The Bigfoot Queen, well-paced human relationships with a Bigfoot edge

There’s a reason why some books set out to be a trilogy and reasons why readers are reticent to jump into one of the latter entries of them. The Bigfoot Queen by Jennifer Weiner is the third book in a series that subverts one of those expectations and sneaks up on the other. The result of The Bigfoot Queen is mglit that makes you want to read every word so that you can revel in the changes that each of them are discovering.

It is odd to come across a book like this. From the title, I was expecting “the bigfoot queen” to be a metaphor for something else, like teen social acceptance or seventh-grade drama. However, it really does operate in a parallel world of realistic fiction where Bigfoot exists, but not in the way that you might be thinking. That’s important to point out because the fact that the book actually has bigfoot characters in it will bring in those reluctant readers who will enter a book that has science-fiction elements in it.

However, as we said, this is realistic fiction. The tension of if they/or if they don’t exist has been solved. They live among us, it’s just a matter of who knows and how far either side is willing to go in order to move the meter. The chapters in The Bigfoot Queen are very well-paced and build on each other with great storytelling that’s punctuated with just enough conflict to keep those reluctant readers engaged. And, as this is the third, and final book in the series it has a very satisfying payoff that even those who are jumping in on this book will realize and celebrate in.

The four main protagonists are middle school youth who each have their own back story. One of them is the mixed-race child of a bigfoot and a human. Their paths are all somewhat separate in the book until about halfway through when they align to see if they can help the tribe, which is the greater bigfoot cause. They travel north to a pharmaceutical company and a mysterious owner who has connections to one of their mothers from many years ago.

I’m being intentionally vague here because The Bigfoot Queen is fun to read. It will help middle school readers by that, and the fact that the text is slightly larger than what they’re expecting. It’s certainly possible that the larger text helps those middle-aged readers who don’t want to squint, but we’ll let those demographics decide that.

The chapters mainly concentrate on one character, but as the quartet spends more time together their plot threads intertwine. As the climax builds this is very effective in showing the action from different perspectives or letting readers know what happened, and then fully explaining it from the way that someone else sees it. As the No-Furs and the Bigfoot tribe spend more time together readers aged 12 and up will be hooked.

While we were reading the book it reminded us of aspects of Adventures in Babysitting, with just a bit of more of the grounded aspects of The Goonies for good measure. The Bigfoot Queen has enough action to keep those kids who don’t think reading is cool in league with the active readers. Moreover, it’s smart enough to reach those older than mglit readers who simply want a well-paced book that pays off at the end.

 The Bigfoot Queen is by Jennifer Weiner and is available on Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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