Justin, a college student studying archeology, heads to Puerto Rico to study the ruins of the Taino Indians. What is supposed to be a fun expedition turns into a total nightmare. There is a dark secret lurking in the lands of Puerto Rico. Three valuable Taino relics keep Puerto Rico from being cursed by the spirits of the extinct people. Grave robbers attempt to make a quick payday by stealing the relics to sell to collectors.
What nobody knows is that by stealing the relics, they have given birth to a horrid curse. It's a curse that converts harmless frogs and toads into killers that will give people nightmares for years. It's not limited to just frogs either, even iguanas will convert to cannibalistic killers. Justin will soon discover this curse is deeper than anyone can comprehend. He will be led to the forbidden temples of the extinct Taino people, where his worst fears will come to life. This will not be his normal Indiana Jones adventure.
Justin and his classmates, caught in the middle, have to find a way to survive the curse of the Taino Indians while trying to reverse the curse. If not, the frogs will be enjoying the margaritas on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico.
This was a massively fun and enjoyable novel. The book is at its best when delving into a fine mixture of the absurd and the serious incidents taking place in the story. The central curse of the local Indian tribe is handled rather nicely, with the initial incidents involving the hikers or other travelers coming into contact with the creatures setting up the idea of the curse at play and requiring a backstory to fill in what’s going on. The cursed history of the island involving the connection they have with the treasure in the specific locations and what it means to keep them contained or else the amphibians and reptiles will go berserk, killing everyone, sets up a rather intriguing means of getting off to a strong start.
That provides a fine setup to eventually segue into a solid adventure/horror scenario involving the quest to overturn the curse and stop the killer animals. The gradual evolution into looking at the means of the expedition to recover the stolen artifacts that will put an end to the curse makes for a fantastic storyline where the constant visions and dreams of the killer frogs lead to the discovery of the cursed history of the island, causing it. With this becoming a mission into the depths of the jungle to venture into the underwater caves and temples that hold the key to stopping whatever curse is happening, that leads into the finale, where the trials and tribulations help end the curse. That might be an odd touch where the exploration of the temples and underwater caverns present here might be off-putting for the tonal shift that wanted more creature feature madness that the rest of the book conveys.
The series of creature attacks, though, is still really fun and manages to keep this enjoyable enough overall. The opening attacks feature the nonchalant nature of the victims to the nature of frogs actually being killers, using the cheesy concept to its best, featuring some rather goofy scenarios, while later scenes involve the creatures coming to attack. Taking place in the city streets as they inadvertently intervene in a mugging attempt, appear out of the forests to attack travelers, or chase the group through the mountains where they’re searching for their archeological mission, only to find the frogs and iguanas instead, these offer up some rather strong and bloody sequences. The first half, with the trip there, meeting up with his friend, and trying to understand what the constant visions mean, that set the stage for the reveal involving the curse, might be a bit too long to get there, but otherwise, there’s not a whole lot else with this one.
4/5
Comments
Post a Comment