The Amazing Alligator Girl

by Kristin Dearborn

FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!

Welcome to Adventure Air Tour, the premier destination in central Florida to experience our beautiful alligator brethren up close and personal in their natural habitat. If you prefer a more authentic Florida experience, something other than the amusement parks and the beach, this is a thrilling attraction you absolutely won’t want to miss!

A visit to our park includes the best alligator show east of Ocala, an exciting 2-hour airboat tour through the natural habitat of these fantastic creatures, all topped off by a feeding demonstration led by our very own local celebrity alligator The Amazing Alligator Girl!

park visitors may encounter mysterious gunmen, mutant gators or swamp Nazis for no additional fee.

THE AMAZING ALLIGATOR GIRL!
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

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“Dearborn has a wonderful sense of the macabre, along with the ability to balance the spookier aspects of her work with well-rendered, solid characterizations… Sacrifice Island is a blazing fast read, with engaging characters and a compelling narrative.” —The Maine Edge

“Sacrifice Island is a fresh and interesting take on a tried and true horror setup.”
— Examiner

“Horror born straight from a nor’easter, Dearborn’s Woman in White is a great read for a winter night — with a monster I’ll never forget.”
— Christopher Irvin, author of Federales and Burn Cards

“Kristin Dearborn’s Woman in White is a rip-roaring monster tale with sharp-eyed characterization and something to say about the power dynamics between men and woman. Thought-provoking and entertaining as hell!”
—Tim Waggoner, author of Eat the Night

“In Stolen Away, Kristin Dearborn writes with a confidence and ferocity that demands you keep turning pages. Where lesser writers would flinch and look away, Dearborn tells the tale the way it should be, with cruelty and fascination for both her characters and the story. Kristin Dearborn isn’t just a writer to watch, she’s a writer to watch out for. If she’s swinging, you might want to duck, because she hits hard!"
— Bracken MacLeod, author of Mountain Home and Stranded

“Kristin Dearborn’s fast-paced horror thriller, Stolen Away, will possess readers as they strap in for a demonic thrill ride of sin and redemption.”
— Stephanie M. Wytovich, author of An Exorcism of Angels

Genres: Horror

128 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 13, 2022

About the author

If it screams, squelches, or bleeds, Kristin Dearborn has probably written about it. She revels in comments like “But you look so normal…how do you come up with that stuff?” A life-long New Englander, she aspires to the footsteps of the local masters, Messrs. King and Lovecraft. When not writing or rotting her brain with cheesy horror flicks (preferably creature features!) she can be found scaling rock cliffs or zipping around Vermont on a motorcycle, or gallivanting around the globe.

Reviews

[Katherine Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun ride through a mutant gator-infested swamp. A short, zany, and perfect short read before Halloween.

[Matt Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I say this much without hyperbole: in this book, Kristin Dearborn demonstrates absolute mastery of her craft, just in terms of creating and sustaining sheer, good ol’ fashioned white-knuckle tension, terror, and thrills. For example, though it never occurred to me before, the “jump scare” is generally an inherently cinematic device rather than a literary one, yet Dearborn got several such jolts out of me over the course of this one.

Other than the delightfully intriguing retro-pulp cover, I went into this one pretty much blind, so I’ll do you the courtesy of allowing you the same opportunity, dear reader, by keeping it vague. We get a distinctive setting, a pair of rounded, likable protagonists doing a unique job together and doing it well, some likable and unlikable supporting characters, a fuse that gets lit for a nightmarish “Nature Strikes Back” (or perhaps more appropriately *bights* back)/monster-movie-ish scenario, aaaaaaaaaannnnn…GO!!! From there, it just never lets up, and Dearborn never misses a chance to milk the nightmare for all its worth. Even amidst the relentless pacing within a short page-count, Dearborn finds time to organically develop her characters and deepen our caring for them in some surprising ways, with some well-placed and on-point social and ecological commentary. One initially unsympathetic character even displays some compelling ambiguity, and the fact that much of said ambiguity is left unresolved felt somehow fitting.

I’ve of late become increasingly impressed with Dearborn’s storytelling abilities, predominantly as a regional author, milking the rural lands of Vermont for all they’re worth as a setting for supernatural and cosmic horror. It turns out she comes off as just at home within the Florida everglades. Here as there, I’ve noticed, the exploits of all-too-real human evil are juxtaposed/serve as the catalyst into the larger otherworldly/unknowable/natural-world threats…with the emphasis less on “Humans are the real monsters,” per se, more on the futility of mankind’s interpersonal arrogance and cruelty in the face of larger chaotic forces beyond our control. In that regard, this tale is no exception, and it’s a corker.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novella a lot. The thing with novellas is that, by their nature, every word has to count, certainly more than in a 600-page tome. This book does that. It builds up nicely from a fractious family vacation to a conspiracy-laced horror. The main characters are nicely drawn – we can really feel for them as things go from bad to worse! I also liked how the points of view changed with each chapter, leaving you unsure who, if anyone, was going to survive the ordeal. Oh, did I mention there was an ordeal? Yes, the trip on an airboat starts mundanely enough, with no alligator sightings, but a short murder later, we soon have a festering swamp (literally) of alligators acting even more carnivorously than normal. The titular Alligator Girl got her name after a TV appearance in the past, and she will have to use all her skill and knowledge of the reptiles if anyone will survive. Read on – it’s worth it!

[Chris LaMay-West · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Amazing Alligator Girl is definitely a creature horror book, as you'll see in the below description. But the animals aren't portrayed as mindless monsters, there's actually a very sympathetic and knowledgeable take on them. As is so often the case, there's a human reason they take a turn for the chompy... I loved the setting and the air of paranoid swampy menace that pervades everything, and the cast of characters is interesting and nuanced, particularly the plucky title character, who uses her animal knowledge to try and keep everyone unchomped. If I wanted anything more, it was another 50-100 pages to get to know the characters even better. You should dive in, the water's fine...

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Airboats and swampy mayhem with nature running amok. A rather short novel with a brisk pace, tons of action, and a very high body count. Kind of a Sharknado for the crocodilian set.

[Douglas Beagley]

DNF… I love the author, so I thought, “I’ll try reading a horror!” Nope. Nope. Yikes.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does what it sets out to do, have a good time and let some alligators kill people. I can respect that.

[Sarah Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick and gore filled read. It reminded me of Jaws and Jurassic Park. I think the ending could have been stronger.