Max Brooks' Devolution is written in his signature Fiction masquerading as non-fiction. This is my favourite of his books, its written well with a good mixture of diary entries from one of the residents, interviews with experts and his own investigation but somehow manages to still build tension and suspense as if it was coming from a narrator in the present. I never thought I could enjoy a monster horror about Big Foot so much. It truly felt believable and should be on your list to read if a fan of Max Brooks or the horror genre in general.

Max Brooks has left me very uneasy and I'm not going to lie, I'm 'slightly' freaked out! I was reading this at a slow pace to begin with then from 40% onwards I just consumed this read within hours. It was pretty captivating. With each diary entry, interview and quote, I was becoming more and more anxious. It's 11.30pm I should be going to sleep but how can I after reading this! Maybe not such a good idea reading this so close to bedtime! This is in fact my FIRST read by this author... I know, SHOCKING. After this I am definitely going to explore this authors work more. Devolution is perfect for horror and sci-fi/fantasy readers.

The first thing that I noticed about Devolution was how flawlessly Brooks writes from a female perspective. I was able to slip into the mindset of Kate Holland easily without recognising that it was a male author writing a female character. You’re probably thinking that gender shouldn’t play a role and you’re right, it shouldn’t. But I’ve read some truly awful books written by male authors with female protagonists where it’s clear that it’s important to them and was on their mind when they were writing the book. In the case of Devolution, Brooks’ narration just flowed completely naturally. Whether it was from Kate Holland’s journal entries or interviews with her brother or Senior Park Ranger Josephine Schell. The bulk of the book is made up of Kate’s journal entries and told from her perspective, with each chapter packaged with interview snippets to add context. It’s like watching a film; you get to see what every character is doing. Unlike a film, this is set up like a documentary with Brooks acting as a researcher who is putting all the evidence together in one book. In general, I was quite impressed with how many random facts and thought-provoking points Brooks managed to ease into the narrative without seeming as though he was flooding the reader with facts. Unlike hard science fiction authors, everything came naturally as part of the character’s design and conversation. Greenloop is not a prototype, but it is the first of its kind created by the Cygnus company, and it’s not cheap to get a house in the community. The residents are primarily academics, people who don’t need to live in the city to work and have made a fortune being smart. It provides Brooks with the perfect platform to offer information up to the reader without seeming as though that is exactly what he is doing. There were a few things that bothered me about the book and the first is the format of Kate’s diaries. She writes down word for word every single conversation she has with her neighbours, and I’m sure some readers probably thought “ah well, she’s just got an excellent memory!” and excused it. The problem for me is that I do have a very good memory, as close to a photographic/eidetic memory as is actually possible (no one has a perfect photographic memory where they can regurgitate exact details of everything). Even if you can remember the majority of a conversation you can’t remember it word for word. There’s a degree of uncertainty, of ad-lib. It’s not word for word-perfect which is what is exactly what is found in Devolution. The interviews are written with more realism, it’s just the diaries that are too perfect and read like fiction. My other biggest issue is how they choose to defend themselves against the monsters. Brooks does an excellent job of explaining why certain methods of defence are not possible, however, other very obvious ones are completely ignored in favour of going for the most stereotypical horror survival showdown. We already know a massacre happens; it’s in the book synopsis. So readers expect it. It’s why they picked up the book and Brooks delivers it. It’s well written, it’s terrifying, and I’m still sitting there reading it thinking X why didn’t they use that?! Perhaps that is Brook’s entire point; when faced with a predator that puts us lower down on the food train we stop thinking like an intelligent and resourceful species as devolution takes place. In a way being who and what I am, someone with an academic and research background, I ruined this book a little for myself and took away some of the magic. The huge amount of research that has gone into this book is amazing, and then you get to the character creation. Every single character is unique, and completely believable, including the witnesses that Brooks interviews. The Senior Ranger Josephine Schell especially is written so well that I actually wonder if Brooks did interview a ranger from the United States National Park Service as part of his research for this book. Despite what I found out in my research, I came away from Devolution educated. I learned things which is what Max Brooks wants. I learned that coconut water is the best natural hydrator in the world, for example, which I never knew. I learned about homes being build from recycled materials and got curious enough to look to see whether they had already become a reality. I’m sure I won’t be the only one, so I got plenty from Devolution even if I wasn’t a huge fan of the story. So give it a shot, see what you learn :)