Playing Possum

Folks who know me know that I love Nature Strikes Back movies and books, but they also know I hate books and movies that show violence against animals, which might seem like a contradiction. And sometimes it is; I've been known to stop reading books because animals have been killed, but there are other books that I've devoured. The difference? I guess it has to do with the reason the animal was killed. If you kill a dog for the sake of killing a dog (for shock value?), I'm done. But if the animal is killed in an act of self-defense, that's a different story altogether. Or so my brain tells me.

When I first stumbled on Alan Baxter's The Roo and heard the backstory about how it came about, I knew I had to read it. Likewise with Stephanie Rabig's Playing Possum. I was curious to see what she could do with opossums that would make them scary. I mean, other than just have them bare their teeth, because when they do that, they're freaking terrifying.

Rabig wastes no time throwing the reader into the thick of it when a young woman, after fighting with her boyfriend, is attacked and presumably killed by a bunch of opossums. Then we slow things down a bit when we're introduced to the main character, Vanessa, her family (aunt, uncle, and cousin), and her girlfriend. Things start to ramp up again when Vanessa's girlfriend is attacked. She's taken to the hospital, given the all clear, and is sent home. But all isn't clear, and she starts to feel sick. Vanessa wants her to go back to the hospital, but finances prevent her from doing that. So she stays home...and gets worse. Meanwhile, the opossums are launching attacks all over town, and things go from bad to worse when Vanessa's young cousin is attacked and disappears. Figuring there's safety in numbers, a number of townsfolk head to the clinic. They're scared and confused, and they want to know why the opossums are attacking. They aren't normally pack animals, and the don't usually attack unless threatened, so what's changed. One woman thinks she knows; in fact, she's certain she knows who's behind the attacks and why. And then it's a race against time. Can one old woman and Vanessa's family put a stop to the attacks before the entire town falls victim to the rampaging marsupials.

In Playing Possum, Rabig has created a thrilling take of jealousy and revenge. It moves along at a brisk pace, and rarely lets the reader come up for air before launching them into more mayhem. With Vanessa, she has created a strong, independent woman who is not without flaws. She's fully fleshed out and believable, but alas, she's the only one who is. The other central characters are fleshed out enough so that the reader comes to care about what happens to them, but they don't reach the full three-dimensional nature that Rabig reached with Vanessa. This might have been intentional, in that they feel more like cannon fodder, which means we're guessing all throughout who's going to live and who's going to die. That and the suspense of waiting for the next attack makes for a nail-biting thrill ride that will keep you gripping the roll bar until the ride comes to a complete stop. Be forwarned, Rabig does set things up for a possible sequel, and we can only pray that she follows through and delivers. Final rating, 5 out of 5 stars.