Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

6 reviews

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal death, Kidnapping, Torture, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Suicide, Child abuse, Death, Stalking, and Torture

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Infidelity, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Police brutality, Ableism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, and War

erikwmj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Child death

Minor: Sexism

winn_e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death

kelseyland's review against another edition

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

Graphic: Gun violence, Child abuse, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Violence and Gore

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

sorryiambooked's review against another edition

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

Moderate: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Child death, and Death of parent