Review of “Maryland Sasquatch Massacre” by Ethan Richards

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

Maryland Sasquatch Massacre is a gripping and suspenseful action-thriller/monster novel by Ethan Richards!

A wealthy, young environmental activist named Dahlia Rhodes has gone missing!
And the monster that took her may still be out there...

A rag-tag team of specialists—including paranormal podcaster Ebenezer Edwards (AKA “Eerie Eb”), Cora Rhodes (the missing girl's sister); Casper “Appalachia” Cresap, Ercole “Doc” Bonaparte, and others—are assembled to find Dahlia. However, they aren't made aware of the monster (or monsters) who may be responsible for her disappearance.

Of all of Ethan Richards's many monster novels, this one seems to be the best-written, the most grounded, and the most down-to-earth. It's also arguably the deepest and most well thought-out. Something we're really happy about is how much Richards has taken our previous advice, tips, and reviews, and has tremendously improved the quality of his work.

This book seems to have a lot more depth and layers than other books in the series, going all the way back to Kaw Lake. Because of that, it actually seems the most real, raw, and relatable. That's not to say it's perfect, but it's a HUGE improvement!

For example, many books in the monster genre (including books by Richards), usually start with a character being attacked and/or killed off. It establishes the danger of the mysterious monster while also getting a jolt out of the audience. However, these opening scenes tend to lose a huge opportunity: the opportunity for the audience to build rapport with the character(s). Usually, the person being killed off is a nobody and has little to nothing more to do with the story or the other characters. They serve only as a plot device to establish the monster's presence and threat.

However, in Maryland Sasquatch Massacre, this opening victim character (Dahlia) is actually a very well-established, fleshed-out character who ends up meaning a lot to the other major characters, mainly Cora and Eb.

She's more than just some dumb victim. She is actually a character in her own right. We're told (and shown) that Dahlia has very strong environmentalist, liberal leanings, which motivate her environmental activism. Despite being wealthy, she doesn't hide behind her white picket fence twiddling her thumbs. Instead, she acts for the good of the Earth, the environment, and the animals therein. She is one of the leaders of the protests to protect Savage River State Forest, which (as we'll later explore) is being destroyed by Heinrich Aristov's shadow organization. Aristov's environmental degradation and tampering is so bad that this is something we're told that both the liberals and conservatives resist.

So, while activists tend to get a bad rap for being chronic complainers and disruptors of the peace, Dahlia is one of the good ones. She is genuinely fighting for a provably good cause.

Furthermore, she also seems to suffer from a condition called vitiligo, which causes her skin to have a patchy, pale appearance. This causes her to be insecure and self-conscious.

Interestingly, Dahlia really isn't in this book much, yet she has a profound influence on the plot and the other characters.

Speaking of the other characters, this group of characters is actually somewhat deep and memorable, unlike the casts of other books by Richards (in which supporting characters are basically NPCs with little to no motivation and with funny names).

Cora, for example, is heavily motivated to find and rescue her sister. We also get hints that Cora and Dahlia have often disagreed on things and haven't always gotten along. So, Cora kinda sees this rescue mission as a way of making up for her past transgressions and ill feelings.

It also helps that Cora is described as being rather attractive, serving as a sort of love interest for other characters.

Ebeneezer (Eerie Eb) is also a compelling lead protagonist. Imagine this: drop Joe Rogan into an Ethan Richards monster novel, and that's basically what this is! Like Rogan, Eb runs a podcast focused on WEIRD STUFF like cryptids, mystical creatures, unsolved mysteries, ghosts, monsters, and aliens. Ok, we may have added some of that, but that's the impression we got.

We actually get quite a few tidbits from Eb's “Paranormal Podcast,” gradually building more details about both the world of the book as well as providing some context for what's going on. For example, we start to realize that Aristov might actually be introducing invasive species like pikas into the ecosystem, causing a tremendous imbalance. Furthermore, we get hints that these rodents might actually have been introduced as a food source for other, larger, predatory creatures.

We also get some wacky animal stories like about the Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, which sets a precedence for a large exotic predator (like a Sasquatch) finding its way in an unexpected habitat.

Another wacky animal story that gets brought up is about the Emu War in Australia. However, this also provides some context for what's going on. See, it is implied throughout the book that corrupt people like Aristov are responsible for the presence of exotic monsters like the Sasquatch—portrayed in this book as being a species of extra-giant chimpanzee-like creatures. This is compared and contrasted to the Emu War in which humanity believed it could control and combat nature and its animals just using conventional weapons (like firearms). The Sasquatches, like the emus in the Emu War, show how some forces of nature are just out of human control.

One last character who is given a surprising amount of shine and depth in this book is Doc. Doc is the first to volunteer to go with Eb and Cora when it is revealed what the group is really up against. Doc takes an extraordinary amount of care and responsibility for the others. It is eventually revealed that he was motivated to become a doctor when one of his best friends died. In a surprisingly touching and powerful passage, Doc describes how the medic kept doing chest compressions (for CPR) all the way into the ambulance because the medic wanted to give the young Doc hope and let him know that everyone that could be done was done.

Now, this book does have some cheesy scenes that kinda take some of the seriousness away. Ironically, some of these scenes are sandwiched between Doc's best scenes. For example, there's a scene in which the characters are taking turns swearing their allegiance and support for Eb as their new squad leader. However, this really comes across as cliché and cringy. It's like one of those “power of friendship” team-up scenes from a cartoon or anime. It doesn't read well in a more serious book like this.

Another cheesy/cliche/cringy scene is when Doc is described as looking off into the distance after the death of a minor character, whose name we forgot because he's so minor. It reminded us of the death of Mustache from the previous book.

Anyway, the seriousness and melancholy of the scene seems really forced and contrived. It's kinda like playing extra-soppy violin music during a sad scene rather than just letting the scene itself play out as sad.

We commend Ethan Richards on substantially improving his work.

Check it out on Amazon!