Scan barcode
schuster_s's review against another edition
5.0
What a jarring novel. The plot was interesting and I’m bad at guessing endings, but wow I never know what’s coming next. The book was published in 2021 and the mentions of climate change and pandemics really get to you in the way that they should. All around great book.
raiiiven's review against another edition
2.0
Vandermeer is one of my favorite authors, I'm close to reading his entire works. •Hummingbird Salamander• was not a storyline I deeply enjoyed - it's a lot of internal dialogue of a person asking themselves the same question over and over. But like any of Vandermeer's book, it stresses the current issues of our world concerning climate change, mass animal extinctions, and our apathetic human response to the issue. He calls it the "fatal adaption."
"To care more meant putting a bullet in your brain. So , like many, I had learned to care less."
•Hummingbird Salamander• caused me to pause and consider the realities of climate change, my personal apathy with the situation and how I can force myself out of inaction to try and help. Which I am grateful for. I hope it pushes all of its' readers to enact change. Before it's too late.
"To care more meant putting a bullet in your brain. So , like many, I had learned to care less."
•Hummingbird Salamander• caused me to pause and consider the realities of climate change, my personal apathy with the situation and how I can force myself out of inaction to try and help. Which I am grateful for. I hope it pushes all of its' readers to enact change. Before it's too late.
sandygx260's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't hate this novel, but I didn't like it. Jane is a completely unreliable narrator. Why would she completely disrupt her family over a weird note from a complete stranger? That detail is important, because as Jane's story unravels, so does the truth. She's a liar who doesn't know she's a liar until she's confronted with her lies.
There's one scene in the book that truly threw me... a simple scene where Jane empties Shovel Pig, her enormous purse. The detail is ridiculous, but it is important. VanderMeer uses the simple emptying of a purse to tell us this woman is unstable. NO ONE sane carries that much nonsense in a purse.
VanderMeer ends with do you believe his unreliable narrator? Or is this a wild goose chase?
Bah. I didn't like it. I do believe I'll read the Southern Reach trilogy again.
There's one scene in the book that truly threw me... a simple scene where Jane empties Shovel Pig, her enormous purse. The detail is ridiculous, but it is important. VanderMeer uses the simple emptying of a purse to tell us this woman is unstable. NO ONE sane carries that much nonsense in a purse.
VanderMeer ends with do you believe his unreliable narrator? Or is this a wild goose chase?
Bah. I didn't like it. I do believe I'll read the Southern Reach trilogy again.
aleyajo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
If there’s one thing Jeff VanderMeer can do it’s write a strong female main character. Love the way he writes, so beautifully descriptive and thoughtful - it’s just so good! What lengths are we willing to go to? Where is our place in all this mess? At the end of the world what is truly important?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death, Gun violence, and Violence
gretchenwettstein's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
11corvus11's review against another edition
4.0
Jeff Vandermeer is one of my all time favorite fiction authors. He has a way of combining things I love such as weird horror and science fiction while also using them to explore environmentalism, ecology, technology, humanity, animality, and many other factors of existence. His new eco-thriller Hummingbird Salamander is a bit different from his other books I have read. It brings the story down a bit from the fantastical world of mutated creatures surviving dystopia or alien colonization to a story that situates itself well into current times.
The story focuses on a security consultant ("Jane") who becomes immersed in worlds quite opposite her own in order to follow the trail left for her by an "eco-terrorist," (Silvina.) One thing that never becomes clear to me in this book is why the word eco-terrorist was used so freely. There is a great deal of story that occurs that forces the reader to grapple with the reasoning for why someone may or may not commit crimes in the name of eco-defense or animal liberation. This I appreciated. Yet, at the same time, I still found the t-word to be overused. Perhaps I am more sensitive to it as a person who has lived through some of the worst manifestations of The Green Scare. I do like how Vandermeer wrote his character and her journey to a better understanding.
This book has a lot of the markers of a thriller complete with tension, mystery, action, and plenty of twists and turns. The protagonist is quite and interesting character as a woman who does not fit into many conventional boundaries set for her. This serves her well in her journey. The way Vandermeer writes this character is careful and with skill. Even though I find her choices to leave everything behind including her family to be a bit unlikely, I like that we have a flawed female character who explores the story despite the harm she causes to others in the process. Her journey seems to begin as a purely selfish pursuit, but later becomes more about finding some sort of justice or at least solving the mystery for the sake of Silvina.
This was an enjoyable read, but not my favorite from Vandermeer. The style explored in the Area X and Borne series is still my preferred and favorite medium for Vandermeer's work. But, if he put out another eco-thriller, I still be excited to read it. I will always appreciate how he brings issues of environmentalism and animal liberation into a palatable mainstream understanding through bizarre and creative means.
This was also posted to my blog.
The story focuses on a security consultant ("Jane") who becomes immersed in worlds quite opposite her own in order to follow the trail left for her by an "eco-terrorist," (Silvina.) One thing that never becomes clear to me in this book is why the word eco-terrorist was used so freely. There is a great deal of story that occurs that forces the reader to grapple with the reasoning for why someone may or may not commit crimes in the name of eco-defense or animal liberation. This I appreciated. Yet, at the same time, I still found the t-word to be overused. Perhaps I am more sensitive to it as a person who has lived through some of the worst manifestations of The Green Scare. I do like how Vandermeer wrote his character and her journey to a better understanding.
This book has a lot of the markers of a thriller complete with tension, mystery, action, and plenty of twists and turns. The protagonist is quite and interesting character as a woman who does not fit into many conventional boundaries set for her. This serves her well in her journey. The way Vandermeer writes this character is careful and with skill. Even though I find her choices to leave everything behind including her family to be a bit unlikely, I like that we have a flawed female character who explores the story despite the harm she causes to others in the process. Her journey seems to begin as a purely selfish pursuit, but later becomes more about finding some sort of justice or at least solving the mystery for the sake of Silvina.
This was an enjoyable read, but not my favorite from Vandermeer. The style explored in the Area X and Borne series is still my preferred and favorite medium for Vandermeer's work. But, if he put out another eco-thriller, I still be excited to read it. I will always appreciate how he brings issues of environmentalism and animal liberation into a palatable mainstream understanding through bizarre and creative means.
This was also posted to my blog.
cosmith2015's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like it, but it took me close to 3 months to finish it. I was hoping for more Weird and the book was more like a mystery or thriller.
I didn’t particularly care for the plots or any of the background plots.
I didn’t particularly care for the plots or any of the background plots.