Reviews - Borne | The StoryGraph

2.53k reviews for:

Borne

Jeff VanderMeer

3.93 AVERAGE

mixingwithmadison's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 14%

Idk I just couldn’t get into it

aus10england's review against another edition

3.0

dark funny tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ok hear me out.... this is kinda like Bee Movie meets Shape of Water meets Scythe??? Hard to explain. Can't say I knew what the hell was going on the whole time, but wow was I intrigued!

Content Warnings

leona's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

wynspiration's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

fynn_manhattan's review against another edition

4.0

Unique and fascinating worldbuilding. Silly story.

emestes's review against another edition

4.0

Read for book club. I thought I would dislike it but found it a fast engrossing read and genuinely enjoyed it! Others thought they were going to like it but had to drag themselves through. The descriptions of the world, when they land, are rich and evocative in how surprising they are, although sometimes I didn’t get what they were evoking. I also didn’t love the narrator’s asides (“this decision probably saved my life later”) because they felt distracting and not always resolved. But, overall, I truly enjoyed it. Even the horrifying biotech had some element of humor or humanity to it and that kind of entertaining absurdity sustained the momentum.

jpsjps's review against another edition

5.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Damn, the ending had me tearing up. This book is beautiful. There is some really good stuff about the nature of being human in here. I love the characters, the prose, and the world. The story itself is very isolated, but that doesn’t stop the world from being so real.

Surprisingly, this book is narratively pretty straightforward. With the other VanderMeer books I’ve read being purposefully vague and obtuse, it was nice to read something by him that was really easy to follow. Don’t get me wrong though, the world is still very strange. Loved this book, it might top Annihilation as my favorite VanderMeer story.