Shallcross: Animal Slippers

by Charles Porter

From the cloud lands of South Florida – from the novels, Shallcross, and Flame Vine comes another story in the life of Aubrey Shallcross. What happens when nature turns into super nature? In this eco-warrior tale, two bull alligators, The Dragon and Two-toed Tom, are formidable living vessels inhabited by the ghosts of Jules Verne and the famous Seminole, Osceola.
They are discovered on a remote creek by Aubrey, someone medicine would call schizophrenic. Aubrey can see and hear the spirits that captain the huge reptiles and together they form an alliance. Vern and Osceola collaborate with a Seminole medicine man, Billie Monday and his soldier, Freddie Tommie to stop runaway development, and the giant gators are soon sent to destroy certain building projects with toxic trails. Aubrey joins them in creating chaos and misery when the bulldozers come to fill the wetlands and level the woods.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

Published February 1, 2021

About the author

Charles Porter was born in 1944 and grew up in Stuart, Florida, on the St. Lucie River. The family home was the same old wooden house in which his father was born. He went to work in his father's lumber yard following his father's untimely death in 1963. In 1988, he sold the lumber company and pursued his interested in the sport of dressage, an Olympic equestrian discipline. He now devotes much of his time to the schooling, coaching, buying and selling of imported horses. He continues to write poetry and music, but in 2012 turned to prose. Shallcross: The Blindspot Cathedral, won Kirkus Best Book of 2014 award. In 2017 he published Flame Vine: His Voices, to critical acclaim, and in 2020 he published, Shallcross: Animal Slippers and won Best Books of 2020 from Kirkus again. Porter lives in Loxahatchee, Florida and South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He has one son, Michael, who is a circus performer and lives in Las Vegas.

Reviews

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 4 out of 5]

Animal Slippers is the third book in its series. Shallcross and Flame Vine are two previous works before this one. Shallcross novels are the American Stadium for fifty years of Aubrey Shallcross’s life.

Aubrey is a voice hearer. He has heard Triple Suiter’s voice in his head but cannot tell anyone due to being scared and classed as a mentally ill person.

The book is written poetically and in an incomparable style. The voices Aubrey hears are called ‘Slippers,’ and that is where the story’s title comes from. Although the book is a fictional autobiography and the narration are not facts, they are very well represented and provide a glimpse of how it’s like to have schizophrenia.

Aubrey’s life is exciting to read. The book is novel to its point of the narrative. Throughout the book, you come across illustrations that were very interesting to me. Much care and planning are evident across the book, and I appreciated the author’s effort in relaying the thoughts and scenes to the reader.

I recommend this book to those who like fictional autobiographies.

[Eleanor Pilcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shallcross: Animal Slippers is a fearless eco-myth that blends spiritual fantasy with environmental rage. The image of two massive bull alligators, inhabited by the spirits of Jules Verne and Osceola, turning against toxic development is as surreal as it is unforgettable. Aubrey Shallcross, labeled schizophrenic by medicine but visionary by destiny, becomes the bridge between the human world and a supernatural rebellion rising from the wetlands.

This is not just a story about destruction, it’s a story about resistance, identity, and what happens when nature finally answers back. Strange, daring, and deeply symbolic, Animal Slippers reads like a fever dream with purpose. It lingers long after the final page.