The Turtlepocalypse begins when giant flesh-eating turtles escape from a biotech laboratory in Milwaukee. Even though these abominations eventually reach a height of 20-30 feet, they aren’t exemplar proxies of Gamera, Japan’s much-loved fire-breathing, flying turtle.

Instead of being a kaiju smackdown, Flesh-Eating Turtles! by Nora B. Peevy (my new favorite author) is a genre-busting novel that’s equal parts eco-horror, science fiction satire and absurdist comedy. I guarantee that you’ll be laughing and cringing while reading this delightfully quirky book. 

Hoping to solve the escalating global demand for sustenance, Agne Labs (not Acme Labs) invent a way to engineer farm animals to grow bigger and faster. By doing this, they’re able to provide more food and be economically efficient at the same time. And for some reason, the scientists of Agne Labs are using turtles as their test subjects. 

Unfortunately, these genetically altered giant turtles aren’t docile or cute. Says Peevy: “There’s nothing cute about being eaten by an animal that is at least 5x larger than you.” They’re aggressive and omnivorous, with a particular craving for raw flesh (with a big scoop of mushrooms and insects on the side). In an early scene, two of the turtles invade a Golden Corral Buffet where one ransacks the salad bar like Godzilla and the other one bites fingers off patrons for a pigs-in-a-blanket-like snack. 

If bitten, scratched—or otherwise exposed to the artificially created DNA mutagen—all living creatures turn into horrible turtle hybrids. Events spiral out of control when all of the animals caged in the Milwaukee County Zoo are infected.

The author goes to town with all the hybrid monster variants. For example: A turtle/spider hybrid that looks like it came from an H.R. Giger painting, a half-turtle/half-snail monstrosity with over 10,000 teeth and over 10,000 beaks crammed onto one head and a turtle/deer creature as large as a Hummer H1 Pickup. “I don’t dare tell you what turtle/shark hybrids look like,” says Peevy, “or snakes and octopi, because they’re so eerie they belong in the pages of Weird Tales.” 

As the chaos builds, the narrative digs deeper into philosophical questions about genetic manipulation, speciesism and humanity’s habit of pushing nature too far. 

Peevy’s novel eventually reaches a satisfying climax when the giant turtles wobble toward the Reptile Expo in Schaumburg, Illinois. Overall, Flesh-Eating Turtles! is an outrageous and sharply satirical critique of scientific hubris packed with awesome mutant mayhem. 

[ Flesh-Eating Turtles! / By Nora B. Peevy / First Printing: June 2025 / ISBN: 9798317498030 ]