As a true 70s child, I have had a lifelong low grade obsession with Big Foot, aka Sasquatch. I was thrilled to have the chance to read Max Brook's latest thriller on the topic having enjoyed [book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War|8908]. While this novel is technically in the horror genre, it read more like a parody of modern society and its idealization of nature and "green" living. The novel definitely had the feel of the theater of the absurd which kind of deflated the actual horror element. The author did a very good job of character development and of bring Sasquatch from a thing of legend to a creature that the reader begins to believe just might actually exist. The novel is quite visceral in its use of sensations, particularly smell, to place the reader in the situation and make the story feel real. Portions of the story become rather tedious as the author goes into great detail about weapon making techniques. Not having read it, I'm guessing he double dipped into his previous work[book:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead|535441] for filler because that is pretty much what it felt read like. While by no means a great novel, it is entertaining and segues with the current fears of survival many of us are currently experiencing with COVID-19. I recommend this novel for fans of [author:Max Brooks|5791], the Sasquatch, or those who just want to escape for a bit.

DEVOLUTION by Max Brooks is mostly told through the journal of Kate Holland, a woman who moved to a tiny green community in Washington with her husband, Dan There's a volcano eruption nearby, Kate and her neighbors become cut off from the real world, and then some scary stuff keeps happening at night. It's Bigfoot. He's real, and he's hungry.

Devolution is a more than worthy successor to Brooks' wildly popular World War Z. This more recent work revolves around a group who has chosen to retreat to a remote, high-tech settlement near Mt. Rainier. When the previously dormant volcano erupts, disaster ensues, cutting the group off from their paths of travel. To make matters worse, as supplies dwindle and wildlife is driven from the surrounding forests by what the groups assumes is a result of the eruption, a yet-to-be-discovered species moves out of the cover of the forest to hunt for the only available food source.

A thrilling, captivating story populated by realistic, well-developed characters, Devolution is filled with insights into our modern view of self-reliance and the role technology plays in our lives. Brooks' masterfully incorporates humor and heart to achieve a balance of entertainment and sincere emotion. Some truly inspired passages express an almost meta-level acknowledgement of what constitutes terror for human beings, and sends chills up the reader's spine in the process. His inclusion of real and fictional source material with footnotes imbues the story with a special sense of gravity that sets it apart from others int he genre.

This book should be mandatory reading for those who enjoyed Darcy Coates' Hunted, fans of Scott Carson's The Chill and those who especially appreciated the thrilling battles and endearing characters of McCammon's Swan Song. Not to mention all you Zed-heads. This will easily be one of the best horror novels of the year.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC.

This is not the bigfoot that I grew up with. The big, shy fellow running from the cameras. This bigfoot clan was mean and nasty. Story was semi-interesting. skimmed at times. When I read a story I like to know what happened to the characters at the end. ARC provided in exchange for a fair review.

This book has a small group of people living together in an isolated, tech-forward commune. This idea works really well until a major disaster completely cuts them off from the world. It starts as a look into our over-reliance on the internet and slowly turns into a fight for survival. This was a fascinating read. The horror elements are light, but well done. Definitely a book to check out!

Well-written and thoroughly researched, the format of journal entries and interviews worked well together to form a fun narrative of survival of a neighborhood against a deadly group of sasquatches after they are trapped because of a volcanic eruption. Ultimately it only earned 4 stars instead of 5 because I was pretty indifferent about most of the characters so I had trouble rooting for them or feeling sad when there were casualties.
I'm glad Max Brooks is finally back to writing more original horror/survival fiction.

Was this book really about Bigfoot? Yes it was. Would I normally read a book about Bigfoot? No, but I trusted the author of World War Z and he totally did not disappoint. This is an "edge-of-your-seat" novel that reads fast and keeps your attention. I thought about it long after it was finished - the symbolism of the title, Reinhardt calling Kate, "Hannah", the references to the 1980 Mount St. Helen eruption. The novel is the protagonist's journal entries interspersed with interviews of people involved in the Mount Rainier eruption. Its a survival story, but also a commentary on the human condition and the nature of predatory behavior. I loved it.

Absolutely LOVED this!! Yaaaaaaaasss. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy!

This book will easily be the best book of 2020 for me. And I will be adding this to my favorites if all time. If you know me, I’ve read WWZ so many times. I have three hard copies and kindle version and the audio. I just love Brooks style and how he literally made Zombies a THING. He started it all.

Ok so enough on his past work - but I only say this to say I had high expectations going in to this. And I was nervous. Could it be bad? So bad it could ruin WWZ for me? The absolute horror! Or could this book be for Bigfoot what WWZ was for zombies?

And yes. Yes it could and it was and I was blown away! Devolution was just so craftily done. Reminiscent of how Brooks pieced together WWZ, we get this story told from multiple characters with past anecdotes tossed in that slowly reveal what has happened. And it was just so believable. Just like how he made zombies seem so real, he made another myth come to life. I was never even interested in the idea of Bigfoot but it seems so rational that it could be so now after reading this. Brooks pieced together some compelling evidence and thoughtful arguments. And just told a fun and fantastic story. Is Bigfoot real? I don’t know. And who cares anyways. It was so fun and scary and awesome. And I am here for anything Brooks writes.

“It’s great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl.”

“JOURNAL ENTRY #9 – OCTOBER 8
“Does she suspect what I’m trying to dismiss? The smell, the howls, the large “boulder” I’d seen on the road. Now this. I’m sure I’m just trying to come up with an explanation for something that doesn’t make any sense. That’s me. A place for everything and everything in its place. I’m just grasping on to what I’ve heard. And I haven’t heard much. I’m not into that stuff. I’m the practical one. I’ve never been interested in things that aren’t real.”

“To me, Greenloop was the Titanic, right down to the design flaws and the lack of lifeboats. They were extremely isolated, miles from the one public road which was miles from the nearest town. And, of course, that was the idea. With modern logistics and telecommunications, the world must have still felt very small. But then Rainier cut those connections, and the world suddenly got very big.”

Though it’s much smaller in scope than WORLD WAR Z, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to describe Max Brooks’s DEVOLUTION as WORLD WAR Z with Sasquatch (Sasquatches?) instead of aliens – and, oh yeah, a lava-spewing volcano setting the backdrop.

Like the former, DEVOLUTION is told through a variety of eyewitness accounts: primarily the journal of Kate Holland, one of the few (assumed) survivors of the titular “Rainier Sasquatch Massacre,” but also a mix of private and public interviews – including with Kate’s brother Frank, who was supposed to be living in Greenlop in her place – as well as government documents and, weirdly, one deathbed flashback (Hannah!). All are compiled into a book, published roughly thirteen months after THE INCIDENT.

Kate and her husband Dan – a failing/flailing tech bro with an ego as fragile as an eggshell – have been in Greenloop but a week when Mount Rainier erupts. Designed and implement by billionaire (one would assume) Tony Durant, Greenlop is a small, “high-end, high-tech eco-community” located in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. Consisting of just six households, all situated in a ring around a common meeting house, Greenloop is the very definition of exclusive. Everything in the homes is “smart,” from the solar panels, biogas generators that turn poop into power, and battery units to store it all, down to the helipad for when an electric car ride into town just won’t do.

Though they have tried their best to isolate themselves from the hustle and bustle of city life, Greenloop’s residents are still very much dependent on the outside world for their continued existence. Tony brags that “every citizen of Greenloop generates between two and four service jobs for their fellow Americans” – which would seem to contradict the community’s sustainability, no? But I digress. A mix of white-collar professionals – CPAs, psychologists, philosophy professors, and computer programmers – the residents all rely on high-speed, fiber optic internet: to telecommute, communicate with their loved ones, and order groceries. While the houses do generate their own power, food is another matter: aside from the odd fruit tree or herb-growing window box, most of their provisions are ordered online and air-dropped by drones.

So when the nearby, long-dormant Mount Rainier finally erupts, Greenloop’s selling point becomes its downfall. Lahars overtake the one road out of Greenloop, and the cell phones and internet go soon after, thus severing Greenloop’s contact with the outside world. But their situation quickly goes from bad to worse, since the humans are not the only ones facing a harsh winter coupled with a food shortage. The eruption, it seems, has sent all the nonhumans fleeing down the mountain, right into Greenloop’s path: including some belonging to a species never seen before. Creatures of myth and legend and not a few cheesy B movies.

Spoiler alert: these guys are no Harry Henderson. More like the murderous chimps Jane Goodall observed hunting in the Gombe rain forests.

DEVOLUTION is totally bonkers, in the best way possible. There’s so much going on here, much of it (intentionally or not) entirely too plausible and close to home in the time of COVID-19. There’s the obvious: being trapped and isolated in your house all winter, nary a fresh tomato or bottle of Kahlua to be borrowed, begged, or stolen. But Brooks goes a little further, concocting this “perfect storm” of factors that conspire to devastate Greenloop – including a slash in government funding that wiped out the early warning system and stymied rescue efforts, as well as food riots in Seattle and a sniper on the I-90 that bumped survivors down on the priority list. Greenloop’s residents are adrift, lost, forgotten:

“Someone just had to go for help. There simply wasn’t any other choice. Why? Why are we always looking for someone else to save us instead of trying to save ourselves?”

Watching 45 fight with state governors over PPE gear and ventilators really drives the feelings of isolation and desolation home. Part of me feels like this book couldn’t have been released at a more horrifyingly serendipitous time. And that’s what good horror does, right? Taps into the fear that’s already lurking beneath the surface.

Then there’s the misplaced idealism and general white upper class privilege of Greenloop. Maybe it’s eco-friendly, in some ways (is trucking in fresh fruits and veggies for eleven people really environmentally friendly? really? why no victory gardens, Tony?), but very few people can actually live like this; it isn’t practical, or affordable. Yet they are totes the change they want to see in the world (eyeroll).

There’s also the cult of personality surrounding Tony, the mansplaining and hepeating which, coupled with the man’s utter uselessness in an emergency situation, makes this feel like a thinly veiled stab at Elon Musk. Again, I am so here for it! (BPAP machines are not ventilators, my dude. Why are you even.)

While I think we’re supposed to care about how the siege affects Kate and Dan’s relationship, I was much more interested in Mostar. In sharp contrast to her softer and more coddled counterparts, Mostar is bad***: a survivor with zero effs to give. A survivor of the Croat–Bosniak War and May 1993 shelling of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the young artist assumed the city’s name as a way of making sense of a tragedy.

“GROSS: … And so you’ve taken on the name of your city as a form of public remembrance.
“MOSTAR: Well, I know to some it sounds like … what did Jerry Seinfeld call “Sting”? “A prance-about-stage name”? [Chuckles.] But the inspiration came from Elie Wiesel, when he said, “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” That is what my life, this new life I’ve been given, is about. That is why I became an artist. […]
“GROSS: And you feel that discussing tragic events in their barest form runs the risk of repelling people?
“MOSTAR: Not always, but far too often. We can’t just mourn the deaths, we also have to celebrate the lives. We need Anne Frank’s diary, but we also need her smile on the cover. That is why I decided to become an artist, when I had that inspiring moment.”

When the Sasquatch start invading Greenloop, Mostar doesn’t employ any of the mental acrobatics that seem so popular with her neighbors. From jump street, she’s hiding out in her garage, using her artistic talents to fashion weapons: spears, javelins, spikes, flamethrowers. But that’s not all: she rallies “Katie” to start a garden in her garage, teaches them how to trap and skin animals, and gives Dan the kick in the butt he needs. This diminutive, gray-haired grandmotherly artiste proves to be Greenloop’s (would-be) saving grace.

Mostar simply doesn’t have the (white, Western, upper-class) luxury of ignoring the problem, of refusing to see and name the danger in the world.

“Yugoslavia, another country I’d read about in school. A war in the ’90s? I would have been about those kids’ age. I didn’t exactly follow current events back then. The ’90s were O.J. and Britney.
“Even at Penn, I only took intro to poli-sci and all I remember is the term ‘ethnic cleansing.’ And Professor Tongun, from Sudan, ‘Like a tree in the forest, America doesn’t hear foreign suffering.’
“Shelling. Snipers. Siege fries. Mostar.”

It’s a thing of wonder, and also unimaginable despair.

That said, the story’s not without a few hitches; for example, while Brooks generally does a good job explaining why Greenloop is so ill prepared for anything more serious than a paper cut, am I really to believe that there’s not a single hammer to be found? Like, I’m hardly what you’d call a skilled do-it-yourselfer, but even I own somewhere around six hammers, if only for picture-hanging purposes.

Bobbi and Vincent the vegans really ticked me off too. Even though we later learn that they’re vegan for dietary reasons (to beat Vincent’s cancer, now in remission), they get all bent out of shape when Mostar injures a mountain lion that was mere seconds away from devouring a child. And of course everyone freaks out when Mostar suggests establishing a defensive perimeter around the village to scare off the Sasquatch. Say what now? I’ve been vegetarian/vegan for more than half my 41 years – for ethical/animal rights reasons – and, while I’d never delight in killing or injuring a sentient creature, you do what you gotta for survival.

Of course, this all could have been part of the group’s mental health strategy of “deny, deny, deny.” What wasn’t was Kate’s classification of the Boothes as ‘the good kind of vegans’ – that is, vegans who don’t make her feel bad or uncomfortable or conflicted about her own choices, just through their very existence.

“They also weren’t judgy about those of us who aren’t vegan. Does that sound judgy from me? You know what I’m talking about: all the vegans in Venice, especially the new ones. The way they’d look at Dan’s leather shoes or my silk blouse or how one of them called a fish tank a prison. Seriously, we were at someone’s house for a party and this guy totally went off on them about their koi pond. ‘How’d you like it if you were imprisoned in a tiny air bubble at the bottom of the ocean!’ The Boothes weren’t like that. They were so nice.”

Not that Kate needs any help in this regard (emphasis mine):

“I can’t see death. You know that. I’ve told you about that time in New York when I couldn’t walk through Chinatown with all the ducks hanging in the windows. I told you about how **I can’t even eat at any of those restaurants with the lobsters in the tank because it feels like death row.** I told you about when Dan and I went out to Catalina for Valentine’s Day and I got seasick down below because our spot on deck had this dead fly crusted to the railing with one of its wings flapping in the wind. I know it’s hypocritical. I eat fish and chicken. I wear leather and silk. I enjoy all the benefits of killing without ever having to do it myself. I know all this but I just can’t. I can’t see death.”

Projecting much, Kate? (Kudos to Brooks if he created this juxtaposition on purpose, though I doubt that most readers will pick up what he’s putting down.)

DEVOLUTION works on so many levels: social critique, stealth learning through entertainment, cultural mirror – and, yes, visceral horror. I could practically taste the stench of the Sasquatch when Kate describes their musk. This is good stuff, and at the very least took my mind off the real-life horror show transpiring outside my door, if only for a few hours.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, wow! I didn't think world War Z could be topped in unnerving brilliance but Brooks did it!

I don't want to spoil this but I guarantee if you loved WWZ you will be over the moon about this one!

Really fascinating book. More a meditation on technology and survival than a pure horror story—Brooks is smart-rally smart- and it shows. This is a really interesting book. Brooks is carving out a niche for himself with these epistolary horror novels. Fast paced, well written and entertaining. Recommended

Ebook/Thriller: I have got to say that I was pretty disappointed with this book. It reminded me a lot of Jack Ketchum's book, The Offspring, only with a Bigfoot family instead of crazy people. The is really no explanation of why the "civilized" people are attacked if you think about it. If the Sasquatch family has been close to people, why attack now. I get that there was a volcano eruption that stirred them up and out of their hidden lair, but wouldn't they want to travel away from the volcano and move on after they "fed".

But the book is more like my favorite book, The Ruins. You only hear from he civilized people and never get a motive or history from the Sasquatch. Kate is the main character and is taught by Mostar to survive. Mostar is the best character and knows right away that they are in trouble as far as food. When the Sasquatch start attacking, Mostar is the one to rally everyone to fight. Mostar takes Kate under her wing to teach the game of survival. By the end of the book, Kate is marking things with urine. But then the book doesn't really end and is unsatisfying since it is mostly a diary and a police report.

I did get this book from NetGalley in lieu of and honest review. If it wasn't for Mostar, I would have never finished it.

'From the publisher: The #1 bestselling author of World War Z returns with a horror tale that
blurs the lines between human and beast, and asks, What are we capable of when we’re cut off from society?

Set in the wilds of Washington State, Greenloop was once a model eco-community—until nature’s wrath made it a tragic object lesson in civilization’s fragility.

Offering a glorious back-to-nature experience with all the comforts of high-speed Internet, solar smart houses, and the assurance of being mere hours from Seattle by highway, Greenloop was indeed a paradise—until Mount Rainier erupted, leaving its residents truly cut off from the world, and utterly unprepared for the consequences. With no weapons and their food supplies dwindling, Greenloop’s residents slowly realized that they were in a fight for survival. And as the ash swirled and finally settled, they found themselves facing a specter none of them could have predicted—or even thought possible. . . .

In these pages, Max Brooks brings to light the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own investigations into the massacre that followed and the legendary beasts behind it. If what Kate saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.'

Max Brooks burst onto the scene in 2003 with the New York Times bestseller The Zombie Survival Guide. This was the same year that The Walking Dead comic began printing, and heralded the start of zombies replacing vampires as the supernatural darlings of popular culture (and they're still here). Here Max turns his attention to another monster, in the form of Sasquatch, a.k.a. Bigfoot. As with his previous books, the subject is looked at from a rational point of view, as opposed to the fantastic. So, reanimated bodies and/or giant primates are attacking. How do you handle it? As described by publisher, this book relies on the 'found footage' of Kate Holland, who had just moved into Greenloop with her husband Dan, along with interviews with experts and actual quotes on scientific topics ranging from primatology to volcanology.

For some reason I've found it difficult to concentrate on books lately. No idea why. I've picked up and put down more in these past three weeks than probably ever before. And Devolution kept my attention and allowed me to escape for a bit. It does a fantastic job of establishing Greenloop and its residents and then jumps straight into the action. While cryptozoology (the study of 'hidden' animals) has been an interest of mine for decades, I don't believe there are large undiscovered primates in the Pacific Northwest. However, this book does a great job of laying out the groundwork of where they could have come from, and why they're so focused on Greenloop. I highly recommend checking out this book when it becomes available in a couple months.

I read an advance reader copy of Devolution.It is scheduled to be published on June 16, 2020, and the Galesburg Public Library will have it in print and as an e-book and e-audiobook. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the ARC through NetGalley


Review originally published on 4/7/2020 at https://lookgoodifyoudie.blogspot.com/2020/04/devolution-firsthand-account-of-rainier.html

Max Brooks delivers another total knockout! This book was absolutely creepy, and gory in just the right places without being overwhelming. It definitely has a different vibe than WWZ did, but in the best way, focusing on the micro. It was almost scarier than WWZ in parts. Absolutely adored it.

Having taken on zombies in World War Z, Max Brooks now tackles Bigfoot/Sasquatch in his new novel. Like World War Z, Devolution is structured as a journalistic account, using interviews, diaries, and other materials from the world of the novel to create a fast-paced and compelling thriller about one so-called utopia and how its residents handle the arrival of aggressive and hungry Sasquatch after Mount Rainier erupts. The characters are deftly created, and I appreciated the fact that women were the main characters and leaders of the group. Anyone who has enjoyed Brooks's other work, likes dystopias or apocalyptic settings, or likes tales of the unknown will get a kick out of this fun and clever book.

Through journal entries and interviews with different people, Devolution tells the story of what happens when a woman comes into contact with a hoard of Sasquatch. Kate has gone to live in Greenloop along with several others to disconnect from society and live a life of sustainability to be nicer to the earth. Shortly after she moves there with her husband, Dan, there is an environmental catastrophe, Mt. Rainer has erupted leaving her and several others trapped in their new town. It is during this time that the hoard of Sasquatch come out and began attacking Kate and the others amongst her, this is the story detailing those attacks.

When I saw that Max Brooks had written another book, I knew that I had to read it. Especially since I had just finished re-reading World War Z and analyzing it to help my mom with an English course she took. While this book has different content, there are several similarities between the writing style of World War Z and Devolution. The story of the attack of the Sasquatch Hoard is told through Kate's journal entries and you are given a glimpse at outside knowledge through interviews that are included throughout the book.

I really enjoy that this reads like a found journal even if that takes away from some of the suspense. For example you know the main character is going to be fine at least until the end of the story or else how would she be writing all this. While you know that she'll be okay you still wonder what is going to happen to the rest of the characters in the story. The way that things are written allows you to get attached to some of the people that she is living with. I really enjoyed the development of the characters and the relationships that they had with Kate. As a reader you see that these people all have something to do with how she changes over the course of the book and becomes the woman she is at the end.

Something else that I enjoyed was that there were articles and interviews included along with the journal entries. It makes the whole book read more like a news story and something occurring in real-time. There were so many times that I had to remind myself that this wasn't a real story, it was something that I really got immersed in and by the last few interviews believed he was reporting on real events. It was a great escape from what is actually happening in the world at this time in the pandemic.

I love how the narrator of this story is an anxious person because you can feel her anxiety and panic every time something big happens. You can see it and feel her emotions in her writing even if she writes after events already took place. It's as if she never really leaves the scenes where these impactful events occur. I love how you see her go from this anxious person to a person who has more control over her life.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with this book. I had wished for it on NetGalley, and was ecstatic when I was sent a copy, but didn't love it when all was said and done. I know this isn't the best feedback, but I really can't pin point exactly what it was that I didn't like about it. It had all of the things I love, a weird setting (Greenloop Community, way up in the mountains), a major environmental event (volcanic eruption), and a wonderfully mythological monster (bigfoot). So maybe it was the characters I didn't like? But see that really isn't the issue either because I wound up really liking the main character Kate Holland, and I liked the odd woman who pushed Kate to be self sufficient. Her name is slipping my mind right now. It could very likely be that I didn't love this book primarily because of the current situation of our world right now. Which obviously is at no fault of Max Brooks. He unfortunately has had the bad luck of publishing a book with a plot point being a huge disaster which slightly mirrors what's going on in the world right now. Maybe the book didn't feel as escapist and as fun to me as it would have had I read it pre-pandemic. I will say though, that I will always read Max Brook's books, and will try to read this book again someday when the world (hopefully) calms down a bit.

Let me start by saying that I was a fan of Max Brooks' previous work, so I was excited when the publisher gave me the opportunity to review <i>Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre</i>.

Second, I want to thank the publisher for allowing me to review this book. However, the review does remain my own and is not influenced by their generosity.

Third, let's talk about the book. The book is definitely different in style and tone from Brooks' <i>World War Z</i>, which was an interesting change. The story centers on a small eco-friendly community near Mt. Rainer in Washington State named Greenloop. The community is very small but pretty high-tech. The exclusive community is rocked by sudden isolation after Mt. Rainer erupts. Suddenly, the community finds themselves completed isolated from the outside world. Some people within the community show their willingness and forethought to survive while others spiral out-of-control and into despair.

And if that wasn't enough to find out if this small community would turn in the next Dahmer Party, a pack of sasquatches have been driven from their homes and end up right on the outskirts of their small community. Without spoiling anything, the bulk of the book discusses if these Bigfeet are friends or foes.

The narrative within the book is primarily told to the readers through the diary of Kate Holland who lived through the events at Greenloop. Brooks also intersects these journal entries with other writings on sasquatches, sasquatch lore, and a couple of other fictional accounts of the Mt. Rainer explosion to round out the story.

Personally, I love the first-person journal approach to the story. We get to see events unfold from Holland's eyes, which includes her interactions with her husband and neighbors. Holland has a pretty impressive arc throughout the story, and I really think Brooks did a great job explaining Holland's change as a person as time progresses.

I know this book is going to be a bestseller because of the author, but I think this book is really fun and should be a bestseller because it's a damn good book. This book comes out in June 2020, so definitely put it on your summer reading list.

Many thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me this eARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating: 2.5 (rounded down)

After a volcanic eruption at Mt. Rainier unleashes a horde of Bigfoots (what’s the pluralization?— Sasquatches? Sasquatchi?) onto a biotech-green community, a fight for survival ensues with (wo)man vs. squatch.

I dig this sort of story: a sci-fi/horror journalistic piece investigating something supernatural. We have Max Brooks, the journalist (and author), again giving us the facts in between chapters of Kate’s “journal entries”. The gimmick (and that’s pretty much how I viewed it) of using a journal to tell a story was a hinderance to the plot overall, in this case. I just couldn’t picture Kate rushing to record her thoughts and actions, as well as the movements of the Greenloop community, every time something happened. It was unrealistic to think that she’d essentially go “Dear Journal” after a gruesome attack and/or event. Having the story in retrospect made the writing a bit too sloppy at times, with Kate frequently saying something along the lines of “I am writing this now...” or “I took a moment to jot down what just happened...”. It was like “found footage”, but way less effective.

Some of the interspersed “interviews” and selections were a little hit-or-miss; And a few were, to be frank, quite boring. It ruined the pacing of the novel, this continuous stop-and-go between Kate’s journal entries and the post-massacre sections. To add to that: quite a few pages (especially in the latter part of the book) were heavily devoted to “crafting”—in this case: weapons! I’m not gonna lie, I think the text got bogged by each passage detailing how to properly make a spear, javelin, hatchet, etc. I mean, it was kind of interesting, sure. I’ll give it that. Then again, I don’t need a two-page rundown on the technicalities of Martha Stewart-ing bamboo stalks, electrical cords and kitchen knives into instruments of death... and then repeat that countless times over for this particular weapon, or that particular fighting style.

As far as characters go, Kate was... how shall I put this? A drip! In the earlier sections, I really wanted to slap her (more than once!). She’s so passive and judgmental, naively irrational, and altogether meek and annoying. The shift in her was unconvincing and seemingly came out of nowhere—she went from super skittish to bloodthirsty confidence too quickly for it to be believable. Every other character was painted surface-level, and I really didn’t connect or care about any of them. The only character I really liked was Mostar, honestly. The entire plot is pretty predictable, too. (This isn’t really a spoiler) From the first few pages, you already know that everyone is dead (with the exception of Kate, whose body was never found). And that level of predictability took the surprise and the suspense from the text completely. When the—for lack of a better term—“battle” happened, I felt nothing. I actually think more time was spent on the weapons “How To” crafting than on the actual onslaught. Disappointing.

The good: The author paints a vivid picture of the Washington wilderness. I saw clearly the trees, compound grounds, and Mount Rainier looming over it all. In a book like this, nature becomes its own character, and I feel like that was done well. Also, the first few deaths were (although expected) pretty effective in building tension and creeping me out. The slow burn with a weak flame, but still something.

In the end, I don’t believe I wasted my time with this book. It has its moments, and I’m sure will interest many readers... my cynical ass notwithstanding.

This was truly an interesting read. I wasn't too sure what to make of it at first. It begins with the reader finding out that there had been an attack on a small community shortly after a volcanic eruption. At first, it sounds like the people attacked each other, but as the 'post-event' interviews interweave with the found diary of the main character, a more gruesome picture emerges. This book is like a homage to the 80s bigfoot movies I grew up watching. There were a ton of references to current bigfoot theory that make this story all the more realistic. I especially loved the reference to Les Stroud's bigfoot show. I definitely recommend reading this book.