This was a fun book. My only (completely unfair) complaint is that it’s not *World War Z, But With Sasquatches Instead of Zombies.* So this was something of a victim of Brooks’ success (like I said, it’s unfair), but still a good deal of fun.

Rather than the interview-format of WWZ (there are some, but they’re purely authorial asides), *Devolution* is the “recovered” diary recorded by a woman when her remote, isolated town was attacked by a … troop? Is troop the right term for a group of Sasquatches? (Come to that, is “Sasquatches” the plural of “Sasquatch,” or would the plural of “Sasquatch” just be “Sasquatch”? As both a proud grammar nerd and proud spec fic nerd, these questions are important to me) … we’ll go with troop of Sasquatches. Really, when you get down to it, *Devolution* is a book version of the “monster in the woods” subgenre of horror movie, of which *Alien* is probably the best known (yes, yes, I know it’s not set in the woods, but work with me here).

Where it suffers is, as I said, in comparison to *World War Z*. WWZ was relentlessly creative and eminently readable. *Devolution* is every bit as readable, but lacks the creativity of WWZ. WWZ told a story that was as literally global as you can get. *Devolution* takes place entirely in an isolated group of houses in Washington state - there’s literally 11 characters.

It also suffered a bit in that I found it so difficult to empathize with many of those 11. The isolated little group of houses is a kind of eco-commune near Mount Rainier, designed to be zero impact. Houses constructed of compressed bamboo, power coming from solar cells, heat coming from gas generated by septic waste, food deliveries coming once a week via the electric driverless delivery van … you get the idea. Naturally, the 11 people who live there are all the kind of stereotypical affluent champagne liberal that gets irrationally angry when their grocery order doesn’t include GMO free organic broccollini. In context it makes sense that that’s the cast, but it did make it harder to be upset when certain of them get eaten.

All in all, this was a very fun and easy-to-read book. Don’t go into it expecting *World War Z* and you’ll be a happy reader.

(one final aside: in reading this book, I ended up down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about volcanoes, and let me just say that lahars seem pretty freakin scary).

This was a highly entertaining read! Trapped in the middle of nowhere with a tribe of Bigfoot creatures!!! Great storytelling.

To begin, I love the idea of journal style writing in storytelling. With enough momentum and description it can make the reader feel like they are actually there. There was a lot of potential for that with this book, but the actual events I wanted to read about took forever to happen and there just wasn't enough description of the bigfoot group to keep me interested.

The story runs smoothly. I loved how Brooks was able to point out their flaws that were so obvious while also tying in those flaws to the plot. I had a hard time caring about these characters. I found myself apathetic about their situation and actually looking forward to some of their deaths. I think this was intentional of the author, and, if that was the case, I am ok with that.

Brooks put a lot of care and detail into the background of the story. The other accounts and later interviews are what made this book move along so quickly and smoothly. I felt that the journal entries were much too long and had a lot of fluff that was irrelevant to what was happening. If I was in that situation I would have been writing short, tense descriptions instead of talking about everyone's emotional state.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is a Bigfoot fanatic. For me, it just didn't leave anything significant to remember. I still enjoyed the story and the imaginative innovation of Brooks' own Bigfoot telling.

Oh, this was good!!! Maybe because I have lived in the Mt. Rainer area and could picture it all so vividly but I was caught up right at the start with this story. I really enjoyed the journal entries' and interviews' way of telling the story, it felt taut and dramatic.

Fear! Death! Bigfoot! Devolution is another Max Brooks home run, featuring a small, isolated community and the mysterious and deadly beings surrounding it. Written in found diary form with interview excerpts, the format of the novel helps make the time pass quickly, especially since the major climax of the novel doesn't happen until over halfway through. With vivid world building and sympathetic characters, the book is a must read!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

3.5 stars

Devolution is a book that’s Schlocky and shocky, as long as you don’t think about it too much. This is not a book for when you’re in a thinking mood; this is a B Movie in book form.

The diary format leaves major logic gaps and the Bigfoot action doesn’t kick off until almost 70% through, but it’s such a fast moving read that you only have time to realize this after you’ve closed the book for the moment.

Like any horror flick, the majority of the book is spent establishing the cast of cannon fodder so you know what you’re supposed to feel when they inevitably become Bigfoot bait. And those gaps between when characters go from soft suburbanites to leaders or vice versa is when it’s most obvious this was a re purposed movie script, where there were supposed to be montages and visual clues sprinkled in.

In spite of all that, the fun factor at play here somehow makes this more than the sum of its parts.

Max Brooks' novel World War Z is one of my favorite books and so I was very eager to read his next work. Devolution carries some of same themes found in World War Z: what it takes to survive, how different individuals and communities react to threats outside of our current reality and how humans adapt. That said, Devolution is a smaller story that focuses on one small town facing a different type of fantastical threat. While it does take place in Brooks' version of a Mount Rainier explosion (a very real threat to the Pacific Northwest), the specific threat of Bigfoot feels very different then the global zombie hordes of World War Z. While zombies (yes I know they aren't real) represent a threat that could impact anyone, the tales of Bigfoot (yes also imaginary) are mostly an issue to those intent on hiking in the Pacific Northwest.
In Devolution, Brooks uses the "found" journal technique to bring the reader into the story of a survivor of the Bigfoot attack and while he stretches the bounds of this medium, it does a good job of giving us the story, while also limiting our knowledge to that experienced by the character. That said, I did find the increased gore in this book unappealing and didn't overall love how Brooks chose to end the story. I also found the background info on how the eruption of Mount Rainer would be handled more fascinating and would happily read another book focused more on Brooks' interpretation of this looming disaster. However Devolution is a well written, fast paced thriller that still has me thinking about my own disaster preparedness several days later.

Max Brooks brings his investigative prowess to the field of cryptozoology to uncover the secrets behind the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre. The account documents the experiences of a small group of people living in a modern enclave in the remote forests of the Pacific Northwest. When an unexpected volcanic eruption cuts the town off from the rest of civilization, they cross paths with the beasts of legend, Bigfoot, with less-than civilized results.

Excellent read - 4.25 stars.

Max Brooks' latest is solid middle-of-the-road fare that is sure to appeal to a large number of readers. Bigfoot!

My thanks to Random House/Ballantine/Del Ray. Whew! That's a mouthful! Also, Netgalley, and the often brilliant Max Brooks!
I tried not to read this book! I knew I'd love it, so I thought I'd just save it for a month or two. Impossible!
The Squatch? I don't believe, but if I did I wouldn't be living here in Montana! Nope. I'd love in a high rise in some awful city!
This story worked for me. It wasn't really scary, much! But, I don't like monkeys, orangutans chimps, etc. I think they are flea infested, poop flinging, bastards! Maybe I'm a bit jealous! I have a few people I'd like to fling my poop at! Also, I have seen those shows where some of them hunt! Now, just imagine that, except much taller than us. Wider, and hungry.
I did love how these characters came together to become less humane. Still, they found a deep respect and love for each other. More hunter, than the hunted! Actually, that's not quite right. They were definitely hunted. A green village, where everything is delivered by drone. Not even a damn nail, hammer or screwdriver in the whole place! I may get by "if I had to," without a hammer, but a screwdriver? I use screwdrivers all the time! Damn...I love this story. I have really loved many of these characters. Great job, Mr. Brooks!

This left me a little flat. The premise was interesting, and the examination of the downsides of just in time supply chains are especially noteworthy as COVID-19 builds. But there was just something that didn't work for me. Particularly in comparison to World War Z, which I adored.

This was a bit of slow start for me, but after the ball started rolling it felt a bit like that huge rolling boulder in Indiana Jones. The tension built incredibly high as the danger was obscured for quite a while. People knew something was out there, and it was coming closer and becoming more and more threatening, and when it was finally revealed it was shockingly violent and terrifying. I don't love the whole found-footage, documentary style, but the story was good enough that I'll definitely recommend and purchase for my library.

Max Brooks, the bestselling author of World War Z, is back with Devolution, his take on the popular Bigfoot legend. Devolution is similar to World War Z in that it's an apocalyptic tale - but on a much smaller scale. In Brooks' alternate timeline, Mt. Rainer erupts, causing widespread death and destruction. The main characters of Devolution live in Greenloop, a small, tech-savvy community for the wealthy. The eruption cuts off the community from society - and forces a family (pack? horde?) of sasquatches directly into their path. It's a fast-paced, addictive novel told in epistolary format, similar to WWZ, and is sure to be made into a feature film.

This was quite possibly the most eagerly anticipated book on my Netgalley wishlist. And then my wish got granted and there it was, the new Max Brooks book about Sasquatches on my kindle. Woohoo. Mind you, I would have been excited for Devolution if it featured just one of those elements, either Brooks or Sasquatches, but the combination of the two is like a wish granted indeed. Comparisons with WWZ are bound to be inevitable, it’s almost impossible to think of Brooks without the context of his first person zombie apocalypse epic, so let’s just address that straight away…Devolution is also a first person account of an apocalypse, albeit done on a micro scale. WWZ covered the globe, Devolution covers one remote eco village isolated by a catastrophic volcano activity. WWZ was narrated by a collective of people, Devolution is primarily told through journal entries of one of the eco villagers found post facto with a variety of asides mixed in. The style of narration Brooks is so adept at utilizing works extremely well in making the story come alive with a sort of immediacy and emotional engagement a more traditional third person narrative might not quite hit. Max Brooks is a smart and erudite author and those smarts and erudition always find a way to shine through the text and makes the narrative seem more realistic for having so many facts surround it. So the bulk of the novel is spent witnessing a microscale war between the people and the…well, the other people in a way, it is a war of primates of varied levels of advancements. It is conducted with all the brutality and cunning intelligence of a war. It’s epic in its own way. And it’s tons of fun. I mean, it’s a properly well written book with a variety of developed interesting characters (they are the sort that would end up in a remote high tech eco village, but you do get a diversity and a much needed balancing factor represented by an artist in residence with a past that makes her very well equipped to handle crisis and privation). It also turns out that a Sasquatch apocalypse can do miracles for a struggling marriage…go figure. The quote used in this book and so aptly suited for it is that adversity introduces us to ourselves. And it really does. Take away the conceits of modern conveniences and the real selves emerge, sometimes ugly, sometimes shining and brave. It may not be the most practical relationship counseling strategy in real world for logistical reasons, but it works magic for the couple here, the wife of that couple is the main narrator, so you can really witness the progress. But anyway, that isn’t the main thing here. The main thing is large violent primates of a lesser known strand of evolutionary tree, you know the ones with very, very large feet. They steal the show and they own this show and the book is all the more awesome for it. Yes, I already said this was tons of fun…so maybe I can go with wildly entertaining to throw in a pun and avoid redundancy. Don’t expect another WWZ, this is a different beast, quite literally. And also, where WWZ was very difficult to adapt and therefore in the end didn’t really work on screen or at least didn’t live up to the greatness of the source material…this one, being a smaller scale setting and all, would make an awesome movie if done right. And there’s definitely technology out there to do this right and I’d love to relive this adventure in cinematic form. Until then, read this book, you’ll have a blast. That might have been a volcano pun. Sorry, kinda. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Truth they say can often be stranger than fiction. And perhaps that is just the case with Devolution, a true account of life in the woods and a rather fatal encounter with the Sasquatch. Told through a series of journal entries spliced together with interviews and news reports, we learn the shocking and harrowing story of how Kate and a handful of people made an intentional community on the slopes of Mt. Rainier and built solar panels and compost piles and lived at one with nature away from the traffic jams, the crime, and pollution.

. It is only after Rainier erupts and the little community (not even a town) is cut off from the chaos down below in Seattle and Tacoma that Kate and the others first realize they are not alone and all of Darwin's greatest nightmares have come true. There is a long build up in this tale but once the action begins, it is really a fast and furious battle for survival. And to think this really happened to Kate!

So my expectations for this were sky-high because I loved World War Z. This started a bit slowly, but then it ended up exceeding my expectations. Highly recommended.



Review copy provided by publisher.

A very different kind of story about survival of the fittest. As I read, I kept having to remind myself that this is fiction. It reads as a realistic post-disaster tale told through the eyes of the rescuers and the detailed entries of a diary/ journal kept by one of the victims. Max Brooks does a very good job of putting the reader in the middle of the story.

A small group of cabins have been built using the ultimate in technology specifically designed to reduce their impact on the mountain, Mt Rainier. Each is built to be self sufficient and self sustaining, the only goods from outside they need is food. When the volcanic activity of Mt Rainier disrupts the computer controlled "brain" of the community, the residents must use their limited skills and resources to survive what they believe will be a short time until they are rescued.

As the volcano begins to spew ash and mud, the wildlife, with an emphasis on wild, start to move away from the worst activity, bringing them into the small community. The face to face meetings between animals and humans become more frequent and more violent. Enter Bigfoot. The journal entries at this point talk about feeling as if they are being watched and several incidents that cannot be explained by any animal familiar to the residents.

Again, the story feels as if you are reading an actual recounting of an attack. It will make you look twice at that shadow you saw move. Devolution is a very good story that I will recommend to my bookie friends, just so I'm not the only one that gets jumpy in the woods!

This is environmental horror of the best kind! What happens when journalists are irresponsible, our leaders incompetent, and we refuse to acknowledge the truth about ourselves and our place in the food chain? What happens when the Internet can no longer compensate for our gross lack of survival skills? The breakdown of society happens. The narrative style sold me on a totally unbelieveable story: a Sasquatch massacre...and the prospect is terrifying!

Max Brooks' Devolution tells of the aftermath of Mt. Rainier's volcanic eruption for a small ecovillage that was built within its foothills. The same things that made Greenloop desirable soon become detriments as its residents are unable to leave, call for help, receive food deliveries, or fortify their remote, isolated smart homes. As food dwindles, residents begin to turn against each other, and they start hearing rumblings from above. Could the eruption have driven a family of Bigfoot/Bigfeet down toward civilization? And what will they do if they're hungry?

The premise of Greenloop was interesting, and I enjoyed reading about the philosophy behind its construction. My initial interest trailed off about 75% of the way in because it wasn't that scary and it started to become less believable that someone was really keeping a play-by-play journal of each day's events.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

I'm a huge fan of Max Brooks, ever since he first released World War Z. I really wasn't into zombie or horror books at the time, but he opened a whole new world for me, so when Devolution came up I had to grab it right away.

I'm so glad he stuck to the epistolary format in World War Z, because he does it so well. I feel like I really get to know the characters through their stories and care about them.

Devolution hooked me from the first page to the last. It was one of those books where I stayed up late just to read it, then after closing it stayed up even later thinking about it. It is a relatively short book, but the slow burn is so well done and builds throughout the book to its final conclusion that you feel like you are stuck on a ride that you don't want to get off of. Every piece, the diary, the articles, the interviews, the quotes all gradually take a speculative creature to a terrifying monster that had me looking twice at the woods at night.