Mosquito Man (Book 1 of World’s Scariest Legends)
Mosquito Man
By Jeremy Bates
The Sexton’s musings (spoilers are likely):
This is an absolutely intriguing book. The introduction makes you have a hunger to find out what happened to Rex and his family. It pushes you to keep going. Based on the title you know that it’s not going to be good but are not sure what direction Bates is going to go with his Mosquito Man. The beginning also endears Chief Paul Harris to the reader. He is the epitome of small town police officer but in the most positive of ways. My opinion of him does not change, unlike my opinion of some of the other characters. Okay just the one…
We’ll start with the kids. They are written very realistically. I can hear in my head a child of five saying the things, in the way they are said very easily. Some of the pronunciations are great. Sometimes Ellie’s whining is a bit obnoxious but I can see a five year old acting that way. Bobby seems like a good kid. Based on the drama in his parents life he could be messed up to the max but he isn’t. I feel like the kids understand what is going on before the adults do.
Rex is a good guy. He could also be very messed up considering what happened to his family when he was 7 but ultimately he ended up in a stable situation and was given the opportunity to thrive. He was lied to about what happened to his family though which I can understand that when he was a kid but feel perhaps when he was old enough he should have been told the truth. Funny enough no one even knew the whole truth until the time when most of the story takes place. There are incidents that happen during the progress of the story that are just heartbreaking. If Rex were a weak character he would have broken down right then and there a few times but he kept moving forward. Ultimately being the hero of the story. Now here is where the spoiler comes in because I can’t not say something…How in the hell could Bates kill Rex?! And not just kill him but let the monster decapitate him! It’s awful! It shocked me to my depths as I was not expecting it at all!
As for Tabitha. I was on team Tabitha up until the very last bit of the story then she became absolutely pathetic. She was strong through most of it. I was so happy when she was able to stop the bleeding for Chief Harris. I mean she and Rex were instrumental in saving his life. If they had not been so selfless he would have died. No question. And then when Ellie gets kidnapped by the monster and Rex goes after them leaving Tabitha with Bobby she decides after an hour that all hope is lost. She leaves Bobby to fend for himself and tries to kill herself. I mean what the fuck bitch? All the shit that they have survived so far and she just chucks it in. Now the police the show up manage to save her pathetic, selfish behind but I’m not sure I really wanted them to. That whole bit just made my opinion of her do a 180. There is a bit of redemption at the end but nowhere near enough.
Closing thoughts:
I’ve referred to the mosquito as a monster but really it’s nothing more than an insect working off its naturally programed instincts. They don’t kill out of malice or hate but out of the need to survive. I love the brief section where he speaks in the perspective of the mosquito. It definitively illustrates what I was just talking about. They work off of instinct, the instinct to survive. The injuries they cause are very calculated, horrible way for their prey to die but a great way to make food last. It really is an interesting story based on a legend from the native population. It’s a bloody and fascinating explanation as to how the mosquito ended up in its current form. Tiny, blood sucking, disease spreading insects. A realistic take on an already fascinating legend.
