Book Review: The Bigfoot Files by Lindsay Eagar

Book Review

Publisher: Walker Books
Publication Date: April 4th, 2019 (first published: September 19th, 2018)
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary, Fantasy, Family
Buy Links: Kinokuniya Malaysia
Add to Goodreads
Source: Huge thanks to Pansing for the review copy in exchange for an honest review
Rating:

Synopsis

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?




I remember when I was a kid, there was a ruckus about the existence of Bigfoot however till this day, I wonder if it is real. Well, the possibility is always there, isn't it? Anyhow, I really understood how Miranda felt about this whole thing on Bigfoot. Is it real? If it is real, where is it? Why no one taking pictures of it as of yet? Since Miranda has been following her mother to every place that been mentioned 'there is a clue on Bigfoot' but then, all they found is footprint and poo. 

Miranda has been so stressful with her absent from school because the needs to follow her mother, the unopened bills with a big red mark, lost her friendship with her friend, Emma, the leadership camp that she really wants to go and her father who has run away from Miranda and her mother. That has angered her a lot. So, she decided to follow her mother one last time to prove there's no trace of bigfoot and she wants her mother to start act as an adult, find a real job thus she makes a research about everything she needs to know on Bigfoot, etc also making a list of it all. Little did she know, this adventure leads her to something beyond her planning.

Throughout reading the book, I can't help myself from thinking maybe Miranda's mother, Kat will give her a prove the existence of Bigfoot such as the physical figure of Bigfoot in a photo. I don't know. I just feel that it would happen that way but then, I see the light of what it is all behind this adventure - the mother and daughter bond again after all this relationship pressure on them although Miranda never really straight telling her what she felt about finding the Bigfoot but her mother knows, she not believe in that anymore. All Kat wants is for her daughter to believe in her, to believe that she will find ways how to fix whatever needs to be fixed.

I love Eagar's writing so much. It was different. When I thought it might happen this way but it wasn't. It takes me some time to finally understood behind the story. The family relationship, the bond between mother/daughter, the trust in them and foremost is the love. It is really good and I really love the story. Miranda's character is really likable and very interesting. She is a smart child and very organised. Being a 12-year-old kid who needs to cope with those things happen in her life, I have to say that wasn't easy but she did. Despite all the things that anger her, she chooses to believe in her mom again, remember what she used to believe in. The trips really regain back what she lost. 

Anyway, here are the quotes that I love from the 'The Bigfoot Files":

"It used to be the truest, the strongest thing she knew - this feeling of possibility, this feeling that world soo split open, that the black thickets would part and she would know, she would know."

"If you can't trust people, you can't trust anything."

"But here, right here, was the mother who loved her, the mother who'd fight for her, the mother who would always help her fly when she needed to take a blind leap into darkness. Just me and her."

0 comments