The Bigfoot Files by Lindsay Eagar, 2018

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The Loch Ness Monster. The Frogman. Bigfoot. Twelve-year-old Miranda Cho used to believe in it all, used to love poring over every strange footprint, every stray hair, everything that proved that the world was full of wonders. But that was before her mother's obsession with monsters cost Miranda her friends and her perfect school record, before Miranda found the stack of unopened bills and notices of foreclosure in the silverware drawer. Now the fact that her mom's a cryptozoologist doesn't seem wonderful -- it's embarrassing and irresponsible, and it could cost them everything. So Miranda agrees to go on one last creature hunt, determined to use all her scientific know-how to prove to her mother, once and for all, that Bigfoot isn't real. Then her mom will have no choice but to grow up and get a real job -- one that will pay the mortgage and allow Miranda to attend the leadership camp of her dreams. But when the trip goes horribly awry, will it be Miranda who's forced to question everything she believes?

(384 pages)

Um . . . okay.

I mean, I don't believe in the Loch Ness Monster or the Frogman or Bigfoot or any other fantastic creature for that matter. I like books that play with their existence, or that work them into the plot, but I don't believe they're real.

Miranda's mother does, and she's gone really nuts about proving that they are. And that's great and all, and the book is a nice story about mother-daughter bonding, but at the same time I still don't really agree with the mother at all.

Like, just because something exists doesn't mean you need to prove it's real (especially when it's clearly trying so hard to stay hidden). And you definitely should not be dragging your young daughter around to do it, continually disrupting her education and messing with her plans and making her panic your failing finances just because you need to go on yet another search for a crazy creature. But somehow they both think that if these creatures are real, what Miranda's mother has done make sense. It doesn't.

I couldn't really get over that. I also thought that Miranda's attempts at using the scientific method were kind of spotty, and I actually really related to her love for list-making but even I thought her approach to planning everything down to the nano-detail was a bit much.

It was an interesting enough read, but for my tastes it was a little too zany to be a good realistic novel and a little too realistic to be a fun zany novel. By all means do give it a go if you're curious about it, though.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.