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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
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
dnf at like 171 pages idk I just couldn't get into it :,/ maybe I will give it another try again
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed the writings of Thoreau at face value, the descriptions of nature and his often humourous tales.
I really struggled with the criticisms that took up the second half of this tome - by the end I never wanted to read another word on Walden or Wild Apples.
Don't get me wrong, there were interesting ideas on feminism and race that were tackled by some of the critics but I ploughed through a lot of literary loam to get there!
I really struggled with the criticisms that took up the second half of this tome - by the end I never wanted to read another word on Walden or Wild Apples.
Don't get me wrong, there were interesting ideas on feminism and race that were tackled by some of the critics but I ploughed through a lot of literary loam to get there!
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought this book would have some potential when starting it because it sounded like a dystopian thriller about climate change. Even though these themes do come across briefly, it was very boring. I was constantly waiting for something to happen but it was anticlimactic every time. I felt like it could’ve been more memorable if it dealt with current themes more and made it the center of the story. I didn’t like the writing style and it always took me quite a while to get into the story again. This was just a very forgettable novel.
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was by far the weakest Jeff Vandermeer book I have read which might mean I have rated it slightly harshly but also it didn’t really do much for me. I loved the MC – I will always love me a big lady – and the plot had potential but I think it was made unnecessarily convoluted and was missing Vandermeer’s trademark weird (and what weird was there felt tokenistic and insincere).
More spy-esque thriller than his other work, Hummingbird Salamander is a story about a woman’s collapsing identity paralleled to the collapse of ecosystems. There is a slightly strange love story that underpins the more mysterious elements which made it feel like one giant crash out start to finish.
Nothing will stop me loving Vandermeer and his writing but this might be one to miss, especially if you don’t already love the way he tells a story.
i just can't be fucked to try and make myself finish this which is a shame since i honestly do find the premise interesting. sad !
This was a tough one, and I reserve the right to change my rating in the future.
A woman gets a note at a cafe from a dead woman she never met. It leads her to a storage unit containing only a taxidermied hummingbird, an extinct species. As she looks further into why this particular specimen was sent to her, why this person chose her, she finds her life spiraling out of control, falling into a world of capitalism, animal smuggling, eco-terrorism, and the looming climate apocalypse.
Looking through the other reviews, I see a lot of folks complaining that the book "wasn't about anything," that there are no stakes, that "it just ends." And I think maybe that was the point. Our narrator, Jane, finds herself swept along by outside forces, both human and natural, and has little control over how they overwhelm her. I think that's kind of how the climate crisis feels to most of us.
With the IPCC report being released today, and having finished this last night, I'm pretty contemplative about the future. I've read enough to know we are in trouble if we don't make some changes. And with that in mind, you'd think this book would spark an extreme anxiety in me. But I think instead it just solidified hope. Yes, there is no magic solution waiting for us, but I think enough people, working together, may be able to make a difference.
A woman gets a note at a cafe from a dead woman she never met. It leads her to a storage unit containing only a taxidermied hummingbird, an extinct species. As she looks further into why this particular specimen was sent to her, why this person chose her, she finds her life spiraling out of control, falling into a world of capitalism, animal smuggling, eco-terrorism, and the looming climate apocalypse.
Looking through the other reviews, I see a lot of folks complaining that the book "wasn't about anything," that there are no stakes, that "it just ends." And I think maybe that was the point. Our narrator, Jane, finds herself swept along by outside forces, both human and natural, and has little control over how they overwhelm her. I think that's kind of how the climate crisis feels to most of us.
With the IPCC report being released today, and having finished this last night, I'm pretty contemplative about the future. I've read enough to know we are in trouble if we don't make some changes. And with that in mind, you'd think this book would spark an extreme anxiety in me. But I think instead it just solidified hope. Yes, there is no magic solution waiting for us, but I think enough people, working together, may be able to make a difference.