Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

As the novel’s protagonist and main narrator, Kate is the writer of the fictional journal on which the book is based, which provides an account of purported encounters with Bigfoot. As the novel begins, it introduces Kate as a passive woman who depends on her psychotherapist not just to help her manage her obsessive-compulsive disorder but also to guide her life. The Introduction reveals that Kate started keeping a diary only because her psychotherapist told her to. Many of the journal’s early entries informally address the therapist.

Kate’s passivity and dependence stem from her family background. At the end of Chapter 2, her brother, Frank, reveals that their father left their family when they were still young. Kate blamed her mother for her father’s abandonment, which later caused her to enable the listless behavior of her husband, Dan, and resulted in her internalized misogyny. In Greenloop, Kate initially sees community founder Tony Durant as a paternal figure who helps her to maintain a sense of “normalcy” and stability after the Rainier eruption. By contrast, Kate distrusts Yvette in the wake of the eruption, even though Yvette merely affirms Tony’s advice to wait for emergency services to rescue them.