Animal Slippers is Charles Porter’s latest award-winning novel after The Blindspot Cathedral and Flame Vine, all following the character of Aubrey Shallcross. But one doesn’t necessarily need to read all three in order. As Porter himself says in the introduction, it’s “up to you.” Readers of his previous works know better than to try to predict where his writing will take them, regardless of what he’s done before. And though Animal Slippers finds Aubrey soon enough, the novel begins by describing the juxtaposition of events in Florida in 1974:

During the first six months of that year, three people were killed by alligators, all white males, and when their mauled remains were found, each one’s head was missing. There were other killings at the time by a human called the Tin Snip Killer, and these got as much attention. People love atrocity, each of us a loving beast. The last Tin Snip victim was a man who butchered veal calves for a living. His body was found inside a standing refrigerator surrounded by cleaved cow parts, a note pinned to his shirt that read, “He offended nature.” The man was holding a Polaroid picture of his dead self. Those killings stopped, but an alligator killed a man yesterday on the creek.

Alligators who seem to be on a mission of vengeance, the fight to save precious Florida wetlands from property developers, and the mysterious identity of the Tin Snip Killer all contribute to the action, tied together by Porter’s poetic exploration of environmentalism and resulting in what Kirkus Reviews calls “an unforgettable tale with rich and moving connections, poetic storytelling, and an inimitable style.”

All the semiautobiographical Shallcross books are dedicated to the Hearing Voices Network, a community of people who hear voices and find the medical term schizophrenic to be dehumanizing. Porter, who splits his time between Florida and Massachusetts, is a “voice hearer” himself, and he writes about the “slippers”—who are invisible to everyone but Aubrey—as characters in their own rights. As Triple Suiter, one of the slippers, explains in the preamble, “Aubrey Shallcross can hear and see me from the conscious side. I am not a product of his mind. I exist. I am, as much as you are.” 

The slippers take many forms, including two named Captain Nemo and Osceola, who protect the murderous alligators and ask Aubrey to help them stop property developers from destroying the Florida wetlands. Aubrey eventually becomes part of a band of animals, slippers, and humans like Freddie Cowkeeper Tommie, who is of mixed-race Seminole descent. Together they work to teach greedy property developer AM Sermon the consequences of “offending nature.”

All three Shallcross novels have won accolades. The first, The Blindspot Cathedral, was listed as one of Kirkus’ best books of 2014. Flame Vine was described by Kirkus Reviews as “beautifully original, striking, poetic,” and Animal Slippers was one of Kirkus’ best books of 2020.

Porter, who grew up in Florida, is deeply interested in the history of the Seminole Tribe and the state’s natural wildlife. He draws on real-life figures like Osceola and accounts of mixed-race Seminole people. Colonialism takes many forms, and Animal Slippers also addresses invasive species introduced by White settlers that cause enduring issues for Florida’s ecosystem. Aubrey’s connection to the the dressage community also comes from Porter’s life and interests, specifically his many years of experience working with and selling dressage horses.

Porter describes himself as “an existentialist writer,” in that his work is centered around “the study of being.” He resists labeling the Shallcross books as fantasy because, as he points out, “if you have visual and auditory hallucinations, it’s not fantasy, is it?” The slippers help fill out Porter’s fictional world, bringing the reader along wherever Porter wishes to take them, whether it’s an alligator who keeps a supply of severed heads or Aubrey’s spending time with his young son. This fluidity carries through all the way to Porter’s prose style, which is rich with wordplay and cryptonyms, like the word mansion being used to describe “anything that is a big deal or gets a lot of attention.” As with mansion, Porter’s use of cryptonyms is always meant to stretch the word’s logical meaning so that it makes instinctive sense to the reader.

Porter is also a songwriter and poet, and so he brings a certain musicality to his prose. In addition, there are illustrations by the artist Kathy Von Ertfelda, who uses simple, clean lines to create images that transform as the eye moves across them. Her style reflects Porter’s own, with distinct figures that are interconnected and often surreal. But for all Porter’s poetic license, he never leaves the reader behind. Kirkusnotes that “Porter’s books are always captivating.”

There’s a little something for everyone in the Shallcross books. Porter describes them in the introduction as “Florida, film, music, love, history, religion, crime, country, horses, and decades of Rolling Stone.” Who wouldn’t be drawn to at least one of these elements? Porter says he’s been compared to Virginia Woolf, and he cites others like Jules Verne and particularly the writers behind all those decades of Rolling Stone as some of his influences. Readers will find film references, music references, and, beyond the ecological themes, ones about drifting away from religious upbringings. The Shallcross books are about love and faith but also natural history and systemic racism and ecological destruction.

Porter’s website includes plenty of links to previous interviews as well as Kirkus reviews for his previous novels, so there’s plenty of material for prospective readers to check out and for established fans to enjoy. Anyone who wishes to start with Animal Slippers can expect what Kirkus calls its “maturity and depth from the characters’ heartfelt concern for animals and ecology, which they put into rousing action.”

And anyone who wants more than just three Shallcross books can rest assured that Aubrey’s story will continue: Porter plans to write two more books in the series.

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York.