3.5/5.0 Stars

Did Someone Say Sasquatch?

Yes, Please!

’The ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined...until now.’

Brooks' writing style in DEVOLUTION is similar to that of Michael Crichton's thoroughly researched, detail-laden thrillers, the likes of JURASSIC PARK, and CONGO that I've grown to love rereading over the years.

I would describe DEVOLUTION as more of a slow-paced burn that builds into a few nail-biting-suspenseful moments leading up to an intense conclusion that I won't soon forget!

Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey Publishing, for providing me with an advanced eBook of DEVOLUTION in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for a copy of the e-Arc in exchange for my honest review. I have been fluctuating over the past few days in how I wanted to review this book. On the positive spectrum, Max Brooks dove deep into research of Sasquatch lore to the point where I was clicking on every footnote so that I could absorb everything new to learn. Then Brooks takes the research and creates plausible fiction. Wildly entertaining, and at times pulse pounding entertainment.

The narrative is in part a found journal, and part author interviews. The journal author is Katie and the entries start from the time she moves into a wilderness enclave and through the time of the rainier eruption and Sasquatch massacre. She's an entertaining writer and you will find yourself laughing at times and gagging at other times.
For me the book falters in its character development.many characters are flat, there's Katie who develops way too quickly over the course of the story, and there's Mostar who is the tool that pushes Katie's development from naive to survivalist over the course of a few weeks.

In summary, Devolution was highly enjoyable fun with poor character development.

I have always been fascinated with anything Bigfoot, so when I found out that an author who wrote one of my favorite books, World War Z, Max Brooks, had written a Bigfoot story...well, needless to say I couldn't wait to read it!
I was not disappointed - scared and frightened, but definitely not disappointed.
Devolution tells the story of a community of smug, self-absorbed techies that suffers a horrible fate. The story occurs during the eruption of Mt.Rainier, and we see the events thru interviews, and a journal written by one of the communities residents and the words within are harrowing.
Mr. Brooks knows how to weave together a story that will truly make you think while scaring the ever loving you know what out of you! Fans of World War Z will enjoy the ride - Fans of Bigfoot will say "I told you so"

The movie World War Z was horrible. It may have been a decent running-from-zombie movie, but it missed everything that made World War Z special. The book looked at the humanity of catastrophe, at the hopes and sins of people in a bad situation. This could be zombies, surviving a hurricane, doesn't matter, people are people and will do what they can and need to for survival.
This idea runs throughout Devolution, and I appreciate it.
Some themes come up in both books... academic knowledge is of limited use in "the real world", preparedness is next to "survialness", and sometimes idiots need a punch to the feelings.
I like the recurring themes between books, though Devolution holds its own; its not a sequel or spin-off, its a good book in its own right.
Both books were told after the incident they describe, Devolution a series of journal entries from an anxious woman interspersed with interviews from the reporter investigating the case. I appreciate the different characters have different voices, in text and audio... I'm almost never a fan of full cast audiobooks, but this one does it right. Even if not the audiobook, different characters have different speaking styles, grammar, etc., to give them an independent voice in the story.
Highly recommended.
**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sites.google.com/view/booksandstuffreviews/book-reviews/devolution

I was provided an eARC of this title by the publisher, Del Rey, through NetGalley.

This was freakin' brilliant!

I've read Max before, so I did come in familiar with his style of fictional non-fiction. That is, the story is told through a series of journal entries and interviews. This style adds quite a bit of realism to a tale that's otherwise rather difficult to believe.

Or is it? Brooks backs up his narrative with science and a study of human behavior. It's a cautionary tale, to be sure, but frightening in illustrating just how close our society is to total collapse. It doesn't take much to send an area of citizens into complete chaos, stripping them of their modern day comforts. Brooks shows how fast people will devolve, and actually adapt, to these severe changes...

In today's world, this novel shows us another side of what "could" happen. Maybe not this exact plot, but between natural disasters, unpredictable disease, and social unrest we could be teetering on the edge.

Not what I expected, but in a good way. Not to give too much away, but we are talking about the legend of Bigfoot. Whether you believe or not is irrelevant. This story pulls you in and makes you look twice when you are driving in the woods!

This is the same author that wrote World War Z. After waiting so long, it seemed only natural to have high expectations of Devolution, but this book fell so flat. The premise was enticing, but the execution left much to be desired.

The eco-village of Greenloop is almost 2 hours from Seattle but has glorious views of Mt. Rainier. It's the type of town that has the state of the art tech to make any city dweller comfortable with nature (e.g. deliveries once a week by drone, smart houses, eco-friendly vehicles, etc.). When Mt. Rainier erupts knocking out the only road to and from civilization and their internet, the residents of Greenloop quickly realize that they are completely cut off from society and must band together if they are to survive.

The story is told as a recount from Kate Holland's journal entries, which was pulled from the blood wreckage of the Greenloop community. In these entries, Kate has documented everything from arriving to Greenloop to the eruption of Mt. Rainier to the attack of Sasquatch.

What I expected to be a high octane sci-fi thriller was definitely not. The first 50% or so of the book mainly focused on Greenloop and its residents, which I didn't find particularly interesting. Katie is the type of person who constantly has a revelation about her privilege and her husband is just a piece of work. After the mountain erupts, it became a story of pettiness to survive. We saw people hoarding supplies and food as well as manipulating one another for their own personal gain.

It honestly wasn't until the last 25% or so of the book when we actually had the gruesome showdown with the Sasquatch that I felt like we finally got the story that I was looking for because they were utterly terrifying. I wanted more of that throughout the story though and not just at the very end.

‏I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

If you read World War Z, you know Max Brooks does an exceptional job at writing the fictional documentary format, making it feel like non-fiction. He does it again in Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre.

Devolution's release is accidently well-timed. The catalyst is the eruption of Mt Ranier. Roads are closed and destroyed by lahars, boiling mudslides. The government is working to help those affected. Outside the eruption zone is Greenloop, a small environmental utopia which consists of smart, completely "green" houses but still contains all of the modern amenities, Since their intention is to go completely green and reduce their carbon footprint, their food deliveries are for a week at a time. What happens when they are cut off and do not have the necessary food or supplies to get through the crisis? The discussion about consumers not stocking up and supermarkets offering farm-fresh items hit home during the Covid-19 crisis.

Oh, and there is also sasquatch they need to deal with. The premise might sound far fetched, but Brooks does a fabulous job of making it seem not only possible but probable. The people seem so real; I cheered out loud at one point.

This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 6/18/20.

Okay, okay. The ACTUAL title is “Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre” but….I didn’t want to give away the entire plot.

This book…THIS BOOK.

This book is about so many thing. 1. Obviously, Bigfoot or Sasquatch or…Harry from Harry and the Hendersons…whatever you want to call them - they are in this book.

2. This is about one woman, Kate Holland. She starts this story a neurotic mess. Full of fears, a little self-loathing, clearly looking for something else.

3. This group of ‘green’ people who are just so….smug about it. Composting, methane energy, and their reliance on the current ultra-instant word of the internet. The houses are all controllable by iPad. Groceries are delivered by a self driving van. Drones deliver packages.

Told in a series of interviews, research articles, and Kate’s journal entries, we find this group of people, hoping for a better life - suddenly cut off from the world because of the eruption of Mt. Rainier. Now dependent on each other, the group quickly dissolves into chaos that only increases when bone fragments appear. Slowly, everyone comes to recognize that they aren’t alone in the woods. Kate journals the nightmare - giving each creature a name and characteristic. Kate also journals the casualties.

What Max Brooks has done is reach deep back into the conspiracy theory pile and make something so believable, so real…that I NEVER WANT TO GO CAMPING EVER AGAIN. Who’s to say that Bigfoot ISN’T real??

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rating: 8.5/10

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advance copy of Devolution for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

Devolution is a story about Sasquatches. What more do you need? Brooks provides a gory thrill-ride that is as much a horror story as it is a survivalist guide after a natural disaster. Let’s just say this feels all-too-real when reading during a pandemic that has been ravaging for months, and just goes to show that I need to start prepping ASAP.

Brooks doesn’t write/publish many novels, but based on previous works, when a new one is on the horizon, you just know you are in for a treat. Devolution works in a similar way that World War Z did: an oral history of an event that took place, recounted “posthumously” almost as an addition to history but more as a warning to the world.

The journal entries of Kate Holland begin light-hearted enough as she and her husband arrive at their new high-tech, off-the-grid community of Greenloop, begin to meet the other residents, and start a new life away from the disaster that is the rest of the world. That is, until Mount Rainier’s eruption wholly and completely traps them, cutting them completely off from the outside world and putting their wits to the test.

Thing is, dealing with the fallout of a volcanic eruption is the least of their worries. A creature only spoken about in myths is stalking around their community, and let’s just say it’s pissed. Or rather… they are.

We’ve all seen those Jack Link’s beef jerky commercials (Brooks actually references them in the story) and been given a depiction of how Bigfoot actually behaves. Let’s just say that the author takes the outcome of all of these commercials and turns it up to 11. These creatures are ferociously savage and we should just be glad they aren’t hanging around our neck of the woods (at least so we think).

The way this story evolves and how the characters evolve with it (mostly Kate) is the most intriguing part of this novel. I honestly couldn’t stand Kate in the very beginning, but grew to like her as things became more harrowing. Something about giant killing machines lurking in the woods while you are trying your darndest to grow beans just works for me. Weird, right? But seriously, she has to grow up and into her role very quickly as things devolve at a rather quick pace. By the end, you hope the best for her and want those creatures gone as much as she does.

I did end up going through Devolution via audio, which IMO is the best way to go about it. I mean good good grief, it has ten (10) narrators that bring it to life, including names like Nathan Fillion, Kate Mulgrew, Jeff Daniels, Steven Weber, and the author himself. Need I say more?

All in all, if you enjoyed the way World War Z was presented and like Brooks’s writing style, Devolution will work well for you. If you are in it just for Bigfoot, go buy it immediately.

First of all, I can't describe in words how perfectly this book fit for my taste. It has Sci-fi elements packed in a beautiful fantasy, but also with mystery and thriller parts. I loved the fact that the story has a few elements from every beloved genre and I think that it should be a bestseller and is worth the time and money!

This book is unique and the concept is really interesting, even if I personally have never been a Bigfoot/cryptozoology person myself. Unfortunately the biggest "negative" of this book is how much I loved World War Z. It's impossible not to take an author's other works into consideration when reading and Devolution just wasn't as good as WWZ. The characters were interesting and I'm okay with the lack of urgency/suspense that comes from journal entries being the main way of conveying information. I just found my interest petering out toward the end and felt like so much more could have been done with this.

Thanks NetGalley and Del Ray Books for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow - what a thrill! I am a huge fan of Brooks' zombie fiction, but I was a bit nervous about the Sasquatch lore theme of Devolution. I just wasn't sure it would hit the same way. I've never been more delighted to be very, very wrong!

Devolution is action-packed in a way that encourages readers to tear through it. Fast-paced doesn't even begin to cover it. I kept finding myself saying "just one more chapter... okay, just one more... okay, just..." I constantly HAD to know what would happen next. In addition to the relentless pacing, Brooks does a great job of creating interesting characters that simultaneously feel unusual and familiar. It's delightful and makes the reader feel like they know the characters much better than they actually do.

I loved seeing Brooks return to his unique formatting style. I loved how he chooses to tell a story using interviews, journal entries, articles, news reports, etc. I'm a sucker for a story compiled of artifacts and I was pleased to see that he returned to those roots for this book. The journal entries in this specific volume work hard to reinforce the realism of the plot - that feeling that although improbable, perhaps these events could happen in real life. Maybe even to ourselves. The fabric of the reality we know can be incredibly thin and Brooks thrives on pressing the reader's face right up against it.

In conclusion, so good - can't believe I ever had doubts - can't wait to recommend to my patrons - eager to see what Brooks does next - won't be able to stop thinking about the thrills in this one for A WHILE

Max Brooks, who wrote about humans being overrun by zombies in World War Z, turns his attention to humans being attacked by Bigfoot in Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre. In the form of a journal and interviews, Brooks tells the story of a remote community that is attacked by a band of Sasquatches.

Greenloop is tiny community isolated in the mountains a short drive from Seattle. Remote, yet equipped with lots of high-tech features, residents are able to work remotely, stay in touch with the outside world, and receive deliveries by drone of groceries and other needs. That is, until Mount Rainier erupts and the lava flow cuts off the roads and communication lines. As Greenloop residents hope for someone from the outside to come after them, some start making plans for the potential that they might be stuck there for months. They notice that the eruption and resulting fires are driving displaced wildlife through their area. But soon they realize the wildlife has another pursuer, another species migrating and looking for food. A band of Sasquatches discovers Greenloop and decides to stick around for the good eating.

Playing out like a horror movie, the residents of Greenloop get picked off, become dinner one by one. As the humans fight back, they learn more about their foes, who are smarter and more dangerous than they would have guessed. Brooks's storytelling style keeps you guessing, even though you sort of know how things are going to turn out. This is a fun romp in the same way that a good horror movie is. Yeah, it's a little formulaic, a standard trope of people trapped in the woods with a mysterious killer lurking. But Brooks keeps it fun and worth reading.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Based on the description (Bigfoot!) and how much I liked Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (another epistolary horror novel), I expected to like this one more than I did. However, the first half of the book didn't do much to meet my expectations and I came close to setting it down. It was slow and much too focused on a cast of characters that I found hard to like (I already hate hipsters in the woods), rather than much action and plot. But the author kept dropping just enough tension into the story to keep me motivated and I stuck with it.
The second half of the book (mostly) made up for the slog. There was action. There was tension. There were predators acting like predators and humans acting like humans (good and bad). The ending is satisfying in its own way (a little like Jurassic Park), without being too pat.
I almost knocked another star off of my 4-star review because of a nit I have with the writing style. The impression is supposed to be that the book is essentially the journal of the protagonist, the only survivor of an apparent massacre. But each journal entry is much too long and the style quickly slips into standard first-person narrative, knocking me out of the epistolary mood. The additional interviews and excerpts from experts and witnesses hearkened back to WWZ and restored a star for style. This could make for some great Summertime reading if you're in the mood for it.

4.5 out of 5 stars. (NOTE: This review will go live on Thoroughly Modern Reviewer on June 15, 2020, at the link provided.)

When I was a kid, I was scared of Bigfoot-like, properly scared. I can't remember how old I was when I first encountered a Bigfoot thing, but I can remember having seen some pseudo-documentary on Animal Planet, or something, and being ever so frightened of looking out my bedroom window and seeing Bigfoot staring back at me. It became a recurring nightmare of mine for a while until I eventually grew out of that fear and moved on. But there is something kind of frightening about a giant ape-like monster with borderline-human intelligence whose existence nobody can seem to prove or disprove. And that's where Devolution, Max Brooks' newest book comes in. Resting closer to something like Frankenstein than Brooks' World War Z oral history riff, Devolution is another epistolary novel (or, as I jokingly refer to it, "found literature") from Max Brooks. But unlike World War Z, I really enjoyed Devolution. It's a gripping read, filled with a lot of tension, some immediately captivating characters, and a lot of genuine chills.

Devolution is a really strong book, almost surprisingly so. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started this book. I didn't love World War Z - I thought it was a clever idea, but I felt like it lacked a lot of tension and the narrative felt really unfocused at times. But luckily, Devolution falls into none of those traps. Devolution has an identifiable main character - Kate Holland. It is her story we are reading, directly from a diary that was recovered sometime after the novel's events - though the fictional "Max Brooks" has thrown in a few "external sources," in the guise of interviews he's conducted with other people and excerpts from some Bigfoot-related books, for context. Having the bulk of the novel come directly from Kate's diary helps the narrative have focus. It's basically just a regular first-person narrative, and that's a much better way of telling a story that's supposed to have a lot of tension. Here, the inclusion of the other material feels less like a distraction from the story and more of a contextual aid to help clarify some of the things Kate wouldn't have known while writing down her experiences. Overall, I vastly preferred the format of this novel to Brooks' other epistolary experiment.

Devolution also has a significantly more compelling plot that's filled with some really interesting characters. It starts off like any number of disaster stories - it starts off with a quick setup before some disaster happens, in this case, the eruption of Mount Rainer, everything falls apart. I tend to have trouble getting through the setup in stories like this, but I didn't have that problem at all here and I think that's because of how well-crafted Devolution's characters are. Every single character in this novel feel fully formed and lived in. Each of them has a purpose to serve in the survival of the community and it's an absolute joy getting to know them in those chapters before they're put through the wringer of an eruption and a Bigfoot scare. All of the characters have something to adore and some fatal flaw. They feel like people you might know and it's a great way of getting you to immediately care about them. Even though all the dialogue is technically whatever Kate remembers, it feels very natural and Brooks did a great job of ensuring each character has a unique and identifiable voice. It's also really impressive just how well we get to know these characters, given the bulk of the narrative is told via Kate's diary. It helps that Brooks made Kate the kind of person who's incredibly observant and quick to judge those around her; these qualities give the novel a really easy way of establishing these characters' personalities in a way that feels natural.

Equally natural is the way the plot unfolds. It all happens very quickly, but everything feels organic. The characters react in ways that absolutely make sense with the way they've been set up. Every time you start to worry that the action might be slowing down a bit, Brooks throws something else at you to keep you on your toes. I don't want to go into too many specifics about the plot, but it's a mixture of exactly what you'd expect it to but also immensely surprising, too. You know going into the book that there's gonna be some kind of Bigfoot encounter, and you know going in pretty much how it's going to end, but everything else is a delightful surprise. It's also really compelling. Like in World War Z, Brooks clearly has something to say in Devolution. Underneath all of the Bigfoot stuff is a story about survival; a story about how we react in times of crisis. We saw similar themes in World War Z, but that was on a macro level. Here, it's on a micro level, and it's such a fascinating angle to take here. It's so neat seeing how each of these characters reacts to this situation. It felt very dramatic and very real and I was captivated.

Overall, reading Devolution was just a lot of fun. I was hooked from page one and I stayed on that hook all the way until the novel's final page. Everything about the narrative just clicked for me and I had such a great time with it. I powered through this novel in a way that I wasn't expecting to. It very quickly became one of those books that I just couldn't put down. I had to, because life beckons, but I constantly wanted to pick it up again and continue where I'd left off - and that's an absolute gift for a story like that. I was scared for these characters and I was invested in them and how they'd get out of this situation. I just really adored how everything in Devolution unfolded.

My one complaint would probably be the book's ending. I totally understand what Brooks was going for and in that context, it absolutely works. But I can't help but feel like I'd have craved something a bit closer to a true resolution. I wouldn't necessarily call the book's ending a cliffhanger, but it's certainly a very open one. And, to be fair, you know it's going to be that way going into it because the novel's introduction pretty much confirms this. But still, I always wish that books like this would pull a bait-and-switch and actually give me an ending even when they've promised not to. This isn't a big fault of the book and it probably won't bother anyone else. I was just so invested in Kate's story that I wanted some kind of resolution that never fully came. And that's okay. But it was a little disappointing for me.

All in all, I really loved Devolution. I wasn't wild about World War Z and I thought Brooks' Minecraft novel had a lot of exciting ideas that were never as fully realized as they could've been, and I've never fully read The Zombie Survival Guide, so, I wasn't really sure how I'd feel about Devolution. Luckily, it's a really solid read. I think Brooks found a much better balance between the commitment to the epistolary form and actually telling a compelling story that's filled with tension and excitement. Even though I knew how the story ended, roughly, going into it, there was still a lot of room for surprises and excitement and the utilization of a first-person journal written amid the action was a great way of pulling the reader into Kate's world and having us experience what she's experiencing alongside her. I'd absolutely recommend Devolution. I think it'll be immensely satisfying for fans of Brooks but it's also really enjoyable for those who haven't entirely loved his work. Plus, it's just a really good, often scary Bigfoot story. And that's always a lot of fun.

Publishing this review on the day the book is officially available is a fun coincidence! It was much different than I expected, but once I gave it a chance to be whatever it was I liked it quite a bit.

I have lived in Seattle my whole life so both the Rainier eruption and sasquatch lore are both very familiar to me. It was super fun to see them combined in a clever way in novel form. The unsettling state of unrest the book describes in Seattle and using police to restore order is a sad parallel to the crazy state of my city right now.

How I hated the town of Greenloop. The whole idea of setting up a green high tech town in the middle of the forest with no plans for disaster recovery and no means of protection was just idiotic. Brooks did a great job of describing this silliness and covering the details of how bad an idea it was. The whole "move fast and break things" approach was an interesting analogy and I LOVE this quote:
"Its great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl".

The action takes a long time building up...no real attacks until almost the 75% mark. But when bigfoot attacks and the residents have to fight with homemade weapons....it was awesome and exceeded my expectations. I loved how Brooks made squatch smart and cunning and adaptive, not just a stupid beast. The ending was strong and was my favorite part of the book.

Plus I learned two new words: "lahar" and "faunivory". New vocabulary always makes me enjoy a book more.

After an unexpected and shaky start the book got stronger as it went along and I ended up being very happy and entertained at the end.

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks, is a fiction that is written like a nonfiction having a journal, expert interviews, and family interviews. The Legend of Bigfoot is something that I have always been curious about, this book does the research on past Bigfoot sitings and makes a story out of it. I like Bigfoot but I'm not a fanatic (note: though growing up I did name one of my dog's Bigfoot), I think fanatics and believers will get a lot more out of this book than I did. I 'm sad to say I found the first half of this book very boring, with me only connecting with two characters. At the end of this novel in the acknowledgements it was said that this was a failed movie script that got novel, the way it was written a movie would have worked better. The second half is a rip roaring action/survival that does not let up. The story turns into a man verse monster book. The action is fierce and unrelenting. In the end, the unbalance and the limited characters to truly root for, made the intense action too late to totally save this story from just more than an okay from me. Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks is Published on 6-16-20. Thanks to Netflix and Random House Publishing group Ballentine Del Rey.

The Plot: We learn early on there is a village up in the Rainer Mountains totally cut off from civilization thanks to an active volcano. The village was an experiment by tech savy artists and environmentalist, to live off nature and still be connected to tech. The village, Greenloop, is found burned down and torn to shreds with bodies of all but two members of the village who are declared missing with only a journal left behind. The journal explains that Greenloop was a attacked by Sasquatch. The journal, the journal writer's brother, and various experts go over the tale adding insights, and analyze if it is believed to be true or not.

What I Liked: I love the man verse nature verse monster aspect. I wish this was featured through out the novel just not at the back half. The idea for Greenloop society was interesting. I loved the character of Ms. Monstar the tough older lady, artist that has seen war and knows how to survive, teaching the tech people how to go to war was interesting. I also liked the husband of Kate the journal writer that found himself as the village handy man. The brutal action, was a highlight of the book. You have never read about a Sasquatch being so vicious, it was kind of like seeing all the treats that Han gives to people about Chewbacca in Star Wars played out. The first arm rip off is a doozy. I didn't really identify with Kate, the journal writer, but I do love the speculation of her brother, at what happened to her and the closure that he got through it.

What I Disliked: Too many chapters were dedicated to the research of other villages like Greenloop, at first it was interesting but it went on and on. It took too long for the Sasquatch to show up or even get teased. I did feel the ranger had too much information on the Sasquatch legend and mythical creatures in different countries. This book needed to have a conspiracy theorist who runs a Bigfoot watch to break up the science.

Recommendations: I think Sasquatch fans will like this more than I did, so I recommend this to them. This one is a hard one for me the beginning was hard to get through, then the second half was everything I wanted to ever see a Sasquatch do. I will barely recommend this one. I have not been this torn on a review in quite some time. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the Summer. I rated Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks 3 out of 5 stars. I have not read a Max Brooks all the way through, I have read most of the Zombie Survival guide, and love the satirical tone, World War Z has been in my TBR pile for so long. I liked the action in this and will one day read more Max Brooks.

Read It: Bigfoot delivers big scares in Max Brooks’s Devolution

The author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z ditches the undead in favor of rampaging Sasquatch in this perfect summer page-turner about the last days of a would-be utopian, off-the-grid village. As he did in WWZ, Brooks stitches together the narrative — and ratchets up the fear factor — with fragmentary documents and various voices to recount the ill-fated encounter between a group of transplanted eco-loving urbanites and a displaced troop of bloodthirsty Bigfoots (Bigfeet?). And the all-star audiobook, featuring the voices of Judy Greer, Nathan Fillion and Jeff Daniels, is ideal for a summer sojourn to a remote locale. Just don’t wander too far off the trail.

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre is available in print, ebook and audio formats from Amazon.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Ballantine Books for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for my open and honest review.

It sounds exciting right, living amongst the wilds of nature while being tethered to the city’s ease and convenience. You get the verdant beauty without all the needs of living in a forest. Who wouldn’t want that? But what if something huge happens and you are unprepared for it. You are a city person living amongst the beasts. What do you do, how do you survive?

This is what happened to Greenloop community on the skirts of Mt. Ranier when the Bigfoots came to hunt.

Let me start by saying that this was the wrong book to read right now. Currently, I am neurotic and anxious, trapped in quarantine, much like the rest of the world. Trees surround my home. I can see Mt. Ranier on a clear day from my front yard. It is either the worst or the best time to pick up a book like Devolution; either way, it was effective at scaring the bejeezus out of me. This story is something. Written in what I am sure is to become the “Max Brooks style” of storytelling. It is told through letters and first-person interviews. Instead of linear storytelling Brooks creates the world of the story brick by brick until you are surrounded by his world and can’t get out.

A group of rich yuppies from the city comes to a premade rural/city community named Greenloop. The food and necessities are shipped in via drone, the homes are smart and powered by solar, people telecommute for work, and every need has been thought of by the architect. Then with a boom and shaking, the sky fills with ash, and Greenloop is cut off from all human contact. This, on the surface, is bad enough. You take characters that do not have a strong bone in their bodies and throw them into a life and death situation and see what happens. Now add in a mysteriously large footprint. Animal bones are surrounding the complex that has been chewed on and licked clean. A strong smell of gamey rot that permeates the air, and instead of just survival, you have so much more to worry about. In the vein of classic fear of invisible monsters, these people are stalked and toyed with.

The lead character is a neurotic woman named Kate. I dislike Kate. I think everyone who reads this book will hate Kate at first. She is an insufferable know-it-all that would be the first to complain to a manager if her chardonnay was the wrong temperature. But when everything goes pear-shaped, Kate changes. This is the best part of the book. Kates’s character progression is beautiful and believable. She is so much more under the surface; all she needed was flesh-eating primates to bring it out. You will love her, you will cheer her, and you will want her to win.

The one complaint I have about the story is that it is a slow burn. SLLLOOOOOWWW. I was waiting for something to happen in the first 60 % of the story, and nothing did. It wasn’t enjoyable until you see why Brooks wrote it that way in the last 40% of the story. It all comes together. Every little bit of info or aside he shoved into the beginning was the building blocks for the last gory and exciting forty percent of the novel. Then all you have is an appreciation for Brooks’s storytelling abilities. Because man, there is craziness, explosions, fights, terror, excitement... so much.

This isn’t World War Z; it is an entirely new thing. The scale is smaller, but the action and characterizations aren’t. It is a big story told on the microscale of a small community. It was so much fun, and you should read it.