Gila! by Les Simons

Gila!
by Les Simons (Kathryn Ptacek)
Signet, 1981

Nuclear tests in New Mexico have mutated gila monsters to monstrous size and they're on a human eating rampage. Similar to 1959's The Giant Gila Monster, only with multiple reptiles and not as good. The violence fell flat for me, with more pages devoted to a herpetologist's romance with an old flame.

In places it fell into a broad, MAD Magazine level satire of government, military, and environmentalists, though the giant monster attacks were played straight.

The 2012 Jim Wynorski film Gila! appears to be a remake of the film rather than based on the book, going by the character's names.

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