by Michelle Y. Souliere
Max Brooks' new book is, necessarily, different from its predecessors. However, it does draw upon the same steady buildup of everyday-gone-wrong that World War Z utilized so effectively. This time he gives readers a linear storyline, interspersed with interview segments and epistolary musings from those sifting through the wreckage of events, trying to put together what happened from the fragments they can gather.
The whole thing is put together cunningly. At the start of the book, because of the way it is introduced, the reader feels like they know what is going on. Kate's journal entries are innocuous enough, a little neurotic and anxiety-ridden, but in the Covid-era world, we can all understand how life drives you to previously unknown extremes due to stress, and how after a certain point, whatever has to be done to fix that will be done come hell or high water.
The other characters are introduced, and one is lulled by the normal weirdness of living isolated overall, but in close quarters with other people you might not have gotten to know so well before (again, Covid-era folks, we all know this feeling).
And then the slide begins. A cataclysm, distant but with near effects. Then side effects, then WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING NOW???
Once again, Max Brooks sneaks up and wallops readers six ways to Sunday, and leaves us shaken and deeply stirred by a very human, perhaps too-close-to-home at moments tale.
If you're looking for a good distraction, it's here. Better get it before it gets you.
On a personal note: Brooks (as always) has done his research. The conditions in this sequence of events are in some ways very similar to a series of happenings in my home state of Maine that I have been researching while writing my upcoming book, Bigfoot in Maine. Just consider that.
I have a few copies left of this hardcover available for purchase via our website, either for local pickup or mail order: https://greenhandbookshop.com/products/devolution-by-max-brooks
Note to publishers: If you have upcoming horror or speculative fiction titles which you would like to send to my shop for review in the form of a print copy, please do so. I cannot promise to review everything received, but I will do my best. I do not read egalleys, I'm an old-fashioned bookworm. Review copies can be sent to me at: Michelle Souliere, Green Hand Bookshop, 661 Congress St, Portland ME 04101
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