Good morning, good afternoon, good evening....whenever it is you have found this entry. Today, 2020-12-18, I finished the lastest book from Max Brooks, Devolution.
As 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. The journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and, inevitably, of savagery and death.
Sounds interesting. right? From here on out expect spoilers
The story is that of a town cut off from society both on purpose and by natural disaster. A perfect island to itself with deliveries from the homeland... until those deliveries don't come anymore. Cut off from everything the town of people not prepared to fend for itself does...until a foe even worse than a volcano comes to their doorstep...and it has teeth, empty stomaches, and very VERY large feet!
A tribe of Bigfoot (Bigfeet?) find some nice easy pray they think but war breaks out. It is the story of a group of people going from the scared prey to the hunters. People growing from the fear and into hunters and warriors.
Much like other Max Brook flicks it has pop culture references, well-written realistic dialog/thoughts and even a few laughs. It takes a while for the book to get its feet under itself...so to speak and no pun intended. It has a nice build but I found it went just slightly too long before the true danger showed up. It felt like Jaws, where you go just that bit too long without the shark. The build, once the danger is, is done so well and at times I could feel my own heart pounding as things happened and at one point wanted to scream at the book like people do horror movies! "DON'T GO IN THERE!"
It got to the point where I even had my own bigfoot attack dream which is not something my brain does very often so well done! The final battle was so well done that I read it twice. It is so cinematic in its descriptions that I could picture it all and had to read it twice. Hell, even at the slow points, I could re-read this book right now and not be disappointed.
If you want a well written book that is a diary format with interview cut in (and damn Max can write an "interview") pick this up!
