Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel

Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel by Jeff VanderMeer

10 reviews

cyclopeancity's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The ending felt like it was just added because the book needed to wnd at some point. It wasn'tvery satisfying.

Content Warnings

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

1.5

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm on a mission to read all of VanderMeer's works; no matter what, each book is different while idiosyncratic to him. Unfortunately, this is the worst I've read yet of him. Barely speculative fiction given climate disasters are no longer speculative, Hummingbird Salamander follows an unnamed woman as she becomes obsessed with and deeply involved in an ecoterrorist's (from whose perspective?) life, death, and ultimate mission.

For being a thriller, there's not many thrills, and throughout the entire 368 pages I felt this book failed at telling me why I should care or why things were happening. It felt a bit like the environmentalist (read: responsible, well-informed person) response to Michael Crichton's State of Fear, including in-universe snippets from the ecoterrorist's diaries that basically said "you did bad to the earth". Lots of promise, but I was cold.

Content Warnings

mi_chlo's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

doctorw0rm's review against another edition

3.75

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rainbowarpaint's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This novel is more rooted in reality than the others I read by Vandermeer and arguably is scarier due to that. So much in this book is things that are happening or can easily happen in our world in a few years and that is really unsettling. This is really a crime noir book with the crime being the disctruction of the environment.
The main character in the beginning gave me the vibes of a headmistress teaching a valuable lesson. and then she slowly becomes more frantic and personal and it is harder to follow, harder to distiguish where the 'now' ends and her retelling of past stories starts. it really grips you and makes you keep reading. Her childhood trauma and family trouble work really well with the noir feeling and also explain why she would follow this path. Her slow descend into some kind of madness (or maybe just clarity of mind) is so well-written.
I always felt a bit lost and a few steps behind everyone while reading, but so was the main character often times, and it really improved the noir reading experience.
I also learned a lot about humingbirds and salamanders in this book.

Content Warnings

scytheria's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

pterodog's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book took me a little while to get into because it was slightly confusing at the start. Jeff VanderMeer's writing style is pretty unique and it took time to adjust to it, but once I sat down to start reading it properly with plenty of free time (almost 8 months after I started it, oops) I found it super gripping and pretty much impossible to put down and ended up finishing it that day.

To me, this is a book about change, both personal and ecological. It's about what happens when you're not looking, or when you're looking so hard at something else that you fail to keep an eye on the world around you. It's also about humanity's impact on the planet, ecoterrorism, climate change and the futility of expecting (or hoping) for one person to 'fix' everything.

What I really liked about this book was how all-consuming it is. Silvina Vilcapampa was consumed by her quest to save the planet. Jane Smith was consumed by Silvina's story and by her own traumatic childhood. Hellbender is consumed by his need to know what Silvina's final achievement was. One way or another, the main characters have a goal that they are willing to give up everything for, whether that goal is good or not - and one way or another, it does in the end consume them. Jane loses her family, Hellbender loses the woman he loves and Silvina loses her life. Despite this, reading it felt hopeful in a way, especially the last quarter of the book. Despite the world around Jane arguably starting to end (a briefly mentioned pandemic, white supremacist militias rising, air pollution and unchecked climate change) she spends 5 years of her life living with nature, and nature does endure. I found it strangely hopeful in the end, especially with Jane's final sacrifice.

I also liked how it really held onto the mystery aspect. VanderMeer gives you bits and pieces of the story but it doesn't all tie together until the final pages. Some of the reveals I wasn't too shocked by (Jane killing her grandfather, for example) but some of them genuinely took me by surprise (Silvina and the farm! What the hell!) and it was a really fun ride once Jane started putting all the pieces together.

A lot of other reviews have mentioned that they didn't like Jane, but I found her fun to read about. She is completely unapologetic about any of her choices, even the objectively terrible ones, and she's so methodical and straight-shooting that it takes a while before you start to notice how often she admits she hasn't been forthcoming with the reader and wonder how much else she's keeping back. She's not necessarily a likeable character but she is engaging and I was rooting for her overall, even if I was rooting for her husband and daughter much more.

Overall I really really enjoyed this book. I found the Southern Reach trilogy difficult because there was so much about it I didn't understand, and Hummingbird Salamander was similar to that but had enough of the plot set in stone and firmly explained that I didn't end up frustrated at the end. It's sad, but deeply gripping and very topical.

Content Warnings