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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
A book covered with Max Brook's philosophical fingerprints like physical labor being cleansing for the soul, distrust for FEMA and dislike for modern yuppies who lack basic self-sufficiency, all wrap up with writing so good that even with most of the main cast being women it didn't come off as 2000s girlboss flick
p.s. Dan is literally me
p.s. Dan is literally me
listened to the audiobook, which i think did a lot for my enjoyment. it was fine. it didn’t wow me and it took too long to get going but i enjoyed the last 1/4 of it.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The book has a slow start and honestly goes on a bit too long. Our journal author, Katie, was hard to like at first but grew on me eventually. Mostar was the MVP of the story. Unfortunately I found the rest of the characters to be lackluster and forgettable.
I enjoyed the deep dive into Bigfoot lore, but I wish the journal aspect was more like an actual journal and less like a first person narrative. Some of the entries and included interviews/ quotes seemed gratuitous in an attempt to replicate the successful format of World War Z. However I found it missed the mark.
It was a fun read but nothing to write home about.
I enjoyed the deep dive into Bigfoot lore, but I wish the journal aspect was more like an actual journal and less like a first person narrative. Some of the entries and included interviews/ quotes seemed gratuitous in an attempt to replicate the successful format of World War Z. However I found it missed the mark.
It was a fun read but nothing to write home about.
I really liked this one. The author didn’t spend too much time on why the journal writer was in this secluded town, yet I wish he’d said more about why the husband Dan was the way he was (was it simply depression?). The way the Sasquatch appeared and how they dealt with it was interesting to me - because it seemed believable for the most part. The interviews and clips from books were a nice touch, too. Near the end there was a bit more gore than I was thinking, but it seemed to fit with the way they were describing the urgency of the beasts.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a diary and interview style survival thriller that felt real. It was creepy, tense, and the audio really helped to build the growing dread. Another perfect spooky pick for my snowy commute…I wanted to get there slower to keep listening.
Energy: Uncertain. Foreboding. Instinctive.
🐕 Howls: The ending is open, we get very little resolution, but for me that made it feel more like something that really happened. If you hate diary entries that start to read like novels, this has that to a certain extent (like, she must have had a lot of time to write and really strong wrists!).
🐩 Tail Wags: How I felt the tension of being trapped and cut off from the world. Wondering how and when things will go horribly wrong. That it’s told mostly through diary entries. The slice-of-life peek into a remote eco-community. Getting the day-to-day insights as characters adapted to an off-the-grid lifestyle, while ominous threats loomed in the background. The full cast audio. Showing how the different personalities cope under pressure and switch from being successful in modern life to struggling when their safety net is gone (and vice versa). The focus on the creeping dread.
Scene: 🇺🇸 Greenloop Community near Mount Rainier, Washington, USA
Perspective: Epistolary. The diary entries of an individual who is staying in her uncle’s house for a bit with their partner. NPR style radio/podcast interviews with the community founder. Author introduction and interviews with surviving family members.
Timeline: 2010s. September, October. Mostly linear.
🔥 Fuel: What happened to the Greenloops community? How will they survive after the eruption? How will the community dynamics change as things get more dire? What is in the woods entering the community at night?
📖 Cred: Realistic
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Volcanic eruption. Drone-deliveries. Eggs and garbage. Deer and rabbits. Car radio. Solar panels. Bamboo spikes. Common house.
- Metafiction being told a story, reading through stream of consciousness diary entries and interviews
- Casual, immersive, intimate, journalistic writing
- Slowly evolving mini-apocalyptic situations
- Missing 411 stay-out-of-the-woods energy
- Exploration of entitlement, preparation, humans as animals, ignorance, instinct, cultural perspectives, and how anxiety serves us
- Man vs nature survival thriller
- The follies of romanticizing nature
- Likeable, relatable, sympathetic, and annoying characters
- Eco community gone wrong
- Primal rage action-adventure
- Things that go bump in the night cryptids
- Desperate measures, dropping like flies
- Isolated, remote tech setting
- Power dynamics, psychological mind games with the enemy
- Theme of redemption, purpose, sacrifice, vengeance, and worth
Content Heads-Up: Animal attacks (fatal). Animal death (hunting, defense). Community/societal collapse. Corpses (discovery, handling of). Cultural appropriation. Heart issues. Loss of loved ones. Natural disasters (earthquake, volcanic eruption). War, starvation (discussed; implied; brief memories).
Rep: American. Bangladeshi American. Serbian American (I think?). Jewish American. Cis. Hetero. Lesbian. Olive and pale skin tones.
📚 Format: Audible + Kindle
💖 Musings powered by puppy snuggles 🐶
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Animal death, Cultural appropriation
Minor: War
Sparse on characterization, but Brooks's version of the "found footage" book is hella fun.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was a ride the neurotic whine of the opening journal to the epilogue that attempts to describe the destruction that ensued. Great mix of journal entries, interviews, and other related ephemera.