Devolution by Max Brooks
Welcome to my Bookshelf!
I have another blog about the absurdity of my life, but I decided to branch out and create one that just focuses on my love of stories and sharing my thoughts on them! And where I could be writing about the first few weeks of being a public high school administrator in a virtual/ remote learning environment, I don’t think I’m mentally ready to tackle that, so here I am looking at my bookshelf finding peace in a chaotic world.
Instead, I’m eager to talk about some of the books that I have read over the pandemic! I love books and reading. I’m a big fan of holding the physical book in my hands and smelling the amazingness that is a brand new book. I’m not one who sticks to a certain genre either. Obviously, I have my favorites, but I have found that variety is the spice of life when you read as much as I do. It’s really hard to read the same thing continuously. I also find it beneficial to not read a whole series one book after another. I have found in the past, that sometimes I get bored with the storyline and the characters if I don’t have that break.
And, I LOVE book series. I am a big fan of books that can develop characters and plots to such depth that it can carry over multiple books. Beyond that, my favorite genres tend to be dystopic, young adult (remember, I spend the majority of my day in a high school working with teenagers and was a English teacher for 14 years!), fantasy, and contemporary fiction. However, I will ready a good sci-fi, romance, or historical fiction if it sounds interesting enough.
Since 2020 started I have read The Scholar by Dervia Mctiernan, Children of VIrtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, and the Queen of Nothing by Holly Black just to name a few. I am not going to review any of these books in this blog. However, I was just whatever about Adeyemi’s sequel, but surprisingly enjoyed Collin’s prequel which developed the Hunger Games antagonist, Cornelius Snow.
Without any further ado, welcome to the Book Shelf!
The books I am going to delve into are some I read off a few lists from different book clubs that I follow. I find that I’m always looking for new books to add to my wish list and book clubs tend to be a great source for these. I particularly like Barnes and Noble’s book club as they release not just their monthly book club book, but also several other picks each month. As a result, I will be reflecting on my thoughts and feelings about All Adults Here by Emma Straub, Devolution by Max Brooks, Vox by Christine Dalcher and Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland.
I’m already what I would normally consider to be halfway through my article, so these are not going to be fully fleshed out reviews. I almost feel that I have to get caught up so in the future, I can go into more depth, one book at a time. Be aware that there will be some spoilers, but I will do my best to keep them at a minimum; however, there are definitely some things that I need to talk about. So, here we go. These mini-reviews will also be presented in order of my favorite to my least favorite.
DEVOLUTION by Max Brooks
This was by far one of my favorites during the Pandemic, and I highly recommend it. I will say, it was not scary or suspenseful, but it was very well written, structured, and developed. Welcome to Greenloop, Washington. Not a town or city, basically just an isolated neighborhood of six houses and a community house that reek of Bill Gates Technology. Form solar panels to human excrement used to power the houses. No stores or hospitals. You need supplies Amazon is dropping it off with drones or driverless vans. It’s the perfect setting for a Jason-esce axe murder or an attack by a pack of Sasquatch.
What I liked most about the book was it was written primarily in the form of a journal written by one of the residents of Greenloop, Kate. She writes frequently on the request of her therapist and is later “found” when rescue crews eventually find the neighborhood. The journal narration is broken up throughout by interviews with that conducted by Kate’s brother,a member of the Geological association, and a few other experts on Bigfoot. The structure makes sense, if you look just at the full title of the book you know that there is a massacre and it would be difficult to write a 1st person point of view book if the main character is potentially dying. Just be prepared for a lot of rambling from Kate at the beginning as she is REALLY excited about being there.
The characters themselves are extremely diverse which I also enjoyed, even though I felt that they didn’t all get the attention they deserved when they met their demise. There is a couple that goes crazy, a lesbian couple with a young daughter, and Mostar, the kick-ass, military woman who may be the smartest character in the whole book. Then you have Kate and her distant husband and a few other characters to fill up the six houses. Characters can make or break a book, and these characters really do make this one. Where you know going in that at least the majority of the characters are going to die, it makes it a little more difficult when you begin to like them all and the dynamic that they create.
The tension between some of the characters when things in town begin to get a little suspicious is an intriguing little side plot to the actual issue at hand, but it fills in the rising action of the plot since Kate never even mentions the word “Bigfoot” in her journal until chapter 12, well, if you look past the random mention in chapter 3. Tony, the “leader” of the town and his wife seem to go insane when their leadership is questioned, which I found a little weird, but I also think that they had the most action packed demise of any of the characters. That makes me sound really weird.
The pace of the plot is also brilliantly laid out for the read. You don’t jump right into Bigfoot attacks, but you also don’t go from a peaceful, utopia world to everyone bloody and dead. Where the idea of Bigfoot doesn’t even get mentioned by the town until about halfway through the book, there are sightings and hints that let you know that they are there in the trees surrounding the town. The believability of the whole thing sucked me in as well. It made sense that this pack of Sasquatch invaded this community. There is logic that after the eruption of Mt. Rainier that these creatures would be pushed out of their natural habitat and have to look for a new source of food.
The only two things I wasn’t thrilled about with the book are the following:
I feel that for the importance that Mostar played in the book, her death was very much underwhelming and not worthy of her status. It was almost treated like an afterthought. She should have been given a more dramatic scene considering the time that was spent on Tony and his wife, Yvette’s Deaths.
I’m not a huge fan of books that don’t have a clear solid ending. I like loose ends being tied up nicely. However, here Max Brooks decided to allow the readers to decide what ultimately happens to Kate. I guess it makes sense, I mean if she died, she’d be dead and wouldn’t be able write about it in her journal.
Where is this book on my book shelf? Definitely on the top shelf (out of 3). I didn’t fin d the book scary or even very suspenseful. It was just a really good read, and I highly recommend it. It is easy to lose track of time when reading it because you do just get lost in the ease of narrative and the descriptive writing. I am left with a desire to know what Bigfoot jerky tastes like.
Ok, lesson learned: I have way too much to say about these books, so since I am already over 1350 words, you will have to wait until my next “BookShelf” review to see which of the remaining three books is my next favorite. Sorry ‘bout that.
If you’ve read this book, I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts on it. And what shelf it lands on on your bookshelf - top, middle or bottom! Please click here to leave a comment!
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