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Devil of the Forest
SOMETIMES IT TAKES AN ABOMINABLE THREAT TO AWAKEN THE MONSTER WITHIN…
Hailey Card is a tenacious young science journalist with big plans for her career, but when her magazine looks to attract new readers with stories beyond the fringe of established science, Hailey is sent to the mountains of the pacific northwest, where she’ll join a group of grizzled researchers in pursuit of America’s most notorious cryptozoological creature…
Three-thousand miles from her civilized New York life, Hailey’s skepticism soon turns to terror, and when she and the crew find themselves hunted by monsters both human and otherwise, all of Hailey’s city-slicker sophistication yields to the most primal of animal
Fight or Flight.
A tale of Bigfoot, bad guys, and one woman’s ride to the brink of utter madness, Devil of the Forest builds with thrills and spills to a climax that will leave you seeing devils everywhere—even the face in the mirror.
Hailey Card is a tenacious young science journalist with big plans for her career, but when her magazine looks to attract new readers with stories beyond the fringe of established science, Hailey is sent to the mountains of the pacific northwest, where she’ll join a group of grizzled researchers in pursuit of America’s most notorious cryptozoological creature…
Three-thousand miles from her civilized New York life, Hailey’s skepticism soon turns to terror, and when she and the crew find themselves hunted by monsters both human and otherwise, all of Hailey’s city-slicker sophistication yields to the most primal of animal
Fight or Flight.
A tale of Bigfoot, bad guys, and one woman’s ride to the brink of utter madness, Devil of the Forest builds with thrills and spills to a climax that will leave you seeing devils everywhere—even the face in the mirror.
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2016
52 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 20, 2017
You know how you see a book that talks about being a Bigfoot story but turns into the story of a whiny useless female instead? Yes, this is that book.
Hailey has convinced herself that she is going to get promoted to junior editor of the magazine, despite being in big trouble two weeks earlier for an article she wrote that upset some very influential people. She was so confident that she told the office gossip about it and now everybody knows what is going on when Hailey is called in to see the boss. Imagine her shock in finding out that the boss never even considered her for the position which embarrassing for her, has gone to her lover. She behaves like a complete idiot in the interview, protesting about it, whining, declaring that she believed she was right for the post and the whole time I was gritting my teeth and willing her to shut the hell up!
So instead, Hailey is being sent on a Bigfoot hunt with her scientific hero Preston, who of course is a repulsive, drunken, leering moron. She isn't interested in in but isn't happy when the airline stewardess is giving him preferential treatment and ignoring her. When she arrives at the place where the Bigfoot chasers are, she manages to racially offend one man and delares her intent to investigate them to see if they are charlatans, annoying everyone as you can imagine. She moans about being stuck in a backwoods place, whines about being asked to get coffee and excluded from further discussions, and is basically a pain in the arse.
By the time they are travelling out to the actual woods and getting set up ready for a monster hunt, 50% of the book was already gone and nothing at all had happened. It was very dull and I didn't even care enough to see if anyone died. I noticed that some reviews talk also about psycho drug dealers which makes me glad that I didn't venture on.
I couldn't say that I found anything to like about this.
Hailey has convinced herself that she is going to get promoted to junior editor of the magazine, despite being in big trouble two weeks earlier for an article she wrote that upset some very influential people. She was so confident that she told the office gossip about it and now everybody knows what is going on when Hailey is called in to see the boss. Imagine her shock in finding out that the boss never even considered her for the position which embarrassing for her, has gone to her lover. She behaves like a complete idiot in the interview, protesting about it, whining, declaring that she believed she was right for the post and the whole time I was gritting my teeth and willing her to shut the hell up!
So instead, Hailey is being sent on a Bigfoot hunt with her scientific hero Preston, who of course is a repulsive, drunken, leering moron. She isn't interested in in but isn't happy when the airline stewardess is giving him preferential treatment and ignoring her. When she arrives at the place where the Bigfoot chasers are, she manages to racially offend one man and delares her intent to investigate them to see if they are charlatans, annoying everyone as you can imagine. She moans about being stuck in a backwoods place, whines about being asked to get coffee and excluded from further discussions, and is basically a pain in the arse.
By the time they are travelling out to the actual woods and getting set up ready for a monster hunt, 50% of the book was already gone and nothing at all had happened. It was very dull and I didn't even care enough to see if anyone died. I noticed that some reviews talk also about psycho drug dealers which makes me glad that I didn't venture on.
I couldn't say that I found anything to like about this.
September 9, 2017
I read this as a Bigfoot enthusiast and while it wasn't as terrible as some reviews indicate, it did have some major problems that could have been corrected before publication.
To begin with, as others have said, the protagonist Hailey is a bit on the unlikable side as a cold, snooty transplanted New Yorker with a penchant for looking down on anyone but herself. She has a tendency to assume anyone she meets isn't up to her high standards of what us normal people should be. But, even though Hailey can be somewhat off putting in her attitudes her demeanor is not enough to ruin the story.
The other main characters are decently fleshed out. Her former idol -- famous science TV personality Preston -- turns out to be something of a stereotypical drunken lech but the three Bigfoot researchers she meets up with once they get to Oregon are passably interesting and treated fairly when it would be easy to portray them as a bunch of nuts looking for monsters in the woods.
The whole first half of the book sets up the inevitable monster hunt. And the initial encounter goes off well once they finally get out into the woods. It lays down the right amount of suspense letting the reader know there's really something out there and it's big and bad. But after that first well done yet brief scene that informs Hailey that this expedition isn't a joke and there may be something to the Bigfoot thing after all the story kind of goes down hill.
Some Spoilers included below here:
Once they advance deeper into the woods in search of this creature they have now clearly heard but not seen except for Hailey barely glimpsing a set of glowing red eyes things derail a bit story wise.
First, Preston, the supposedly famous and veteran TV personality who brags about having hunted lions with African tribesmen among other outdoorsy exploits stupidly gets bit in the butt by a rattlesnake while squatting over a log taking a dump. It's somewhat hard to believe a man who's been on all these adventures would be so clueless out in the wild. But ok, now the monster hunt morphs into a race to get him back to safety before he succumbs to rattler venom.
Rather than backtracking to where they entered the woods it's decided the best idea is to get Preston to then next point on this supposedly rarely used trail that's described as an exceptionally remote and sparsely populated area. It wasn't clear to me how going deeper into an area that's known for it's lack of people would be faster than going back the way they came but maybe I just missed something.
As they drag a quickly worsening Preston along they run into a vicious plot device . . . err . . . I mean a camp of people that turn out to be drug dealers. These people immediately kill George Bach -- the most interesting of the Bigfoot researchers and now the adventure becomes an exercise in survival as the group is pursued by the drug dealers that don't really get any kind of characterization beyond scary physical descriptions.
Everything that's been building up as people vs a savage Bigfoot in the book suddenly delves into our heroes vs a bunch of faceless criminals in a race to somewhere the group can get Preston some treatment. This is where the book starts to fall apart for me. You're expecting a confrontation with a monster yet most of the group is taken out by the drug dealers. And the writer's handling of nuts and bolts subjects like weapons and woods craft really start making the story unbelievable. A crossbow is prominently featured throughout the book and the author constantly refers to the projectiles as arrows. Crossbows have been around for centuries and it's pretty commonly known they fire bolts not arrows. And maybe the author has watched Daryl on Walking Dead too much but he has wounded Hunter Rhodes and tiny Hailey Card cocking the crossbow quickly and without effort. If you've ever shot a crossbow you know it's a pain and decent physical effort to reload one. Hailey is described as a fairly weak girl but, with zero experience save for a brief set up scene early in the book, she handles the crossbow with ease.
And then there's the guns. At one point the writer has Hailey check to see if a hastily acquired pistol is loaded by looking down the barrel. Are you kidding me? Besides being suicidal that's not even a valid means to check to see if a firearm is loaded. And later when Hailey gets into a fight with two of the drug dealers the two bad guys have to stop and reload after every shot. When was the last time you heard of drug dealers using single shot rifles? These are mistakes that don't require vast weapons knowledge. Anyone that reads, watches tv or movies even should know better.
There's other silliness as well. The two drug dealers just mentioned manage to locate Hailey hiding in some trees because they see bloody footprints she was tracking from walking through the blood of her fallen friends some distance away. Well, first of all the writer has already made clear the drug dealers are as clueless in the woods as Hailey yet they spot a blood trail like a couple of bloodhounds. And again it doesn't require Daniel Boone like woods skills to know that blood trails are dripped from leaking wounds not tracked through the forest floor on the bottom of shoes. If you walk through blood and into the woods the trail dies within a few feet as the blood dries not miles as this encounter suggests.
There's lots of little things like this in the book that annoy the Hell out of me but may be tolerable for other readers.
On to the Bigfoot itself. The problem here is the monster is just a cardboard cutout used to terrorize the protagonists. It randomly, and at times almost magically, appears to wreak havoc and then it exits stage left until it's needed to advance the plot again.
I, and I think most readers, want a little more on the creature. Why is it so angry? Why is it in the area? Are there others? The Bigfoot in the book is just a savage killing machine. There was nothing that made it unique or necessary for the story. The writer could have substituted a rabid grizzly bear or something and the story wouldn't require much alteration.
And maybe I'm a stickler but I believe if you're going to write a story with Bigfoot as a primary feature you should be a lot more informed on the subject. To begin with the creature in this story wasn't really a Bigfoot. The description and extreme violence indicates it to be a Bigfoot-like creature known as a Wendigo. If you're familiar with Bigfoot research you'll know most eyewitnesses say BF does not have fangs or claws like the monster in the story. And while the creatures can be aggressive they are rarely -- to the point of almost never -- described as mindless killers wantonly slaughtering any creatures that cross it's path. They are definitely hunters and very intelligent ones at that. But not random killers by nature. Maybe there was some extenuating factor that made this one particular Bigfoot different from others of it's kind but the writer never bothered to give us that kind of insight to the creature's motivation. It just showed up, engaged in carnage, and exited until it was needed for the story to repeat it's random violence.
A story about a group of researchers out looking for normally docile Sasquatch and running into the rather demonic entity known as Wendigo --as the creature in this story resembled more than a standard Bigfoot -- could have been really great. Maybe foreshadow the encounter with a native American local warning them that there are Bigfoot in the area but that there also much more dangerous creatures in the wild as well. But instead the author chose to essentially take Jaws out of the ocean and reform him in the shape of a sort of Bigfoot like creature. It's disappointing because the building blocks were there for a decent story if it were only executed a little better.
If you're like me and ready to devour anything related to Bigfoot then this book won't be the best few hours in your life spent reading it but it's okay as way to pass some time. However, I can't give it a strong recommendation. At the end the author says he intends to feature Hailey Card in further adventures I assume with different monsters to slay now that she's found a bit of inner toughness. I could go for more if he cleans up some of his faults and puts in some more research effort as his hero Hailey was evidently inclined to do.
To begin with, as others have said, the protagonist Hailey is a bit on the unlikable side as a cold, snooty transplanted New Yorker with a penchant for looking down on anyone but herself. She has a tendency to assume anyone she meets isn't up to her high standards of what us normal people should be. But, even though Hailey can be somewhat off putting in her attitudes her demeanor is not enough to ruin the story.
The other main characters are decently fleshed out. Her former idol -- famous science TV personality Preston -- turns out to be something of a stereotypical drunken lech but the three Bigfoot researchers she meets up with once they get to Oregon are passably interesting and treated fairly when it would be easy to portray them as a bunch of nuts looking for monsters in the woods.
The whole first half of the book sets up the inevitable monster hunt. And the initial encounter goes off well once they finally get out into the woods. It lays down the right amount of suspense letting the reader know there's really something out there and it's big and bad. But after that first well done yet brief scene that informs Hailey that this expedition isn't a joke and there may be something to the Bigfoot thing after all the story kind of goes down hill.
Some Spoilers included below here:
Once they advance deeper into the woods in search of this creature they have now clearly heard but not seen except for Hailey barely glimpsing a set of glowing red eyes things derail a bit story wise.
First, Preston, the supposedly famous and veteran TV personality who brags about having hunted lions with African tribesmen among other outdoorsy exploits stupidly gets bit in the butt by a rattlesnake while squatting over a log taking a dump. It's somewhat hard to believe a man who's been on all these adventures would be so clueless out in the wild. But ok, now the monster hunt morphs into a race to get him back to safety before he succumbs to rattler venom.
Rather than backtracking to where they entered the woods it's decided the best idea is to get Preston to then next point on this supposedly rarely used trail that's described as an exceptionally remote and sparsely populated area. It wasn't clear to me how going deeper into an area that's known for it's lack of people would be faster than going back the way they came but maybe I just missed something.
As they drag a quickly worsening Preston along they run into a vicious plot device . . . err . . . I mean a camp of people that turn out to be drug dealers. These people immediately kill George Bach -- the most interesting of the Bigfoot researchers and now the adventure becomes an exercise in survival as the group is pursued by the drug dealers that don't really get any kind of characterization beyond scary physical descriptions.
Everything that's been building up as people vs a savage Bigfoot in the book suddenly delves into our heroes vs a bunch of faceless criminals in a race to somewhere the group can get Preston some treatment. This is where the book starts to fall apart for me. You're expecting a confrontation with a monster yet most of the group is taken out by the drug dealers. And the writer's handling of nuts and bolts subjects like weapons and woods craft really start making the story unbelievable. A crossbow is prominently featured throughout the book and the author constantly refers to the projectiles as arrows. Crossbows have been around for centuries and it's pretty commonly known they fire bolts not arrows. And maybe the author has watched Daryl on Walking Dead too much but he has wounded Hunter Rhodes and tiny Hailey Card cocking the crossbow quickly and without effort. If you've ever shot a crossbow you know it's a pain and decent physical effort to reload one. Hailey is described as a fairly weak girl but, with zero experience save for a brief set up scene early in the book, she handles the crossbow with ease.
And then there's the guns. At one point the writer has Hailey check to see if a hastily acquired pistol is loaded by looking down the barrel. Are you kidding me? Besides being suicidal that's not even a valid means to check to see if a firearm is loaded. And later when Hailey gets into a fight with two of the drug dealers the two bad guys have to stop and reload after every shot. When was the last time you heard of drug dealers using single shot rifles? These are mistakes that don't require vast weapons knowledge. Anyone that reads, watches tv or movies even should know better.
There's other silliness as well. The two drug dealers just mentioned manage to locate Hailey hiding in some trees because they see bloody footprints she was tracking from walking through the blood of her fallen friends some distance away. Well, first of all the writer has already made clear the drug dealers are as clueless in the woods as Hailey yet they spot a blood trail like a couple of bloodhounds. And again it doesn't require Daniel Boone like woods skills to know that blood trails are dripped from leaking wounds not tracked through the forest floor on the bottom of shoes. If you walk through blood and into the woods the trail dies within a few feet as the blood dries not miles as this encounter suggests.
There's lots of little things like this in the book that annoy the Hell out of me but may be tolerable for other readers.
On to the Bigfoot itself. The problem here is the monster is just a cardboard cutout used to terrorize the protagonists. It randomly, and at times almost magically, appears to wreak havoc and then it exits stage left until it's needed to advance the plot again.
I, and I think most readers, want a little more on the creature. Why is it so angry? Why is it in the area? Are there others? The Bigfoot in the book is just a savage killing machine. There was nothing that made it unique or necessary for the story. The writer could have substituted a rabid grizzly bear or something and the story wouldn't require much alteration.
And maybe I'm a stickler but I believe if you're going to write a story with Bigfoot as a primary feature you should be a lot more informed on the subject. To begin with the creature in this story wasn't really a Bigfoot. The description and extreme violence indicates it to be a Bigfoot-like creature known as a Wendigo. If you're familiar with Bigfoot research you'll know most eyewitnesses say BF does not have fangs or claws like the monster in the story. And while the creatures can be aggressive they are rarely -- to the point of almost never -- described as mindless killers wantonly slaughtering any creatures that cross it's path. They are definitely hunters and very intelligent ones at that. But not random killers by nature. Maybe there was some extenuating factor that made this one particular Bigfoot different from others of it's kind but the writer never bothered to give us that kind of insight to the creature's motivation. It just showed up, engaged in carnage, and exited until it was needed for the story to repeat it's random violence.
A story about a group of researchers out looking for normally docile Sasquatch and running into the rather demonic entity known as Wendigo --as the creature in this story resembled more than a standard Bigfoot -- could have been really great. Maybe foreshadow the encounter with a native American local warning them that there are Bigfoot in the area but that there also much more dangerous creatures in the wild as well. But instead the author chose to essentially take Jaws out of the ocean and reform him in the shape of a sort of Bigfoot like creature. It's disappointing because the building blocks were there for a decent story if it were only executed a little better.
If you're like me and ready to devour anything related to Bigfoot then this book won't be the best few hours in your life spent reading it but it's okay as way to pass some time. However, I can't give it a strong recommendation. At the end the author says he intends to feature Hailey Card in further adventures I assume with different monsters to slay now that she's found a bit of inner toughness. I could go for more if he cleans up some of his faults and puts in some more research effort as his hero Hailey was evidently inclined to do.
November 30, 2016
Good
It was different from other Bigfoot books I have read it was a little slow to start but ended well
It was different from other Bigfoot books I have read it was a little slow to start but ended well
May 12, 2017
He'll of a story!
Read this novel in one setting. Only one issue, the mountains of southern Oregon are farther than a four hour drive. And Seattle is a long ways, up, not down.
Read this novel in one setting. Only one issue, the mountains of southern Oregon are farther than a four hour drive. And Seattle is a long ways, up, not down.
April 21, 2018
I liked it but it was way too long.
April 24, 2018
Awesome
About a scientist who is given the opportunity to go with Preston who is widely known on an expedition in finding Bigfoot with people who have seen it.
About a scientist who is given the opportunity to go with Preston who is widely known on an expedition in finding Bigfoot with people who have seen it.
January 18, 2017
Never a dull moment!
Loved it! If you like books that are not only exciting but scary, then you will love this one! Imagine being in a forest surrounded by drug dealers trying to kill your group, then throw in an extra large bigfoot trying to kill everyone. I stayed up to finish this book as I couldn't put it down. The author did a great job with character development and I felt drawn into the story. I hope more like this will be coming soon from this new author!
Loved it! If you like books that are not only exciting but scary, then you will love this one! Imagine being in a forest surrounded by drug dealers trying to kill your group, then throw in an extra large bigfoot trying to kill everyone. I stayed up to finish this book as I couldn't put it down. The author did a great job with character development and I felt drawn into the story. I hope more like this will be coming soon from this new author!
December 23, 2016
Not worth the time
Poorly plotted, very poor writing. Wrong words, lack of research. Unlikable main character. This writer needs a few basic lessons before attempting another.
Poorly plotted, very poor writing. Wrong words, lack of research. Unlikable main character. This writer needs a few basic lessons before attempting another.
February 4, 2017
Excellent story
Captivating and thrilling. Could not put it down! Hang on the edge of your seat as you read. Loved it.
Captivating and thrilling. Could not put it down! Hang on the edge of your seat as you read. Loved it.
January 17, 2017
Devil of the Forest
Wow, I give this book 5 stars with no regrets. I started reading and could not stop until I finished.
As a "Believer" of Big Foot, this is a side to the creature I haven't considered.
All new readers, come and sit a spell while you read this fast paced story!
Thank you. I really enjoyed it.
Wow, I give this book 5 stars with no regrets. I started reading and could not stop until I finished.
As a "Believer" of Big Foot, this is a side to the creature I haven't considered.
All new readers, come and sit a spell while you read this fast paced story!
Thank you. I really enjoyed it.
January 12, 2017
Wow
I don't even know where to start.....I'm still shocked and keep reading back over the last part. Unbelievable to most and wow....great read It got more than I bargained for with this one
I don't even know where to start.....I'm still shocked and keep reading back over the last part. Unbelievable to most and wow....great read It got more than I bargained for with this one
January 14, 2017
Ended Too Soon
This was not your typical Bigfoot story. It was also a story about good and evil and the gray areas inbetween. A story of what a person will do to survive. I really enjoyed it and wish it was just a little longer. Maybe a sequel? Thanks for a great time.
This was not your typical Bigfoot story. It was also a story about good and evil and the gray areas inbetween. A story of what a person will do to survive. I really enjoyed it and wish it was just a little longer. Maybe a sequel? Thanks for a great time.
January 1, 2017
Interesting concept, but not well executed or well written. I couldn't like the main character no matter how much I tried.
January 20, 2017
Very good first effort
Enjoyed it very much some of it was a bit far fetched but still all in all enjoyable. Can't wait to see what this author writes next.
Enjoyed it very much some of it was a bit far fetched but still all in all enjoyable. Can't wait to see what this author writes next.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews