Devolution

I know the concept of a sasquatch attack on a remote commune sounds silly on the surface, but Brooks crafts it into a realistic, serious story. As a believer in the possibility of Bigfoot, I was fascinated to see how disastrously an encounter between humans and cryptids could conceivably go.

The naivete of the settlers in the wilderness is even more distressing than the hostility of the animals. Unsettling news reports (of which the characters remain unaware) interspersed with diary entries underscore their desperation and peril. I thought the situation was completely credible. Really, we ought to have more sasquatch… show more.

In a twist of my collection of recommendations, we have a novel in which “first contact” takes the form of a famous American myth come to life. Bigfoot is among us, hidden deep in the mountains of North America—and it took the eruption of Mount Rainier to force a brutal encounter between a small colony of sasquatch and a small collective of people living the high-tech, secluded life in the middle of the forest. 

If you’ve read Max Brooks, you’ll experience his distinctive documentary-style writing which fits perfectly with this fascinating what-if. You won’t be disappointed with this sci-fi-horror mashup.

Devolution is the follow-up to the author’s World War Z, which I also enjoyed. It features an interesting format, told in a series of letters, that tells the story of a Bigfoot-like monster that threatens a bunch of Silicon Valley-types in the Pacific Northwest after a volcanic eruption. It’s gruesome, fun, and entertainingly critical of people who think they can handle living off the grid. I enjoyed watching them get their comeuppance in this riveting wilderness survival story. 

As a fan of both zombies and Sasquatch, I was thrilled when the New York Times best-selling author of the epic end-of-the-world zombie novel, World War Z… applied his talents to Bigfoot!

Here’s a novel that swirls together apocalyptic fiction with the spine-tingling horror you’d expect from Max Brooks. The characters are well-developed and I found plenty of humor in the social satire that is threaded into the story. Presented as a recounting of an actual occurrence, the book is a riveting read.