Devolution

I really enjoyed the way the author presents the great apes and sprinkles in various facts about different great apes. That information really helped me believe in the setting and the Sasquatch. That was a great touch that helped suck me in to the story. I loved the character of Mostar and how she was able to use her past experiences to guide them. The additions of the interviews were interesting, but I'm not sure it was vital. The beginning was slow, but the ending picked up. There was more gore than I expected, but it didn't make me stop reading. The ending interview was important to the story, so I really liked that one. Overall, it was a good read.

Rating: 4.6 leaves out of 5Characters: 4.5/5 Cover: 4.5/5Story: 5/5Writing: 5/5Horror: 3.75/5Genre: Horror/Fantasy/ScifiType: AudiobookWorth?: Yes!Hated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedIf you would have told me I would love a Big Foot horror story I would have thought you were crazy but wow this book. The audiobook felt kind of like a podcast. Then there is Kate who I started out hating and ended up loving. The whole book was a ride! I kind of wish there was a book two but the way it ended was perfect!

Ha!! I actually enjoyed this more that World War Z, and do you know why? Because Bigfoot is real and zombies are not.

Also, you know like when you have one sheep and then you have two sheep and it's still sheep? Is it the same with Bigfoot or is it one bigfoot and 2 bigfeet? Something to think about while you drink your tea.

It was an interesting read.

I gave up, I simply couldn't find any enthusiasm to keep reading.

I enjoyed this, though I probably shouldn't have read it when I did because it set my heartrate off. It wasn't as good as World War Z, but it was better than I expected. Brooks really knows how to write convincing dialogue, it didn't feel forced or hokey at any point, and he accurately captured the misplaced confidence of city dwellers in the face of emergency.

Definitely thought this was going to be an overhyped read, but it completely deserved the hype. Loved the formatting between letters, professional accounts, and someone outside of the camp. I like that it didn't need to use any dramatic twists to be extremely shocking.

Very interesting audiobook. I don't think I could have read the physical of this one. The many interviews and journal pages would have irritated me.

Overall this was an interesting take on a Bigfoot takeover. Definitely makes for a fun workday.

I had received a free audiobook for review from LibroFM.
tldr
Great audio. really slow build, final chapters it really gets good. then it's over. more questions

Greenloop. A self-sustaining town located near Mt Rainier Washington. Off-grid living at it's finest.
We receive an account of this entire story through the journal entries of Kate, who seems to have been tasked the journaling from a therapist or a doctor. Her first hand account puts us in the (at some times scatterbrained) mind of a city girl getting her first hand experience at country living.

The first half of the book is mostly about learning about the town and the various side characters within it and i felt that it wasn't really necessary to go into that much length about the way the houses are wired or her husband becoming a handyman. It all felt a bit slow to start and we haven't even gotten into any accounts of the Sasquatch yet. So for the opening and the middle i was a bit bored.

Then the final third to a quarter of the book has the pieces that I've been waiting for, the confrontation, the defense, the primal instincts and brutality is where it all picked up, then then it was all over and more questions opened up.
What was with that shut-in family? and that weird old lady? Is it truly over?
These questions were asked in the epilogue by one of the voices we learn has ties to main characters, which I thought was pretty cool.

I really loved World War Z when I read it years ago because the journalist account of a fictional global crisis was such a neat idea and really well executed.

This follow up book is much smaller scale about one incident to one small group of people, but still tries to tell the story in a similar way with having a few different experts and related characters interviewed as well as the majority of the story being told in journal entries of a single character who was present for the events. It mostly just feels like a standard first person narrative though with this journal conceit clumsily fit over top of it.

The story itself is fine, some of it is thrilling and there are ideas here and there that piqued my interest, but it honestly took way longer than I expected to get rolling (the first third to half of the book is just setting up the community location and it's cast of characters) and it wasn't particularly interesting or unique.

Giving this a two because I wouldn't recommend it. Read World War Z instead.

Solid read. I just wanted more. The build up was too slow and the ending wasn't quite what I had hoped for.

Bigfoot's as American as apple pie and guns in schools.

4.5 stars

While it's been a while, I loved World War Z so much that I've read it through 2 or 3 times. I was worried Devolution wouldn't live up to my recollection of Brooks' writing, but I was completely wrong. While the two books differ in content and structure, I found them both absolutely riveting. I read this in just a few sittings because I just didn't want to put it town. I found Kate to be a great narrator and the plot itself was extremely compelling. This is really a gritty reboot of the bigfoot myth, depicting them as the apex predators they would likely be. In addition to the tension and horror written into this, there's also a gentle examination of the characters themselves and the ways in which we react to tragedy and adversity. I'll be recommending this left and right for ages.

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I wonder what Hollywood horror trope Max Brooks will tackle next.

What a premise and setup. I was hooked. I was in. Then the problems started. Characters that were caricatures. Throwaway ideas and entrenched stereotyping. Suspension of disbelief can't save a continuous, deep epistolary narrative that is beyond the imagination no matter how much one tries to suspend, and a journal that becomes even less believable as the novel progresses than the positing that Sasquatch exits. A complete let down in the final chapters.

Fun but not great. He's obviously an intelligent person, and I got some mild gore. So yeah. Fun but not living up to the hype.

This was my first Max Brooks and I was really drawn to Sasquatch x epistolary style storytelling. While reading I even found an article about his inspiration for Devolution.

Brooks gives us a cast of affluent liberals who have always relied on technology while choosing to live in an isolated area with no knowledge of how to survive there without access to the internet. Maybe it's their exuberant wealth, but I did not really have much compassion for these characters. Even after various attacks from a SASQUATCH troop they seemed so disconnected from their reality. I wanted to love this so much but it just ended up feeling so flat to me. I wanted to be a lot more afraid.

Loved it and can't wait for the movie

First off, I love all things Sasquatch. There were so many times that I needed to go to sleep and found it impossible to put down this book. I cannot WAIT to see the movie!

so stupid.

Honestly? I was really excited for this, but overall: MEH.This totally lacks texture and nuance. The characters are drawn as black & white, good and bad. The main narrator is unsure but on the side of Right Thinking; Mostar is Always Correct Despite the Doubts of the Feebleminded; The rest of the residents are at best moronically naive or at worst Selfish Narcissists. Oh, and there's an appreciable amount of fat shaming thrown in to paint one of the Willfully Blind residents as particularly gross and selfish.Perhaps worst of all, people don't act like normal humans. It doesn't make sense for Mostar to jump to all the conclusions she does (she's put in that role because she's the Always Right character.) Meanwhile, it also doesn't make sense for the rest of the residents to be as blithely unworried as they are (they're put in that role to demonstrate how Mostar is Always Right.)This is annoying on multiple levels. I love Max Brooks's other books. I can see lots of possibilities here and I did like the arcs of Unsure CPA Wife and Depressed Husband responding to a survival situation. Mostar's backstory is gestured at but never explored. There was no reason behind the perplexing actions of some key characters.I honestly thought there was going to be a surprise where the Evil Violent Ape-Creatures were going to be shown to have more nuanced motivations. But no, they're just Evil Violent Ape-Creatures and the whole point is to . . . I don't know? Demonstrate how sucky nature is? Make fun of people who venerate nature? Have an excuse for detailed battle descriptions? (Which I find incredibly boring, in contrast to the tongue-in-cheek but somehow compelling analyses in [b:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead 535441 The Zombie Survival Guide Complete Protection from the Living Dead Max Brooks https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320562270l/535441.SX50.jpg 818].)On average, it's OK. Judy Greer's narration of the audiobook and the inclusion of other great voices were a saving grace. But don't go into this expecting [b:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War 8908 World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War Max Brooks https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528312647l/8908.SX50.jpg 817]. This is better than the movie adaptation of that book, but nowhere near as good as the book itself.

Started slow but picked up speed.

Okay, this book doesn't really do subtle. It's a fast paced story of (wo)man vs mythical beast which barrels along and doesn't stint on the excitement and gory violence. I have to say I struggled with the opening chapters, which are basically just awful people being awful, but it's needed to set the scene, and to lay the ground for some of the character development that comes through in the second half. Once I was in that second half I was kept rapt, and the (electronic) pages were turning faster and faster. No, it's not cordon bleu cooking, but it's a damn good cheeseburger. If you like a good monster movie, you're going to have fun with this one.