Reviews with content warning for Murder - Hummingbird Salamander

Audiobook review:

It's hard for me to tell if this is a criticism for the book itself or just for the audio version, but this book was just "ok" for me. I read it with my honey through a number of car trips, and it never really got thrilling? I think maybe if I wasn't expecting a thriller, I could have gotten more into the book...? But, then again, maybe not. The narrator of this book sounded bored. And it made me bored. So maybe I wouldn't have liked it at all no matter what. 😐

Is this the experience with the physical book? I have no idea. I think I would have added emotion to the text version of this book if I were reading the pages instead of listening to a voice actor's interpretations of this one. But maybe the main character is just flat anyway? I HAVE NO IDEA!

END OF REVIEW 🐦

⚠ Some of the Content Warnings for this book, I don't really know how to put in the section below. So I'll start here and do my best in that section down there. Taxidermy! Dead animals (they're not being killed in the book, they're just dead), fatphobia, eco-terrorism, death of parents (mentioned), child abuse, murder (some in self-defense), infidelity, medical content, fighting/gore-ish, and poking eyes out/maiming of taxidermied things?!??! What is the CW for that?!

Content Warnings

v171's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense 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

2.0

Rambling, nonsensical, and pointless. I have so much I could say about why I think this was a failure of a story, but it's not worth the effort. Better than Dead Astronauts though!

Content Warnings

kelseyland's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

An eco-thriller set in the near future, in which a security consultant turns detective to unravel the mystery left for her by a radical environmental activist. It's an unsettling, timely, and captivating book in which VanderMeer examines (among other things) the consequences of human action and apathy on the natural world.

Content Warnings

fungivibes's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

Overall enjoyed this one, it was much less abstract and more straightforward than his last couple books which was a nice change of pace. I did feel like the story didn't quite come together and that he may have rushed a bit when writing it.

Content Warnings

forrestefires's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? No

3.0

Content Warnings

sorryiambooked's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

I don't even know where to start with this book.

When I looked up the author’s name to check spelling, I saw that under his Wikiepedia page, it says that he’s a part of the literary movement New Weird. Which is probably the most accurate thing I’ve read. VanderMeer excels at bringing a new level of interesting and weird in speculative fiction/ science fiction (even though I’ve only read two of his books so far, including Hummingbird).

The thing is, I didn’t love this book. It’s touted as an eco-thriller yet the thriller part wasn’t at the level that I personally prefer and enjoy. Hummingbird, I found, was a lot more subtle with the thriller aspects, playing the long game with the reader. Keeping me interested just enough to keep turning the page. Which tends to be more of a least favorite kind of thriller. Even though one of the twists was really good, I started to suspect about halfway through the book.

I also went in with a high level of expectation of the writing. When I read Annihilation, I was enamored with VanderMeer’s writing. This book, however, VanderMeer’s writing is more direct with shorter sentences and less awesome descriptive writing. Though I will acknowledge that having that kind of writing wouldn’t have fit into this book.

I did enjoy the commentary on how humans and our behavior, without bothering to realize, are slowly killing the Earth by ruining fragile and important ecosystems. Which in turn tends to make us more fragile and less likely to be able to adapt to major changes in our natural environment; where we don’t stand a chance when something like a pandemic hits. This book clearly was published at an interesting time and hits fairly close to home with current events.

However, the whole of the book was too meandering for me. I didn’t much care for our MC “Jane Smith” and because of that I disliked the parts where she tells a story about her childhood; those parts rarely felt necessary to me and while meant to be a look into the characterization of Jane, I rarely cared.

Honestly, I think this is going to be one of those books where a reader will either enjoy it or not enjoy it. Even though I find myself in the middle, I’m not sure that the characters and overall plot matter so much as the social commentary that VanderMeer makes.

Content Warnings

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