Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 12,045 ratings

Price: 18

Last update: 01-29-2025


About this item

The number one New York Times best-selling author of World War Z is back with “the Bigfoot thriller you didn’t know you needed in your life, and one of the greatest horror novels I’ve ever read” (Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and Recursion).

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. 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 this audiobook, 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 legendary beasts behind it. 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 heard before.

Praise for Devolution

“Delightful...[A] tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“The story is told in such a compelling manner that horror fans will want to believe and, perhaps, take the warning to heart.” (Booklist, starred review)

The Cast:
Judy Greer as Kate Holland
Nathan Fillion as Frank McCray
Kimberly Guerrero as Josephine Schell

With
Jeff Daniels as Steve Morgan
Mira Furlan as Mostar
Kate Mulgrew as Hannah Reinhardt-Roth
Steven Weber as Tony Durant
and
Terry Gross and Kai Ryssdal as themselves
and
Max Brooks as the researcher


Top reviews from the United States

  • Peter Lang
    5.0 out of 5 stars Intense read
    Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2024
    The author has a great imagination, along with scientific knowledge makes for a thrilling ride. Well written and a driving narrative make it a must read.
  • Chelsie Steinhauser
    4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining, fast read
    Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2024
    A survival tale written similarly to World War Z with a shifting interview POV format with other parts coming from a found journal. It starts out slow and it's hard to really like any of the characters at first but the book really builds up steam about halfway through. Cool ending, though there were quite a few parts that got a bit over-the-top. But still entertaining.
  • Steve Howard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Woo Hoo
    Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2024
    This was a really great read. It really kept the action going with some surprises to really make it interesting.
  • Taylor
    5.0 out of 5 stars 10/10 RECOMMENDING THIS TO EVERYONE I KNOW!!!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2024
    I just finished reading this book for the THIRD time and it isn’t getting old! It is absolutely amazing with certain spine-chilling moments that may or may not have had me scooting to a safer distance from my window while reading... There just are not any books I have come across that tell a story this well. I love it even more than WWZ if I’m being 100% honest! In my opinion, it has absolutely been labeled a “MUST READ” novel. It may be slow at first, but that is the author building the image for you. Helping you to understand the characters and all of their different personalities and also the mindset of each individual. The character development you witness is absolutely phenomenal. If I could rate it more than five stars I definitely would!!!
  • Kindle Customer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Biting social commentary. Decent book...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2021
    As a fan of the author, I want to give this book more than 3 stars, but the shallow story arc and poor characterization doesn't merit more stars in my mind. For those hoping this book will capture the excitement and pacing of world war Z, this will probably be a disappointment. The story was written as a "journal" of a 'survivor' of the first modern record of humans encountering sasquatch, and therefore was entirely written in the first person. Unfortunately, this approach seemed intriguing, but by half way through, the plot arcs of the characters were sadly one dimensional and unsatisfying. The pacing was even worse, as the author spent far to much time delving into the social commentary at the expense of any semblance of a story arc. It was obvious from early in the plot that the sasquatch 'encounter' was going to end badly, as the author made almost no attempt to hide the foreshadowing of this plot device. Instead, the author spent far to much time exploring the neurosis of a few of the characters, turning them into either card board cut outs of over privileged liberals or exhaustingly trite neurotics. Then as the pacing starts to pick up, the MC and a few of the survivors suddenly become fearsome tribal warriors. This sudden twist in the plot was sadly unrealistic and a jarring change of course for the story.
    The author weaves into the story arc some interesting observations regarding the mind set of modern life and the deception of 'getting back to nature'. The following quote seems to sum up the author's views. "All these overeducated, isolated city dwellers who idealize the natural world."
    This could have been a very enjoyable and engaging premise if the author abandoned the needless social commentary, or severely curtailed his opinions, but that is not the case. Last 30 pages or so, which encompassed the 'climatic ending', appeared as if the author suddenly realized, I need to put something interesting and exciting into this book, so let me change the characteristics of the main protagonist into a comic book hero. In spite of the glaring flaws in the story arc and pacing, there were some good sections of the plot, which if the author or editors would have focused more attention onto, the book would have been much better. Instead, it turns into a sad mush of social commentary, poorly thought out characters and a bizarre change of direction for the finale.
  • Reynawhile
    4.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
    Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2024
    I literally could not put this book down. It was a great read, just goofy enough to not be too scary while still feeling sort of believable. I felt for the characters, I became attached to them and their flaws, and I also feel inspired to work on my own emergency preparation kit...
  • Bobo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Max Brooks: Making the Implausible, Possible.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2021
    If Stephen King and Michael Crichton had worked together to write a book about Bigfoot, this is exactly what I would have imagined it would be like. The best, most entertaining book I've read since Jurassic Park. Kept me spellbound to the very last page. My only criticism, its too damn short! At just under 300 pages I wasn't nearly ready for it to end. I grew up in the 70s when Bigfoot mania was probably at its highest. Like millions of other boys my age, I was a Believer, through and through. Or more to the point, I WANTED to believe more than anything that Bigfoot really existed. As I got older I've become more and more cynical about the whole thing. I just couldn't get past the one roadblock in my mind. After all this time, why not any skeletal remains? I mean, dinosaurs millions of years old have been found and fully assembled in museums, so why not Bigfoot? It just didn't make sense to me. Then the single best piece of evidence seemed to be refuted once and for all. The famous Paterson Bigfoot film. Two of the people involved claimed it was a hoax. Then one day I'm on Amazon looking for a good horror novel to read and I see Max Brooks has a new book out. The same guy who wrote the best Zombie novel ever, World War Z. When I saw it was about a Bigfoot Massacre, coming after a volcanic eruption on MT. Ranier, I groaned and almost took a pass on it. Sounds stupid, I thought. But I really do like how Max Brooks writes and I couldn't find anything else that struck my fancy. So I took a chance and bought the hardcover book (I hate e-books). Turns out Devolution is even better than World War Z! Brooks has this amazing ability to make the implausible totally plausible and entertaining at the same time. I LOVE this book! It allowed me to again believe in the possibility of Bigfoot! It made me feel like that ten year old boy again, reading under the covers at night about Bigfoot encounters and sightings. I truly hope that Mr. Brooks will try his hand now at other childhood mysteries that aroused my imagination back then. The Loch Ness Monster. UFO's. The Jersey Devil. Mothman. The list goes on and on.

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