They reached the far edge of the lake, where the woods grew right up to the shore, making it dark and shadowed. Tree branches seemed to sway and move, even though there was no breeze. Luther stood very still, staring at something deeper inside the forest, a dense knot of branches and limbs braced against each other. Mud was chinked into crevices between logs. Grasses and moss thatched a roof. Jute realized it was a primitive shack, like something out of a fairy tale. Without saying a word, they slowly approached. Once they were upon it, Luther reached out and tugged a gnarled branch, which turned out to be a door. They stepped inside.
…this was what small towns did. They caught you in their nets, kept you from going out into the world and growing into the person you were supposed to be.
The prologue sets the scene. 1853, a trapper crew reports trap lines being cut, members mysteriously disappearing, whispering noises heard in the woods.
Giano Cromley – Image from his Twitter profile
Julius (Jute) Ramsey is our leader today. A strange event happened when he was 11 years old, on a hike up to the unmapped Ramsey Lake with his father. Subsequent signs offer more warning than welcome. Dad was clearly afraid, and all but dashed away. He became almost a different person, losing his mood control, and his job, disappearing for increasing durations until he stopped coming back at all when Jute was 16. Jute’s mission today is to return to that place and discover exactly what had so changed his father, as much as he wants to discover proof of something undiscovered
Luther tucked his chin into his Adam’s apple for a moment. “Don’t be surprised if you see some mighty strange stuff up there,” he said. “Ramsey Lake is what some folks call a thin place.” “What’s a thin place?” Jute asked. “Every culture’s got spots like this,” he said. “Where the veil between our world and the spirit world is so thin they practically overlap.”
For Jute Ramsay it is an unmissable opportunity to go on a BigFoot hunt with a major player in the field. For Doctor Marcus Bernard, eager to return to academic acceptability after a long tenure as an expert in Sasquatchology, it is a chance to re-establish his intellectual cred with a bang. He is hoping to be helped along by Vicky Xu, who had started out merely looking to do a film project on Dr. Bernard for her graduate thesis, but who sees the outing as a great opportunity. Vergil Barnes is Jute’s best friend and co-founder of the Basic Bigfoot Society of Basic, Montana, population 484. He has reason to think it may be his last, and he does not want to disappoint his buddy. Vergil’s daughter, Rye, is in from college, and tags along to help look after her father.
This zoomed-in image shows a creature resembling bigfoot. Shannon Parker took the photo Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, while departing Silverton on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. She used an SLR camera with a 300 mm lens. (Courtesy of Shannon Parker) – Image from The Durango Herald
There are the usual odd things you might expect on such an adventure. Rapid, unexplained changes in weather, discoveries of clues, such as a casual acquisition of a very old, and relevant notebook. Some mysteries are not well explained, which can be irksome, but, whatever.
So, the bottom line in all such novels comes down to “is there or isn’t there?” I will not spoil it for you here. It is the journey of course that matters, or the journeys, as all six may all be on the same trail but travel their own roads. Is there magic in the world, and if so, of what sorts? Searching for Sasquatch is a journey of self-discovery for all of them.
The journal entries offer a nifty myth-making tool to keep them connected to the past and strange possibility. But the absence of harder evidence roots the tales of BigFoot in oral tradition, where most lore is communicated.
Bigfoot allegedly caught on cam near Braxton County, in 2019. (The source has since been determined to be from Jeffrey Stoffel and Jenna Oleson.) – image from West Virginia Explorer
Vergil faces an existential threat. Rye is there to support her ailing dad, but hears the voice of her late mother. Jute’s challenge is his need for the whole truth. Will he find it? He is a good sort, and you sure hope so. Dr. Bernard is up to cynical no-good. His journey is more annoying than not for his eagerness to dismiss all evidence, even any suggestion of possibility. Vicky abets him in this. Her struggle is less fraught than Bernard’s but providing evidence for him is why she is there. Some of the characters’ struggles are more engaging than others, but overall there is enough buy-in to keep you turning the pages for the next twist, surprise, and peril. Their concerns are serious, touching on religion, the endangered planet, and connection to family and community.
Image from The Keystone Newsroom
There is an explanation offered at end that was no more unbelievable than any other, maybe even a bit better than most. It is a nice-to-have, but the generally warm-hearted, open-minded, exploratory take of the book makes this an easy Summer read. Whether your piggies are petite or prodigious, and however distant your extremities may be from your face, it will definitely be worth your while to take a large step into American Mythology.
MAGIC PROTECTS THIS SPACE TURN BACK NOW
Review posted – 07/25/25
Publication date – 07/15/25
I received an ARE of American Mythology from Doubleday in return for a fair review, and destroying all copies of that map. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.
This review is cross-posted on Goodreads. Stop by and say Hi!
=======================================EXTRA STUFF
Links to Cromley’s personal, FB, Instagram, and Twitter pages
Profile – from the book
Author Bio: Born and raised in Montana, GIANO CROMLEY is the author of two young adult novels and a collection of short stories. He is a recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council and was a BookEnds Fellow with Stony Brook University. He is an amateur woodworker, a certified wildlife tracker, and an English professor at Kennedy-King College, where he is chair of the Communications Department. He lives on the Southside of Chicago with his wife and two dogs. Residence: Chicago, IL Hometown: Billings, MT.
Interviews
—–Talking Scared- 245- Giano Cromly & Our Friends in the Forest
—–Chicago Review of Books – The Proof Is Out There: An Interview with Giano Cromley by Rachel Robbins
Item of Interest from the author
—– The Tao of Bigfoot
Items of Interest
—–BFO – The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization
—–The Keystone – Bigfoot fever grips Pennsylvania as reports of strange footprints and howls surface
—–BFT – BigFoot Times
My other BigFoot book review
—–Devolution by Max Brooks
Coot's Reviews 