After Mount Rainier erupts, an affluent community is cut off from civilization – and soon find itself beset by bloodthirsty sasquatch.
"Devolution" (Del Rey, 282 pp., ★★ out of four) is presented as a compilation of primary sources, from interviews with forest rangers to NPR think pieces, that the author is using to piece together the fate of the residents of Greenloop. The bulk of the novel is comprised of the journal entries of Kate Holland, as she recounts how her few isolated neighbors were massacred by a tribe of killer beasts.
This “found document” technique has produced many great novels, but over-reliance on the diary form in particular comes dangerously close to making "Devolution" implausible from the start. It’s hard to imagine Kate, in a race against time to defeat murderous apes, regularly pausing to scribble down hundreds of pages of observations and dialogue.
Diary-form problems notwithstanding, the action sequences are riveting – the hulking sasquatches make for thrillingly fearsome opponents. Brooks ("World War Z") is a master at setting up tense moments, as when Kate stares out into the woods, scanning for enemies, “trying not to memorize every tree, rock, patch of open space, to see if any of them change between glances.”
The community of Greenloop is progressive living run amok, “all these overeducated, isolated city dwellers who idealize the natural world.” The inhabitants hit the page as cartoonish liberal clichés, played so broadly that it’s hard to care much about any of them. If the author had written the characters more endearingly, or with more humor (as Maria Semple did for a similar milieu in her "Where’d You Go, Bernadette"), the satire might work, but it’s a head-scratching combination with this horror story of brutal killer apes.
It’s not clear just what the author intends us to feel: Are we supposed to be rooting for the self-satisfied residents, or for the displaced killer sasquatches? The answer could be neither. "Devolution’s" mocking attitude toward its characters comes at the cost of its suspense.
There’s some fascinating thematic meat to the story, which looks at how humans have commandeered the environment, rather than adapting to it – and how that incursion can have lethal consequences. Kate especially has a moving journey from victim to hero, coming out stronger on the other side after asking, early in the novel, “Why are we always looking for someone else to save us instead of trying to save ourselves?”
"Devolution" is an ambitious mishmash of individually interesting pieces. Not quite sharp enough for compelling satire, a little too sneering for effective horror, it will find plenty of readers among devotees of Brooks, but will be a miss for most general readers.
Reading to find out how to survive a Bigfoot attack? The characters of "Devolution" discover what’s perhaps the best answer: “Denial. Hope. Xanax.”
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Review: 'World War Z' author Max Brooks wreaks havoc with Bigfoot in 'Devolution' - USA TODAY
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