I would recommend Max Brooks’ Devolution to anyone, but especially to fans of Brooks’ World War Z, Bobcat Goldthwait’s Willow Creek and the History Channel’s 2007 series, MonsterQuest. Told mostly through the firsthand journal account of Kate Holland, it’s interspersed with interviews with several people who either knew her or were involved in trying to piece together both her disappearance and the aftermath on the community she left behind.
Shortly after Holland and her husband move to a cultured Utopian living community called Greenloop, they get the uneasy feeling that they’re not alone. Only one community member immediately agrees with them; the others choose to ignore or explain away several warning signs.
Set against a backdrop of a devastating eruption of Mt. Rainier and the ill-equipped isolation it creates for Greenloop, Devolution first examines our growing dependence on technology, our increasing inability to intuit and accept the truth, and our ever-expanding forays into precious habitats. As the book progresses, two more questions emerge: Has the wild survival instinct within us truly disappeared? And . . . is there any sound more frightening than a Sasquatch thwacking a log against a tree? (I’d say only a Werewolf growl and it’s a tight competition.)
Good luck putting this one down!
Review by Sarah Maciejewski of the Children’s Room.
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