DEVOLUTION BY ​MAX BROOKS: BOOK REVIEW

First zombies, now Bigfoot; what next Max Brooks?
Whatever you do stay well away from the Loch Ness Monster!

In 2006 Max Brooks gave us the huge break-out hit World War Z, later turned into the blockbuster film of the same name starring Brad Pitt, and I will be amazed if this bland treatment of Bigfoot replicates this earlier success. At the time World War Z had a very fresh approach, presenting itself as a non-fictional account, written by survivors and scientists, on what occurred during a worldwide zombie holocaust. Max Brooks tries to use the same non-fictional trick with Devolution, but it falls flat, failing to deliver on every level. In the fourteen years since his bestselling debut Brooks has published no longer fiction and only a few graphic novels, so perhaps his inactivity is significant in returning with the same format. I hope this author is not a one trick pony; but whatever you do next Max, please stay well away from the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie deserves much better than this kind of treatment.
 
Whereas World War Z pulled in a startlingly large range of resources and documents to make the product creepily believable, Devolution is the absolute opposite.  Proceedings rely almost entirely upon the journal/diary of Kate Holland, and over almost 300-turgid pages we are presented with seventeen journal entries, spread from September 22nd to October 17th. These entries dominate the book, and everything else comes across as bland unnecessary padding, such as interviews conducted by Kate with park rangers, scientists and others with insider knowledge of Bigfoot. Conspiracy theories are also given a passing mention in Kate’s musings, but Devolution relies so heavily on this journal/diary one wonders why Brooks just did not write a straight horror thriller about Bigfoot? Ultimately the shadow of World War Z seriously holds this book back, as it seems he is grasping at straws attempting to make the subject matter more interesting than it really is. Alma Katzu recently showed with The Hunger (2018) that strong horror novels can be built around historical mysteries (the Donner Party disappearance) and perhaps Bigfoot should have been tackled in a similar way, rather than repeating the style used in World War Z. 
 
Does anyone else out there think Bigfoot is old hat? Do these beasts not belong in ‘man versus nature’ movies made for TV along with Grizzly back in the 1970s and eighties? I appreciate there are current Facebook pages on Bigfoot sightings and that the phenomenon plays an important part in American culture and in Cryptozoology, but Devolution brings absolutely nothing new to the table and if you are a Bigfoot enthusiast prepare to be seriously underwhelmed by this book. The creatures are barely in the story, apart from a few hints here and there, action is minimal until well proceedings, and when they finally do appear, I struggled to decide who were the most boring characters; the creatures or the humans.
 
Proceedings open with a journalist doing research into a volcanic eruption at Mount Rainier which led to widespread destruction, and if an article in an obscure cryptozoological website was to believed “Bigfoot destroys town” written by Frank McCray, who was the sister of Kate Holland.  The volcanic eruption has knock-on effects on both wildlife and remoter communities, including ‘Greenloop’ where Kate worked before her mysterious disappearance. This was an eco-friendly, high-end tech savvy community where most of the novel is set and where Kate writes her journal. By the end of the introduction Frank has sent the journalist Kate’s journal, hoping he will publish it….
 
Considering how famous the Bigfoot myth is in the USA I was surprised Brooks does not make more of its history. Little is made of the many hoaxes or other stories and tries to explain it away by saying that many of the most famous sightings took place in periods where there was a lot of distrust in the government and so they were filed in the ‘crazy’ file, along with the UFOs. One wonders if the book might have played differently if some humour was built around the Bigfoot mythology, something entirely lacking in proceedings. There were plenty of opportunities to stray into X-Files territory, but the author obviously decided against it.
 
The overall premise is too simplistic: a volcanic eruption brings a ‘troop’ of Bigfoot (or should that be Bigfeet?) down from the mountains and they quickly encroach upon those living at Greenloop and the surrounding area. This was a very weak central plot, but that was all there was, and there was just not enough going on to make it either interesting or entertaining. The story could have played out without all the extra paddings, the interviews etc, they were all very superficial and added little to proceedings. If these extra documents were included to make the reader take everything more ‘seriously’ they failed miserably. As a foreigner, or non-American, neither do I feel I picked up any new information on the Bigfoot subject, which was a missed opportunity. Also, time has not been kind to this style of ‘docu-drama’ fiction since World War Z first appeared fourteen years ago, especially since television has really advanced with similar realistic complex docu-drama. Devolution might make a fun docu-drama but, in the right hands, it would make an even better mocumentary. 
 
Devolution was a complete misfire which I would avoid like the plague. If you want to write a novel about huge nasty monsters which hide in the forests then go ahead, hell, I’ll be happy to read it. But it is the turgid way the source material is presented that is the most startling failure and Bigfoot, wherever he or she is, deserved much better than this. Nessie beware, Max Brooks might be coming to tarnish your legend next. 
 
1/5
 
Tony Jones

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.

But 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 beasts behind it, once thought legendary but now known to be terrifyingly real.
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.
Yet it is also far more than that.
Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us – and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.
Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it – and like none you’ve ever read before.

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