Devolution by Max Brooks
Publication Date: June 16, 2020
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After a volcanic eruption drives them from their native habitat, a band of Sasquatch (Sasquatches? Sasquatchii?) attack a high-tech, off-the-grid community, forcing a knock-down-drag-out battle between two very different---and very similar---tribes of primates.
If you think it's possible to write a bad book with that hook, then honey, I don't really know what to tell you.
Devolution is as much about the breakdown---and reforging---of the human community as it is about the attacking Bigfoot (Bigfeet?). (Though I hesitate a bit to call Greenloop a "community". A community of half a dozen houses is less a community than a cul-de-sac with delusions.) We follow the narrative through found diary entries of the mousy, pushover Katie, who with the rest must find reserves of inner strength and resourcefulness when faced with a predator who's larger, fiercer, and has lost all fear of humans.
I knocked off a star because I thought the epistolary format robbed the (admittedly well-crafted) narrative of some of its tension---it's a bit hard to feel completely at the edge of your seat when you know your protagonist will not only survive, but have the time and ability to write down events after they happen---but that's a relatively small thing. (Also, because I thought the narrative was a bit . . . quick? The changes in the community occur in the space of only a couple of weeks, and that seemed more unrealistic than the attacking Sasquatch.)
Overall, this was a relatively fast and exciting read, great for curling up on a couch on a rainy weekend. (Just avoid windows facing the woods!)
A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!
