Greenloop is a high-tech, eco-friendly community in the Pacific Northwest that gets cut off from the world when Mount Rainier erupts. Weeks later, when rescuers are finally able to reach the town, they discover there has been a massacre, and everyone is dead. The only clue as to what happened comes in the form of an uncovered journal of one of the residents that explains that Greenloop was besieged by a pack of massive beasts—by Bigfoot and his family. Although I’m not usually interested in Sasquatch lore, this book is told through a series of journal entries, which makes the whole thing feel creepier, more believable, and more thrilling than it has any right to be.
Despite not being interested in the subject matter, I was willing to try this book because Max Brooks is the author of World War Z, one of my favorite Sci-Fi books of all time (S tier), which is also told through a series of journal entries and interviews. Don’t get me wrong, Devolution is nowhere near as good as that book. Part of what made World War Z so fascinating is that the journal entries and interviews are from different viewpoints from all over the world, so the book is not only an exciting zombie story, but also a powerful social commentary. On the other hand, just about all of the journal entries in Devolution are from a single character, so the social commentary is much more limited.
What you do get is a reasonably-entertaining survival story, with a few compelling characters, and a little bit of poking fun at rich techies (e.g., from Silicon Valley). It’s not the kind of book that sticks with you for years (like World War Z), but it’s still a fun read.
