“In a certain light, solitude exists only for those who can afford it, in service to the hard-dying idea that the nonwhite world is ours for the taking.”

Less of a “gonzo trip into alternative reality” as the blurb would suggest, O’Connors’ “Secret History” instead combined a blended essay styled with three dollar words aplenty and a somewhat sanctimonious tone, with rigorous research and exemplary sourced material. Amidst the pontificating and self-examining meandering, it’s the historical testimonies, bigfooting community experiences, and mythological portraits that helped me keep turning pages. Stay for the never-ending info-dump of the ivory-billed woodpecker and the IRL analyzation of the quintessential, 1967 Patterson–Gimlin film that sparked the wildfire of modern BIgfooting.

Even though we have similar political opinions, O’Connors’ topic shifts were frustrating to say the very least. Listen, I came here for ‘Squatch, if I wanted to sit around and talk shit about Donald Trump I can do that with my pals any day of the week. That’s not to say that there weren’t well educated musings and social commentaries (see attached quote above), but few actually relevant connections to Bigfoot turned the book into something else completely.

2.5/5 Also, so sorry to do this, but on p.156 you call it the “Van Meter Monster” (dorky) when everyone knows it’s the “Van Meter Visitor” (cool and mysterious) and you would have known that if you took five minutes away from your extensive ivory-billed woodpecker research (no shade, those sounded dope) in your book that was supposedly about Bigfoot.