Wingaersheek Beach in Massachusetts was a place people went to wash away the weekly work struggles with the ebbing tide, crunching sand between toes, relaxing under the setting sun—these were the ways to forget about the troubles in the world.

In Brian Gatto’s novel Evil Eyes, Winga Beach was also ground zero for a devastating giant crab invasion. “It was like something out of an apocalyptic scenario,” wrote Gatto. “The crabs came and conquered—today Gloucester, tomorrow the world.”

Before the crabs arrived, Massachusetts’ North Shore was a peaceful place home to generations of fishermen, young families, comic book nerds and headbangers. It was also the adopted hometown of 29-year-old Paula Lucile, a sexy adult model hoping to escape her manipulative manager and ex-boyfriend. 

One day, without warning or provocation, five enormous crabs emerged from the boggy beach. Besides being over 12 feet tall, they were not normal New England crabs. They had hate and bloodlust in their eyes and they enjoyed torturing their victims before gobbling them up. Hearing them eat, said the author, was like hearing someone slurping ramen noodles through a sippy cup—the kind with an attached straw. “We’re all going to die!” cried police deputy Vince Drayton. 

The crabs were tearing up downtown Gloucester, but somehow there was still time for a little romance. Paula had bumped into Nick Anderson at the local comic book shop and the pair quickly bonded over their love of Galacta Girl and Annihilator: Crime Zone. They made plans to celebrate Nick’s 18th birthday that night at a popular local restaurant called the Catch’n’Feast. 

Nick was totally shocked that someone like Paula was interested in him. He was scrawny and not very attractive and she was a glamorous pin-up gal with boobs the size of watermelons. The curvy model didn’t care that Nick looked like a homeless wet dog. After ditching her former salacious lifestyle in Los Angeles, Paula was looking for something a little more sober. Nick was everything she could have wanted. He had a beautiful soul, she thought. 

As you’d expect, the crabs had a nefarious origin story linked to a secret military experiment. The government wanted to create a squadron of crabs with human intelligence that could hypothetically control the waterways. If coastlines weren’t safe, then water traffic wouldn’t be safe. Supply chains would be disrupted, world economies would crumble and the U.S. would rule the Seven Seas like a modern-day Poseidon. 

Unfortunately things didn’t work out exactly as planned. The crabs grew large, escaped from captivity and pursued their own agenda. Massachusetts was the first stop on their ravenous world domination tour.  

Admittedly there were problems with Evil Eyes that could have easily been fixed by an attentive editor, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. There’s no way I could ever give a giant crab novel a bad review—that’s just the way I’m wired. 

I have two specific comments however. One: Nick was clearly a wish-fulfillment-type of character. That meant he was a little bit annoying. And two: Readers might be disappointed that Nick and Paula don’t have time to consummate their relationship. Male readers in particular may suffer from epididymal hypertension by the end of the novel. 

[ Evil Eyes / By Brian Gatto / First Printing: February 2023 / ISBN: 9798378460113 ]