - I've only in the past years gained an appreciation for the pulp westerns my dad loved so much (where I'm counting "weird westerns" as part of the same genre) - I have for a while now thought that I should definitely try out at least one book by the late William W. Johnstone. Now as the on-line biographical blurb reminds us, Johnstone was at one time the #1 bestselling Western writer in America - he was even known apparently by some as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century" - with hundreds of books listed in the usual important places, leading to a prolific career with over 50 million copies sold.

It’s going to be quite a show. I’m rather looking forward to it.

That's certainly then not too shabby and it certainly makes it understandable why many of his titles would be re-released, particularly to crowds clamoring over the past years for digital access to same (noting "Bats" was originally published in 1993). All of which certainly then further supports two key decisions : first, the one by the publishing company to push his books into Kindle circulation. And secondly, naturally, for my own selection of perhaps one of his lesser known books but one with a topic that truly interested me, namely, the creature feature "Bats" (noting Johnstone was also know for his horror genre offers). I've been on sort of a horror based on everyday animal theme (i.e. no cryptids or Kaiju but just critters you see in your own neighborhoods) run lately and this seemed to be a perfect title to slip into my read-a-thon.

They are totally carnivorous, highly intelligent, and very vicious.

Well, things didn't exactly work out the way I had hoped. Going back to my points above, my first big confusion rests with the publication company itself. I mean, if you're going to re-release books by a very successful author that passed some 12 years earlier, wouldn't the decent thing to do be to fix the scores of rather egregious editing mistakes that are scattered throughout the text? For example (and these are only 2 of dozens):
- "When do you want to start?" "Me!"
- "All gone. Nothing left. Inhabitable."
Now note that I am NOT suggesting that the company remove some of the more… intriguing selections in phrasing, many of which were either blatantly racist or just plain tRumpian in their rhetoric. Nor even re-write mention of "The Committee To Keep Our Race Pure" led Billy Joe Harry Bob who freely uses the N-word or Ali Doomagitchamaz Holy-Breath Shazaam, who was spiritual head of the Church of the Sacred Turban and Fez and believes white people released the AIDS virus to wipe out the black community. But a simple pass over your punctuation or just random fragments before you put the effort into your latest money grab would be the least you could do.

Stay home. I’ve got a bad feeling about tonight.

Secondly, this book was certainly no masterpiece in terms of the whole creature attack. Yes, arguably the presence of the "mutant bats" (but they weren't, were they?) was scientifically interesting. Less so in the case of the rabies infected, Satan-worshipping zombie hippies ("First it’s bats! Now it’s raving lunatics foaming at the mouth.") or the inconclusive suggestion that other animals like wild pigs, rats, dogs, cats, coyotes, and even squirrels were infected as well (but what happens with them…?). But the story bogs down in a series of repetitive scenes of mayhem, death, and destruction, not to mention a host of some of the most clichéd characters you'll find in any story (Mark is what, class? That's right, he is ALWAYS hungry! Oh ha ha, the hilarity!). I mean, see bat, shoot bat, ignore police, die a horrible death ("his screaming had ceased because he no longer had a tongue."), lose your eyes, have your throat ripped out, repeat ad infinitum.

Do you realize how many bats it would take to drain a cow of blood?

And I was certainly surprised (read: not at all) that this book conveniently featured a survivalist ex-military dude who not only "has more brass on his ass than Superman" but was probably responsible over the years for single-handedly destroying regimes throughout the world. Because he was indeed, The Man. Who got The Woman. And saved The Kids. And loved His Dogs. And had Lots of Guns!!! Luckily for all of us that he was conveniently located right in the flight path of the bats and was near enough to every situation that demanded it to do all the shootin' and rescuin' and what-not. Heck, he backs his truck up to save people a bunch of times, so you know he's AOK in everyone's book. Oh and by the way, the phrase of the day is "it’s going to get a hell of a lot worse before it’s over." That's good ol' red-white-and-blue hero talk if you weren't clear! Thank goodness it's repeated every few dozen pages in one form or another or we might forget, eh?

I’m no hero. I just do what I think has to be done.

It also became quite tiresome that the author seemed to want to use a great deal of this book to complain about, for example, the leftist media and their, quote, "liberal bullshit" (you just know he'd love what's going on these days in the US if he were alive) or even "liberal-thinking scientists" (ditto). And if that weren't enough, we spend a lot of time kvetching about lazy people of all kinds especially anyone on welfare, entitled frat boys and sorority girls ("Those young men and women asked for it, now they’re getting it."), and, in general, anyone who didn't immediately obey any and all law enforcement orders to the letter. I mean, the actual desires expressed about an elected official - "I’d like to kill that damn federal judge." - were beyond uncomfortable, particularly as they seemed to only intensify with each example of same. Oh well, at least the author had his fun and managed to have most of these people die horribly painful deaths. Though what he had against high school football was beyond me…

Their contribution to society was minimal, at best, so how great a loss was it?

So at the end of the day - and please, I am doing my best not to speak ill of the deceased - this book was a really poorly executed schlockfest that grew tiresome very early on and continued to nose-dive into a huge pile of guano throughout. There's a ton of potential in here but it just seemed to a quick and dirty attempt to get a book out at any cost. At the risk of doing the same myself here, the repetitiveness and lack of originality from attack to attack really had me wanting to skip ahead and see if anything interesting were going to finally happen (not really, and the reveal about the "patterns" was about as dumb as anything I've seen in a while). But just remember: thanks to an America that is obviously falling apart from within - "The sad truth is that big business owns this country…" or if you prefer: "This nation is slowly being bought up by overseas interests", well, let's just say I'm no longer interested in getting to know Mr. Johnstone through his writing anymore.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

These bats aren't just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill variety. Oh no! These bats are enormous, mutant, vicious and they're baying for human blood. They're able to think and strategise. They attack en masse. They spread rabies indiscriminately. What has caused this mutation and how will the people of Louisiana defend themselves against this seemingly indomitable foe? Local resident and fearless ex-spook Johnny is on a mission to obliterate the bats before they obliterate humanity.

Bats is great creature feature tale; originally written and published in paperback format in the 90s. It's now one of an increasing number of 'old school' books being made available in digital format. This is something I personally welcome and I'm sure will open up a whole new audience.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bats. It reminded me of the horror novels I used to read as a teenager in the 80s. Yes, the characters are stereotyped - the lawmakers continually obstruct all moves to destroy the land where the bats nest and the law enforcers face bureaucracy at every twist and turn. The tv reporters are unhelpful and dismissive; while the townsfolk are narrow-minded and unbelieving. Throw a few devil worshippers into the mix and you've got a whole lot of crazy going on!

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.