Invasive Species

In the summer of 1982, a predatory creature disguised as a reclusive woman inhabits a gray house called Eel's Nest on Tidewater Terrace in Cold Harbor, Long Island. Known to her neighbors only as Mrs. Smith, the creature calls herself the Mother of Eels and has lived for millennia, sustained by a hundred-year life cycle that requires her to consume the flesh of nine adolescents, called Pure Ones, between the summer solstice and the fall equinox. During the day, she soaks in a saltwater hot tub to keep her scaly skin hydrated. At night, she sheds her decaying human form and transforms into a massive aquatic predator with eel-like tentacles, rows of serrated teeth, and hooked claws, hunting in the waters off Long Island while shielded by swarms of eels she calls her children.

The novel's human story centers on three families living near Mrs. Smith's property. Natalie Scott, a mother of three, has just started work as a real estate agent at Gold Coast Realty after 15 years at home. Her condescending boss, Sid Bosworth, assigns her the run-down McCreedy house, which backs directly onto Mrs. Smith's overgrown woods. Natalie depends on Una Einarsson, an Icelandic immigrant and housekeeper, to care for her children: 13-year-old J.J., a star swimmer; 12-year-old Jill, who craves her mother's approval; and five-year-old Justin. Also on the street are Beth Pulaski, whose husband, Don, sells cars, and Elaine and Benjamin Bernstein, wealthy parents whose shy son, Charles, is approaching his bar mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony.

The three women share a growing grievance against Mrs. Smith. Her invasive vines spread onto neighboring properties and drive down home values. When Don visits Mrs. Smith's house to collect payment for a Porsche, he returns emotionally vacant, leading Beth to believe the recluse has cursed him. Elaine discovers that the yacht club leases its land from Mrs. Smith, who refuses to approve fireworks at Charles's party. The women collect evidence of Mrs. Smith's invasive plants to pressure the town supervisor into action.

Una carries her own burden. As a child in Iceland, she watched her younger sister Svana disappear beneath the waves, pulled under by a massive creature with black, predatory eyes. When she finds a local history book containing an 1881 photograph of a woman on the porch of Eel's Nest, the woman's soulless black eyes are unmistakable: They are the same eyes Una saw beneath the waves. Her research reveals that in 1882, nine boys enrolled in a program Mrs. Smith funded were lost at sea, and Mrs. Smith was reported dead in a boathouse fire shortly after. Yet property records show the name M. Smith as owner from 1878 to the present. Una realizes the nine-limbed octopus in the house's stained-glass windows corresponds to nine victims, and that the pattern is repeating.

Mrs. Smith replies to Elaine's letter, agreeing to her requests on two conditions: She wants J.J., Jill, and Charles to do yard work on her property, and she wants an invitation to Charles's bar mitzvah. Una is alarmed but unable to convince Natalie to keep the children away. During a junior sailing regatta, Mrs. Smith capsizes a small boat and devours two adolescent crew members underwater. Charles, whose boat was nearby, witnesses a severed finger and a swarm of eels. Two boys are officially listed as missing; only fragments of a life jacket wash ashore.

Natalie sends J.J. and Jill to clear Mrs. Smith's overgrown back garden. Jill uncovers a network of brick paths converging on a circular stone carved with an angry woman's face surrounded by diamond-shaped scales. She finds a sharp scale lodged between the bricks; its serrated edges slice her palm, creating a wound shaped like an eye that refuses to heal. The garden also yields a belt buckle and other indigestible remnants a predator might regurgitate.

Jill and Charles research mythological sea monsters. Jill discovers Lamia, a Greek figure described as a female demon who devoured children under cover of darkness. The moment she reads the name, her wounded palm blazes with pain. Charles consults his rabbi and learns that Lamia is connected to Lilith, the Night Demon, and to shapeshifting demons identifiable only by a physical tell. Jill theorizes that a waterborne demon's tell would be scales.

Having consumed four Pure Ones, Mrs. Smith gains enough power to transform into a strikingly beautiful human woman. She lures Don to her house and has sex with him, but the encounter is too passive to trigger her reproductive system. She also resolves to kill Una, the only person who has recognized her true nature. At the yacht club cocktail party, Mrs. Smith introduces herself as Mare, Latin for "the sea," and charms the neighborhood families. After the party, a violent sexual encounter with Don on the beach provides the aggressive coupling she needs. A spark ignites in her womb: She is ready to reproduce through binary fission after consuming the remaining Pure Ones.

Meanwhile, Beth bakes cookies laced with foxglove, a deadly poison, and delivers them to Mrs. Smith's door. Mrs. Smith gives the cookies to the mailman, Paul Campbell, who dies of apparent heart failure. Una deduces what happened but keeps her suspicions private.

Una, Jill, and Charles meet secretly and confirm that Mrs. Smith is the ancient creature they have been researching. Una reveals her grandfather's whalebone knife inscribed with protective runes and tells the children to bring concealed weapons to the bar mitzvah. Their plan is to watch Mrs. Smith constantly and intervene if she hunts. Una accepts she may not survive the night.

The bar mitzvah is held on a luxury motor yacht with over 300 guests. After the boat anchors past the channel markers, Mrs. Smith douses the fireworks crate in gasoline and ignites it. The fireworks explode across the sundeck, setting the ship ablaze. Guests leap overboard in panic. Mrs. Smith transforms in the water and attacks the swimming children, pulling them beneath the surface. From the bow, Jill watches heads vanish and a severed arm drift past.

In a deflating rescue dinghy, Jill, Una, and a rescuer confront Mrs. Smith, who rises from the water and kills the rescuer. Jill fires a flare gun at Mrs. Smith's face, destroying her right eye. As Mrs. Smith's claws tear through the hull from below, Una tells Jill to relay her love to the Scott boys and says, "You can be anything you want, Jill Scott. Anything at all" (323). Una crosses a harpoon and boat hook over her chest. When Mrs. Smith lunges, the weapons impale through the roof of her mouth into her brain. Mrs. Smith goes limp and sinks, pulling Una down with her. Jill sees Una's silver hair spread like a star before the darkness swallows them both. On the ocean floor, Mrs. Smith does not die. Her eels blanket her motionless form, waiting for her heartbeat to strengthen or stop.

In the aftermath, 12 children and 14 adults perish in what the media calls the Bar Mitzvah Tragedy, officially attributed to a fireworks-related fire. No one believes Jill's account. The Scotts flee on a road trip and return after Una has been buried. The Bernsteins relocate. Families abandon the neighborhood, and Natalie becomes the top-selling agent at Gold Coast by handling the exodus of listings. Jill and Justin are enrolled in a private school, where Jill is withdrawn and haunted. In February, her English teacher, Mr. Tippy, recognizes her gift for writing and challenges her to compose a poem from a monster's point of view. The assignment breaks something loose inside Jill. She resolves to sit at the blue typewriter she bought with money earned in Mrs. Smith's garden and use her voice to grieve, to memorialize Una and the others, and to survive.