hardcover, 304 pages
Published June 16, 2020 by Del Rey.
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 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 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 …
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 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 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 read before. ~ from dust jacket.
I listened to the audiobook. After reading some other reviews it seems the voice acting is pretty polarizing, but I enjoyed it. Overall solid, but the first five-ish hours of the book are spent moving slow (a little too slow for me) and building the characters/relationships. The last three hours are relatively action packed, but almost feel a bit rushed.
Max does write an entertaining book, I really enjoyed this
Very entertaining and full of action, a great summer read.
Not for me, but I could see the appeal of it. This review contains no spoilers.
The book is up-front in the introduction letting you know that what follows is a re-telling of horrific events that have already happened in-fiction. That's not an issue in itself - if anything it sets up the plot as a mystery that you already know the end result of, tempting you to figure out how things got to that point - but it did kind of set me off on the wrong foot with respect to the characters. The fact that I already "knew" the outcome kind of forced me to mentally keep myself at arm's length from the characters, aware of the risk of becoming too attached to them when I already know they're gonna have a bad time.
Unfortunately, that wasn't hard to do, as most of the characters are (initially) plenty …
Not for me, but I could see the appeal of it. This review contains no spoilers.
The book is up-front in the introduction letting you know that what follows is a re-telling of horrific events that have already happened in-fiction. That's not an issue in itself - if anything it sets up the plot as a mystery that you already know the end result of, tempting you to figure out how things got to that point - but it did kind of set me off on the wrong foot with respect to the characters. The fact that I already "knew" the outcome kind of forced me to mentally keep myself at arm's length from the characters, aware of the risk of becoming too attached to them when I already know they're gonna have a bad time.
Unfortunately, that wasn't hard to do, as most of the characters are (initially) plenty unlikeable, to the point where I think it was intentional. You got the tech bro, the yoga mom, the vegans, the old-timey academic blowhard; like yeah, it's a diverse cast of stereotypes, but you're not rooting for any of them. I think the intention was to have them change as a result of the main conflict over the course of the book and become more likeable later on, but barring one or two exceptions, they didn't roll all the way over for me.
I'm not as well-versed in the horror genre as I'd like to be, but it's a new interest to me and I want to become more familiar with it. That's why I went into this book wanting to like it. But a variety of minor pet peeves (most of the journal entries are written in first person, whereas I have a strong preference for third-person limited) and larger decisions the author made with the narrative made me adopt a, "let's get this over with" mindset by the time I was two-thirds of the way through the book.
More specifically - and avoiding spoilers - I wish the mystery as to what was really out in the woods was dragged out a little longer, and I wish the end wasn't so needlessly violent. I think if I were a teenager or even in middle school I would've read the climax and been like, "holy shit, that was awesome," but now as an adult I'm left thinking, "there was probably a better way to unsettle me than that." Ironically, I did read another of Max Brooks' works (World War Z) literally over a decade ago when I was in high school and remember really enjoying it. But I don't know that I would enjoy it as much a second time around if this read was anything to go by. And that's okay! I know exactly the kind of people who would read this and love it, but I'm not one of them.
fucking excellent
OMG I was literally having nightmares while reading this book! Fighting bigfoot over my eggplants! This was such good read. Very very well done. Loved how it addressed the craziness of not being prepared for any kind of disaster and then showing how one reacts and adapts to the disaster.
