Rating: 3 / 5
DEVOLUTION: A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE RAINIER SASQUACH MASSACRE by Max Brooks is a mixed media story including a mix of found footage of a firsthand story and interviews about the situation. When Mount Rainier erupts, it is a massive disaster leaving rescue entities scrambling. One small community is entirely cut off and essentially forgotten. Through the journal recordings of Kate, the story slowly comes to light of strange creatures never before seen and their attack on the humans at their mercy.
This is a book that I would absolutely recommend on audio. There is a full cast for the various pieces of the story and many of them are actors that you will recognize. I spent quite a bit of time consulting the cast list to figure out why a character sounded so familiar. I did enjoy my time with the story and I found it entertaining, I don’t think it would have been as fun reading in print.
The story itself is fairly slow burn. It also crosses the line into bizarre and you absolutely need to suspend a lot of disbelief. There were places in the story where I had wished to have things a bit more fleshed out and a few of the characters blurred together a bit for me. That said, I do think the author did well to show how different people would handle situations differently.
The nature of the book is to have things be a bit open ended so this isn’t one I’d recommend if you are looking for a happy ending with everything tied up in a neat bow. Still, it was a fun read overall!
Reading Challenges:
#The52BookClub2023 – a book with a subtitle
DG Reads 