The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac: A Novel

This isn't a book I would generally gravitate to, but due to a number of trusted recommendations I had to check it out. So glad I took this wild ride! I agree with other reviewers that this book moves around a ton, tends to seem disjointed at first but the payoff is really in the resolution. As is true to life, all the twists and turns and tears culminate at the end in a sense of "Aha, so that is where we have been going all along!" The characters are not all lovable but are all endearing in their way. Eli is a beautifully flawed person as a Father, as a husband and as a professional. There were a few times I rolled an eye at a seemingly useless introduction only to find, in the end, each piece was necessary to fall into its place. It is beautifully written, Ms. Shields clearly has an exceptional gift with words and draws the reader into her world flawlessly. Jump in, let yourself be carried with the current and enjoy the payoff! It's a wonderful escape into a narrow band of a neighboring reality. NOT TO BE MISSED!

I’m rarely one for magical realism, so I’m surprised by how much I loved this book. I think because it was so unapologetically dark, because its characters and their conflicts were so real, I never found it silly.When Eli Roebuck is a young boy, his mother walks off with a Sasquatch named Mr. Krantz and never comes back. What follows is a series of vignettes, often skipping years at a time, that chronicle Eli’s entire life. His obsession with finding Mr. Krantz affects everyone around him—and they, too, face their own monsters and demons.Certain chapters read like dark fairytales or parables, focusing on different people close to Eli: his first and second wives, his daughters, and even (most interestingly) his mother and Mr. Krantz, who live together happily in the woods for decades.At times funny and clever, disturbing and sad, this is a deeply weird and haunting book about a dysfunctional family that’s surprisingly very moving.

I think this book is one of those kind of love it or hate it types. The book describes a multigenerational dysfunctional family, with a mentally disturbed matriarch and Sasquatch-obsessed father. Without spoilers, it would be difficult to write a detailed review, but let's just say that the reader is almost constantly bombarded with weird, fantasy characters that seem to make no sense at all, even if you inject yourself into fantasy land. If a writer wants me to suspend disbelief, that's fine - but at least the story should follow some internal rules of logic, even if you pitch the rules of our universe.Initially, I bought the book upon a recommendation, thinking it might be something new and different in the field of Sasquatch anthropology. Once I realized that was not the case, I continued to see where the story would take me. I nearly gave it up a couple of times, but did grit my teeth and finish it. It was not the worst book I've read, but if was certainly not one I'd recommend to my friends - at least my fellow scientists, who probably won't care for humanoid lake monsters or ghosts any more than I do. Apparently, a lot of people really DO like it, so as I said, it's a piece of polarizing literature and may be right up your alley. Just be aware, it's really not about Sasquatch at all, at least in the way that most might think of him/it.

I bought the book for my husband as he is an avid Sasquatch fanatic. He really enjoyed it, even though it’s a novel. I intend to read it myself.

What an amazing blend of realism and mysticism and fantasy and whimsy this book is... I loved it and am perplexed that some other readers claim to have found it "too dark". It's real life with flawed characters... bad things happen, good things happen and some of the characters encounter extraordinary characters and situations in the course of these events. I love how some stories are brief interludes and some flow through the entire book. There is resolution for some and not others yet all the characters are intertwined and you come away with a sense of just how closely they are all tied together for better or worse. I'm a newly minted Sharma Shields fan!

This may be the best book I have read in recent memory. Bleak but magical and mesmerizing. At its core, it is a parable of the ways in which we define ourselves by searching for those elusive things that haunt and obsess us the most. A lost parent, critical acclaim, a place to call home, a happy family life, Bigfoot.... No one is immune from the compelling need to search, including quite possibly Bigfoot himself. Ultimately, this book enigmatically yet eloquently lays bare the truth that we are all stumbling through the dark woods searching for that most elusive thing of all: forgiveness.

Going in I thought I was in for a field journal of a crazy man chasing Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest but it was more. The longer the book went on the more bizarre it got but it still was drawing me in. If you like something strange but something that makes you think read this book.

Fascinating look at family relationships over time- functionality vs dysfunctionality. When the author adds an elusive Sasquatch who reflects on what it must be like to be a human being and adds an assortment of other magical Freudian creatures, the work becomes an expose on the nature of the human experience.

Lovely surprise. Wonderfully eccentric.

Weirdest book I own and I picked it up on a whim due to the title. It is worth it.