SECOND NATURE

Drago’s panoramic tale follows the survivors of a series of alien abductions.

The town of Squirrel Kills, New York, is similar to the average upstate New York burg in most regards. The community is neither tiny nor huge, and its small-town feel connects its citizens to each other through a shared sense of identity and place. But despite the idyllic setting, a vein of uneasy strangeness has been running through the town ever since repeated reports of alien abductions surfaced two years earlier. Several people claim to have been abducted, and each alleged abduction seems to have ended the same way, with the abductee, rattled but alive and seemingly physically unharmed, waking up alone in a field, only to be discovered (or not) by a passing townsperson. The narrative shifts perspective from one abductee to another, beginning with Loretta Jans, a semiretired Walmart cashier contemplating murdering her husband while she unravels; then it’s on to Bryan Ellicott, a former FDNY member whose heroism on 9/11 has left him with lingering psychological fallout. There’s also Anthony Travis, both an abductee and one of the townsfolk who routinely returns to the drop-off site (now known as Ellicott Farms, a retail business venture started by Bryan Ellicott after receiving a considerable inheritance) in an attempt to piece together what’s happened to him and his town. (“He’d been driving his tow truck out there regularly because it helped him cope with the horrors of his own abduction. Some nights, he’d park along the grass and walk around, studying the stars and hoping for a sign.”) Each of these characters suffers physical maladies—whether it’s hair falling out in clumps, sudden seizures, or gushing nosebleeds—as well as the skepticism of many of the other townsfolk. As the grand opening of Ellicott Farms nears, Bryan ignores all warning signs and disregards the fact that the site is located on what was once sacred land; the town soon discovers that the forces behind the abductions are not finished with them yet.

As is the case with many novels that employ multiple perspective characters, some moments in Drago’s novel feel less immediate or propulsive than others, but the characters who leap off the page carry the weight of the less compelling figures. One standout is Loretta Jans, whose palpable breakdown seems less insane as the events of the novel unfold. “Wishing more than ever that she could kill her husband, Loretta drove her 24-HP V-twin John Deere over the lush grass toward the steep incline behind her backyard where her property met Blue Jay Mountain,” the author writes. She sits astride the mower contemplating her newly bald head: “She might as well have shaved her head with her husband’s Gillette Mach-3. Or slit his throat with it.” Alien abductions and small-town intrigue may not be anything new in the horror and SF genres—this novel falls somewhere between the two—but Drago’s smooth prose style and his masterful depiction of the community of Squirrel Kills together make for an enjoyable read.

Horror and SF commingle effectively in this multifaceted alien-abduction tale.