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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
Horrible, can't believe that I listened to the whole thing.
While not my favorite VanderMeer novel, it was quite gripping. Weird without weirdness feeling like a spectacle, a performance, a layer on what is essential to this novel. "Jane" is a fascinating narrator, sharp yet blunt, missing the points just as she connects them, as she is one that connects. It is interesting to read across VanderMeer's work, to see how his sentences change shape, how his relation to lyricism shifts. Jane is not lyrical, not like the biologist in Annihilation.
I also, in reading so much of his work see a ethos of transformation: the only way humans are going to stop being so shitty is to be less human. Which is both terrible and beautiful. Hopeful and painful. But, his books often posit, the only way through this misery we've created on the earth. Here's hoping we can transform as much as is required.
I also, in reading so much of his work see a ethos of transformation: the only way humans are going to stop being so shitty is to be less human. Which is both terrible and beautiful. Hopeful and painful. But, his books often posit, the only way through this misery we've created on the earth. Here's hoping we can transform as much as is required.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
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:
Yes
The characters feel flat, the plot flimsy and non sensical, and the book feels like a chore the entire way through. The environmental messaging is ham fisted and the whole things feels clumsy and poorly conceived. Do yourself a favor and don’t read it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
not your average thriller.
i love the characters vandermeer writes, theyre always deeply flawed and interesting.
the story doesnt go the direction you expected. its about climate change, obsession, human nature and so much more.
i think vandermeer is my new favourite author
i love the characters vandermeer writes, theyre always deeply flawed and interesting.
the story doesnt go the direction you expected. its about climate change, obsession, human nature and so much more.
i think vandermeer is my new favourite author
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Death of parent, Alcohol
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer was published in 2021. If you expect a logically ordered sequence of events, you’ll be disappointed with the novel. It has a wierdness that will be familiar to readers of Area X and follows its own nightmare logic—like Area X, like Kafka. Hummingbird Salamander Is a tale of corruption, evil, and hopelessness amid the collapse of society and ecological disaster.
The protagonist, "Jane Smith," appears at first to be unstable, or just crazy, abandoning job, family, and home after being sent a taxidermied hummingbird of a variety that is extinct. Jane, definitely neurodivergent, later comments of herself,
The protagonist, "Jane Smith," appears at first to be unstable, or just crazy, abandoning job, family, and home after being sent a taxidermied hummingbird of a variety that is extinct. Jane, definitely neurodivergent, later comments of herself,
I usually stopped talking when I felt the need to share anything. It happened. I may have come to realize I was a loner posing as someone normal. But I still needed to connect to people. Share with them out of politeness. (pp. 250-251)
Jane is a security specialist, ex-wrestler, and body-builder. We find out that she was abused as a child by her grandfather. She is a strange, sad character to complement this strange, sad story.
Although Hummingbird Salamander is a compelling read, it doesn't flow easily. It’s written in the first person from Jane’s perspective, and we have to infer the global situation from what she tells us. The story builds slowly but inexorably through the medium of Jane’s adventures. At first I found the book difficult to penetrate, and I nearly gave up a quarter of the way in.
Nevertheless, I like Vandermeer's writing style. He frequently uses sentence fragments, which is fine as a technique for expressing emotional content. Here is Jane describing a mound of dead animals and animal skins for illegal trafficking:
Dead bodies. Skins. The dead. Fur, feathers, scales. Dull glass eyes staring back at me. A confusion and chaos that made me take a step back, nauseated. The mold smell had intensified, and the chemical stench, and the underlying scent of the real: the traces of what they had been alive. (p. 195)
And here Jane is Returning to her childhood home to see her father and his new wife:
How could this place coexist with a burning houseboat? With a gunfight in a car lot? With a warehouse full of death? But the trick of the world was to contain all things. (p. 284)
By three quarters of the way through, I had "got it" and was enjoying the book. I found the ending deflating and ambiguous, though no doubt the author meant it this way. How else should you approach the end of the world? I wouldn't be surprised to see a sequel.