Scan barcode
diana_blackmoon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Death of parent, Torture, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Child death
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Grief, Excrement, Drug use, and Confinement
scytheria's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death and Gore
Moderate: Chronic illness and Death of parent
cryosphinx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
VanderMeer's writing style took a little bit for me to get used to, coming off a long string of romantic fantasy books so the beginning was hard for me to get into, but once I got a feel for the writing and the vivid and lush environment and characters, I was invested. His writing does so much in such an a beautiful and unique way they I felt sucked into this world, even with the mysteries such as why is there a giant bear flying around?
There's a lot of turns in this and it's been a long while since I've had a book where I read a sentence and had to put the book down to stare and mentally recover from what I just discovered. I did find the book was on the slow side, with a bulk of the book being centered around Rachel and Borne in the Balcony Cliffs (but I supposed the book IS titled Borne after all). It's very character driven with the great plot just being about survival in this strange but plausible apocalypse.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual violence
maryellen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
troisha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Chronic illness, Child death, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Xenophobia
carmexfiend's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The story itself is about a woman named Rachel who survives in a post-apocalyptic world filled with cybernetic tech animals ("biotech" - it reminded me of the tech in the movie eXistenZ (1999) though less body-horrory). She lives with her business/love partner, Wick, and scavenges tech for him. One day she finds a piece of tech he doesn't recognize and she eventually ends up raising it as "Borne". Borne isn't human, doesn't have human limitations, and doesn't think quite like a human and this leads to a lot of the conflict between the three characters. Without getting into spoilers, I'd say the book deals a lot with grief but is hopeful overall. It really captures that feeling of "I wish I could have done that differently" that you remember someone who has passed away. Rachel has a lot of trauma in her past and the present day isn't much kinder to her but the book never felt like a trauma-fest. In the end, I really loved the writing, the world, and the characters.
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Torture, Death, Grief, and Child death
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Drug use