The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac by Sharma Shields

As always, this review may contain spoilers

Did you know GoodReads has GIVEAWAYS?!?  It's the best kind of giveaway, free books!  Publishers and Authors give away books as an incentive to read a new author or new series or for whatever other reasons people might give other people books.   It's pretty great!  The greatest part?  I have actually been the lucky winner of a few of these giveaways!  I really love free books!

Back in February I scored a copy of The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac by Sharma Shields.  To be honest, I didn't read the description on this book at all, but was excited about the title.  I totally believe in Sasquatch and they live in the area.  My sister has even seen them in the woods behind her house!  But, to my surprise, this isn't actually a guide to finding Sasquatch in your neck of the woods, but, in fact, it's a novel.  Meh, I'll still read it.

This novel starts out bizarre and doesn't let up!  Nine-year-old Eli Roebuck's mother is very excited that a guest is coming over one afternoon.  She dresses herself and Eli in their good clothes and prepares biscuits for her guest.  When the guest arrives, Eli is pretty surprised to see that he is a giant, naked, hairy beast, not really a man at all.  After a short, not-so-well-mannered visit, Eli's mother abandons Eli and his father to join Mr. Krantz in his woodland life.  This rocks Eli's world and effects not only his father and himself, but generations of his own family.

Eli becomes a podiatrist and a cryptozoologist because of his obsession with finding Mr. Krantz.  Through his research foundation, he receives lots of information and leads about Sasquatch.  He even manages to find a metatarsal bone from what he believes is Mr. Krantz.  His obsession and his struggle impacts his wives and daughters in a major way.  Each member of Eli's family battles their own demons over the years and nearly everyone's sanity is questioned at one point or another.  A unicorn, sea monster, baby stealing bird, gypsy curses, enchanted hats and bird-legged shopkeepers are among the elaborate cast of characters featured in this novel.

I really didn't want to like this book.  It was seriously bizarre, but it kept me interested because I HAD to see what the heck was going on.  The book is written from different character's points of view and some chapters felt really mixed up.  There were a few times that I couldn't really tell who's perspective the story was being told from.  Most of the chapters ended without any closure and you had to hope the next chapter or two would fill in the blanks.  I was left with a lot more questions than answers in the end as there were huge chunks of time that were skipped over.  It's highly unlikely that I will read this book again, but I'm going to donate it to my local library for others to enjoy.

If you have read this, I want to hear from you!  Comment!  Maybe we can fill in some of the blanks together!