Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Hummingbird Salamander

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

6 reviews

savshelfinger's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

this book captures a lot of things about our society very well but the ending was a huge letdown. dammit Jeff! At least you can write women

Content Warnings

pterodog's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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? Yes

4.25

This book took me a little while to get into because it was slightly confusing at the start. Jeff VanderMeer's writing style is pretty unique and it took time to adjust to it, but once I sat down to start reading it properly with plenty of free time (almost 8 months after I started it, oops) I found it super gripping and pretty much impossible to put down and ended up finishing it that day.

To me, this is a book about change, both personal and ecological. It's about what happens when you're not looking, or when you're looking so hard at something else that you fail to keep an eye on the world around you. It's also about humanity's impact on the planet, ecoterrorism, climate change and the futility of expecting (or hoping) for one person to 'fix' everything.

What I really liked about this book was how all-consuming it is. Silvina Vilcapampa was consumed by her quest to save the planet. Jane Smith was consumed by Silvina's story and by her own traumatic childhood. Hellbender is consumed by his need to know what Silvina's final achievement was. One way or another, the main characters have a goal that they are willing to give up everything for, whether that goal is good or not - and one way or another, it does in the end consume them. Jane loses her family, Hellbender loses the woman he loves and Silvina loses her life. Despite this, reading it felt hopeful in a way, especially the last quarter of the book. Despite the world around Jane arguably starting to end (a briefly mentioned pandemic, white supremacist militias rising, air pollution and unchecked climate change) she spends 5 years of her life living with nature, and nature does endure. I found it strangely hopeful in the end, especially with Jane's final sacrifice.

I also liked how it really held onto the mystery aspect. VanderMeer gives you bits and pieces of the story but it doesn't all tie together until the final pages. Some of the reveals I wasn't too shocked by (Jane killing her grandfather, for example) but some of them genuinely took me by surprise (Silvina and the farm! What the hell!) and it was a really fun ride once Jane started putting all the pieces together.

A lot of other reviews have mentioned that they didn't like Jane, but I found her fun to read about. She is completely unapologetic about any of her choices, even the objectively terrible ones, and she's so methodical and straight-shooting that it takes a while before you start to notice how often she admits she hasn't been forthcoming with the reader and wonder how much else she's keeping back. She's not necessarily a likeable character but she is engaging and I was rooting for her overall, even if I was rooting for her husband and daughter much more.

Overall I really really enjoyed this book. I found the Southern Reach trilogy difficult because there was so much about it I didn't understand, and Hummingbird Salamander was similar to that but had enough of the plot set in stone and firmly explained that I didn't end up frustrated at the end. It's sad, but deeply gripping and very topical.

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