Ginger's Reviews > Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Was I entertained? Yes!
Were the characters annoying? Hell yes!
Everyone except Mostar. She was the rational and sane one of the bunch.

But I think that was the point.
You see how a bunch of soft, city folks have to come to grips with living in the woods.
Even though that's what they signed up for, they were technically not "living in the woods". They had the scenery to look at but they didn't have the fortitude or mentality to living in nature and knowing nature is brutal and unforgiving.

Devolution is the newest book by Max Brooks and you guessed it.
It's about the all mighty and introverted Big Foot.

I've been obsessed with the sasquatch since the late 1980s when Harry and the Hendersons came out. But living in the Pacific Northwest, takes it to a whole new level.
Everytime I go camping or hiking in the woods, I'm always on the look out for not only bears and moutain lions, but something super tall and hairy to come running out of the trees.

I loved that the setting of the book is in Washington State, along with being in the Mount Rainier National Park.
Trust me, we're all wondering when that mountain is going to blow but until then, we enjoy seeing it tower impressively over the valley below.

The one thing this book needed besides I different writing style (see below), was more volcano eruption scenes and hot magma! I really wanted more of that in this book and was a bit disappointed by the lack of volcano fury.

But back to the bad smelling tree man.

Devolution starts with Mount Rainier blowing up.
It destroys the whole area around it and causes massive destruction in the whole state. It sets into a play a deadly standoff between a whole community of urban loving vegan eaters, and the best player of hide and seek since Marco Polo.

The sasquatch has to move territories due to the volcano eruption and lack of prey. And that's when they come across the gentle and environmentally conscious community of Greenloop.

Greenloop is a sustainable, small community that was created by an entrepreneur. He has made everything sustainable from the sewer system, the solar panels, excellent WiFi, to having drones drop off food every week. They have all the comfort of living in a big city but having the backdrop of living in nature.

What Greenloop does not plan for is starvation, creatures in the night getting hungry, and being isolated from everyone due to roads being melted by hot magma and landslides.

Yeah, I really love the words hot magma. 😉🤣😂

I think this would have been rated higher for me because it was entertaining and the ending was pretty epic and spectacular.

But the writing format brought it down for me.
Not the writing per se, but HOW it was written.

It's in journal format and also sections of interviews with forest rangers.
I thought it would work because it feels more real when you're reading a journal of someone that lived in Greenloop.

But I think the journal format of Kate Holland was too detailed and not authentic. It didn't feel like how I would write in a journal.
I think if Max Brooks had made it rougher, gritty and less detailed, I would have bought it more. I would have had more dread while reading each one of her entries as the chaos was building.

I'm definitely glad I read this!
It was super entertaining and I've not read a book about the subject of the mighty Bigfoot. It gets points for both of those things.

I need to finally read World War Z this year because I really do think Max Brooks is a creative and entertaining writer!