THE BIGFOOT QUEEN

The reclusive Yare, or Bigfoots, risk exposure and worse in turning at last to face their nemesis.

Folding a thorough recap into the opening chapters, Weiner picks up the action from the end of Little Bigfoot, Big City (2017) to bring her scattered cast of Yare, human No-Furs, and even someone who is both to Vermont for a showdown with biotech mogul Christopher Jarvis. The whirl of family revelations and reunions, new alliances, and bold choices, all leading to a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat and a positively cozy ending, will please readers who have been absorbed by the searches of Alice and Jessica for the causes of their physical differences, the trials of meek but gifted Millie, and Jeremy’s struggle with conflicting agendas. But it’s the sad, bad, genius villain who really steals the show here—because even as the heart-deep grief of losing the love of his life to cancer has twisted over the years into a thirst for revenge against the long-lived, disease-immune Yare, in the rousingly stomach-churning climax he ultimately stands revealed. Despite a late entry, he is definitely the most vivid, nuanced, and memorable character here. And even though Jarvis is as thoroughly despicable in word and deed as he is awful in appearance, might he not, the author obliquely suggests, still be worthy of compassion? The human cast is largely white.

A buoyant resolution, with just deserts, larger-than-life figures, and, perhaps, forgiveness all around.