DEVOLUTION: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
Book Release Date: 05/20/21
Audio Release Date: 06/16/20
CAST: Judy Greer, Max Brooks, Jeff Daniels, Nathan Fillion, Mira Furlan, Terry Gross, Kimberly Guerrero, Kate Mulgrew, Kai Ryssdal, Steven Weber
By Jenny Robinson
You had me at Big Foot.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we would hear the stories of the Sasquatch. Some stories had a lone friendly beast, and others had aggressive shrewdness monsters. I personally always want the Progressive Insurance type of Big Foot, friend of man (or at least if man ever saw them). In true character, Max Brooks dives into the latter monster version.
I usually do Max Brooks books as audiobooks. His tales fit well with a full cast due to his journalistic approach in storytelling. Listening to World War Z or Devolution feels like watching a documentary or reading a private journal first hand. Devolution fit that mold perfectly.
Devolution revolves around my biggest fear while growing up near Seattle. What would happen if Mt. Rainer erupted? Many of the suburban towns around the city sit in the valleys that were formed last time it went BOOM! The environmental crusaders around the area makes remote living a desired life choice with a contradiction towards a lot of tech dependency. When you add all those elements together, you can see how it would be a picture perfect world, or a disaster waiting to happen. The town of Greenloop sets a perfect backdrop to this thriller for that exact reason.
The story is mostly told through the journal pages of Kate Holland (read by Judy Greer). It’s the first hand account of what happened in Greenloop once Rainer blew. Her account is told from her journal and reads more like a conversation directly with her character. Greer emotes the fear and uncertainty of Kate in a way that had me both annoyed and empathetic to her Souther Californian based character. As the story develops though, Brooks gives hints at some hidden strengths I didn’t initially see. Listening to this character evolve through the mayhem was an entertaining journey that allows a lot of revelations in hind-sight.
The story begins simply with an article sent to a journalist (read by Max Brooks) titled “Bigfoot Destroys Town”. Nathan Fillion dives into the articles author Frank McCray’s character who is in search of his missing sister Kate. Chapter by chapter, the narration alternates from Kate’s viewpoint to those of Frank, Senior Ranger Josephine Schell (played by Kimberly Guerrero) and other researcher’s survivalist theories. Kate’s story becomes more of a flashback as it progresses. The narrator and supporting cast lead the story as more educational and instructional than fiction normally shows. This writing style works so well as a listener. I felt as if I was deep in Kate’s story, yet breaking away every chapter’s end for knowledgeable insight.
Majority of this story rotates around the idea of survivalism. If you had no way to Google how to grow food, could you? What if you couldn’t access maps online, or use a compass not connected to wi-fi? If you knew nothing of an animal’s behavior, are you protecting yourself in the best way or endangering yourself? Do you have an escape route? Do you have supplies to survive a few days or months if stranded? We are told all the time to have a plan organized incase of a disaster, yet very few people do.
So now we have a story of city folk without internet, limited survival skills, and living in a secluded area overran by the hardships of nature because they didn’t think about what could happen. That idea is scary enough. How do you extend the small amount of food each home has when the drones and Amazon vans can no longer deliver more? How do you keep the power grid on? All of these (and more) are vary valid and crucial questions posed in this story. Now, let’s throw in gigantic smart ape-like creatures that think you are dinner.
Listening to each actor of this considerable cast adjust their characters through the horrific events makes for a truly chilling listen. There is a theme where the weak find strength and those who appeared strong become the weakest. Whether you read or listen, I encourage the horror fan in everyone to dive into this one. I really enjoyed the migration of modern man meets ancient Sasquatch.
Excerpt from the book:
At present, I have no physical evidence to validate the story you are about to read. Maybe I’ve been duped by Frank McCray, or maybe we’ve both been duped by Josephine Schell. I will let you, the reader, judge for yourself if the following pages seem reasonably plausible, and like me, if they reawaken a terror long buried under the bed of youth.