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Summary and Reviews of Gator Country by Rebecca Renner

Gator Country by Rebecca Renner

Gator Country

Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades

by Rebecca Renner
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (14):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • Nov 14, 2023, 288 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Nov 2024, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

David Grann meets Susan Orlean in this page-turning true story of an underground operation into the mysterious world of alligator poaching and its larger than life Floridian characters

To catch a Florida Man, you have to become one, and that's what Officer Jeff Babauta did. As his ponytailed, whiskey-soaked alter ego, he established Sunshine Alligator Farm. His goal? Infiltrate the shady world of illegal poachers in the Florida Everglades in order to protect the natural world.

A head-spinning adventure soon unfolds. Jeff deals with glow-in-the-dark alligators and high-speed airboat rides, but quickly learns that not all poachers are villains. They're simply people trying to survive, fighting against the poverty and greed holding them down. Jeff wants to solve the mystery of alligator poachers, and in doing so he must venture deeper into a strange ecosystem where right is wrong, and justice comes at the cost of those who've welcomed him into their world.

Gator Country is the twisting true story of the impossible choices individuals must make to stay afloat in this world. Through its wholly unique blend of reporting, nature writing, and personal narrative, this book transports readers to vibrant and dangerous Florida landscapes and offers intimate portraits of those who call the region home. Broad in scope and vivid in detail, Gator Country is a fast paced tale of the risks people will take to survive in one of the world's most beautiful yet formidable landscapes and the undercover investigation that threatens to topple the whole scheme.

1
THE CHASE

It was nighttime in the orange grove, and the sound of helicopter blades beat overhead. Otherwise, it was dark, and the dark was quiet. No frogs chirped. No crickets sang. Not even a mosquito whined through the open windows of Jeff's patrol truck. He blamed the smell for the quiet. The grove exuded the sickly-sweet scent of acetone. Pesticide. Of course it was quiet here. When the chak-chak-chak of the helicopter blades faded, it left only the hum of his idling engine and the sigh of his K-9 in the back seat.

Jeff's CB radio crackled. He sat up straight, and so did his dog, a Goldador named Mack, dressed in his working vest and looking very official. They were ready to track down the poachers whose flashlights the chopper spotted from the air. But it was too soon, the crackle just radio chatter. Mack rested his chin on his paws.

This wasn't Jeff's first time on a detail, where a group of Florida Fish and Wildlife officers like himself would spread out on the edge of the ...

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

There is a sense of some justice perhaps, but the reader is left wondering if Robert or any other poachers will actually change their behavior, or just get better at not getting caught. Despite that disappointment, Gator Country provides an important glimpse into South Florida subcultures, and it dispels myths and simplistic misconceptions about people who live off the land and are just trying to get by. Renner poses probing questions about overzealous development, environmental damage, and who is really taking more than their fair share from the natural world...continued

Full Review Members Only (766 words)

(Reviewed by Rose Rankin).

Media Reviews

Christian Science Monitor, Best Books of November
Engrossing...Renner blends fine storytelling with Florida history, local lore, nature writing, and personal anecdotes.

People, Book of the Week
This nail-biter account...has the intensity of the best true crime...A high-def tale that ensnares you from the start.

Shelf Awareness
An astounding story about an alligator-poaching operation in the Florida Everglades. [Renner] probes the nature of crime and human character, while also mining the far-reaching consequences of what it truly takes to survive—in the wild and in society..... Her propulsive narrative reads as suspensefully as a well-wrought mystery novel as she uncovers an exciting true story rife with shocking twists and turns that will educate, enlighten, and enthrall her audience.

The New York Times
Renner gives the remarkable nature of South Florida, as well as the often hardscrabble folk whose families have lived there for generations, the love and respect they deserve... Every species, and every person who fights for its continued existence, deserves a book like this — a book that explores the complexity of the nexus between humans and animals and the exploitation of the wild, and considers the ambiguities of our fractured relationship to nature, morality and history.

The Orlando Weekly
Renner is a natural storyteller, and she does service to wild Florida, igniting an answering passion in the reader.

The Tampa Bay Times
Renner weaves together the often thrilling true-crime story of the undercover operation with her own investigation of Peg Brown. Gator Country is also, in parts, a memoir and a loving natural history of the irreplaceable Everglades.

Washington Post
Captivating...What lifts Renner's work out of the true-crime muck is her devotion to presenting the natural world in all its glory — and humanity in all its frequent opposite of that. She never lets the thrill of the sting take away from the poverty-driven reality that poaching is usually a crime of sustenance...[An] exceptional work.

NPR
Renner's debut is self-assured and full of poetry, and it will change Florida in the eyes of everyone who reads it.

Steve Dixon, Library Journal
Readers of this book are in for an adventure. It reads like a true-crime caper...Audiences of all types will appreciate this easy-to-read narrative as well as Renner's knowledge of the area, her academic ability, her candor, and her insights into human nature.

BookPage
The fast-paced narrative is imbued with the atmosphere of tension that shapes any good mystery story... [Renner] sketches a vivid portrait of the scraggly splendor of the land and its tenacious hold on life in a world that often fails to see its beauty.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Combining her skills for investigative reporting, nature writing, and personal anecdotes, Renner explores local folklore and legends, shares her personal experiences and observations... Renner's passion for her home state, compassion for those less fortunate, and gift of storytelling make this book difficult to put down. Enlightening and full of suspense.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Fascinating...Renner teases out the moral ambiguities with a grace and rigor reminiscent of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief. Beautifully evoking the 'sawgrass plains and wild strands of jungle' of its author's home state, this tale of power, politics, and tradition is a triumph.

Book Riot
Come for the you'll-never-believe facts and an exploration of man vs. myth. Stay for the history and dive into communities.

Reader Reviews

Anne G

Gator Country
“Our centuries of war with the swamp have shown that when we attack nature, nature will fight back, and both humans and nature will lose.” In this fascinating tale of an undercover sting operation to stop alligator poachers and protect the natural...   Read More

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Beyond the Book



The History of the Everglades

A great egret surrounded by trees in the EvergladesFor thousands of years, the southern half of Florida was one of the most vibrant, unique ecosystems on Earth, composed of water flowing over land, interspersed with plant and animal life in a massive mosaic of wetlands. What came to be known as the Everglades was formed by fresh water spilling out from Lake Okeechobee and flowing slowly over the peninsula until draining into Florida Bay.

Starting in the mid-19th century, however, developers and residents sought to drain the wetlands and introduce agricultural and urban growth. The resulting changes nearly destroyed alligator populations and uprooted traditional livelihoods, with consequences still felt today, as Rebecca Renner explores in Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators...

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Read-Alikes

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