Ones to Watch in 2020: Devolution Max Brooks.


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.

I LOVED this.

A one sitting read and straight onto my favourite books list, Devolution tells the tale of volcanic eruption, chaos and confusion, whilst one woman and her community face a fight of an entirely different kind…

Told via diary entries, interviews and news reports, Devolution is a highly addictive, totally involving tale that harks back to the fears of our childhood, the monsters that roam just beyond our vision, that in this book become horrifyingly real. The characters are pitch perfect, Kate Holland especially so, she could be any one of us thrown into a fight for survival where the smallest decisions can have irrevocable consequences.

The descriptive sense within Devolution is also quite brilliant, the subtle unnerving tones building the fear, some of it visceral and sudden, other parts quietly disturbing. The science is also scarily sound, it isn’t that difficult whilst reading it to take the leap into believing it is all too real..

Bigfoot is iconic, a legend born from so many possibilities – Max Brooks takes that here and turns it around on itself, making it in the head of the reader as if it is actually so, Kate’s battle is both personal and practical and you will live it with her to the bittersweet, cleverly thought provoking end.

Beautifully imagined, intelligently executed, Devolution comes highly recommended from me.

You can pre order Devolution (Century) Here.

Happy Reading!

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