Reviews

Fauna by Christiane Vadnais

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ikiaika's review against another edition

3.0

I have a hard time describing what my main problem with this book is, other than that it's not... weird enough? I feel like all the stories in this work are too brief to really get to the meat of the themes and topics they try to explore. Even the weirdest and most unhinged characters never get their full moment to shine beyond the initial shock of what their inclusion adds, and I think it's a shame, because the book still has no problem getting descriptive about bodily fluids and other gross-out content. I feel like -- with the exception of one story about a very particular dining experience -- the stories are, somehow, holding themselves back.

That being said, I enjoyed the prose, and I didn't find my concentration wavering even through the most slow-paced of the stories.

Content Warnings

madelinerossell's review

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4.0

It can be incredibly uncomfortable at times and it certainly won't be for everyone but the use of language is brilliantly unsettling and that in itself is commendable.

sarah684's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

mars_clutter's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

vizira's review

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3.0

saint_eleanor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Ok i see the vision 🧐
I loved the imagery and the mysteriousness of it all, but i wish it had been a bit more fleshed out. There wasn’t anything for me to hold on to, each time a character was vulnerable and i felt like i could relate to them the author cuts away to a different thing.
#ecohorror #biohorror #lgbtqia+

a_r_e_l_i_c's review

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4.0

16 musty aroma
18 brackish smell, mud & chlorine
29 earthy smell
39 aromatic scent of cedar with pungent notes of leaves & insects rotting
—-smell of warm flesh
48 ancient scent of trees
52 mint & sugary water
64 formalin & disinfectant
80 peach-scented bubble bath
—afterscent of limestone
87 scent of evergreens stings the lungs
97 tangy smell of sweat
100 popcorn & cheap draft
114 gentle scent of laundry soap

colorfulleo92's review

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4.0

The audiobook was 3 hours and 1 Min but damn did it pack the punch. A near future world with some serious climate changes. Vivedly told and very engaging and made me crave more stories like this.

nataliedjud's review

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3.0

wack

pearloz's review

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3.0

Short environmental/eco horror (horror-lite?). These semi-linked stories follow, vaguely, Laura (though she's not in every story), as she finds, traces, studies a new parasite that attacks humans and non-humans alike, causes them to mutate (some are...fish people? Laura becomes a...bird, I think?) rapidly, but throughout there's this impending sense of doom, like she's just noting how the world is gonna end for people as we know it, and not to have a chance to save it. These brief snapshots allude to a greater fracas in the world, each snapshot exhibits tropes of the post-apocalyptic fiction genre: there's the religious fanatics that try to recreate biblical scenes (the thing w/ the lion cage), there's cult leader and his followers, the desperate scientist, and then, in perhaps a new trope related to eco/enviro horror/apocalypse lit, we get a character in two separate chapters, one where he's a normal dude, one where it ends with him in water w/ a dorsal fin, and our scientist, whenever she appears in a new chapter, is farther along in her evolution to becoming a bird (those are rapid evolutions). Sold blast of fiction.

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