A review by coletravers
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

2.0

On a high-level, Borne has interesting concepts, and on a low-level, VanderMeer writes beautiful prose to describe sceneries, but on the medium-level that is this entire novel, Borne is dreadfully dull. I could not come to care about Rachel or Wick or Borne and that is what this novel is about, these three characters and the unveiling of the horrendous world around them. The world did not feel built up enough to be interesting and neither did the characters. Plot reveals and betrayals all did not impact me, and Rachel's mind-numbing internal ramblings were a bore. It was a grind to finish this book, and while the ending was above the middle portion of the book, and the beginning when all was unknown and new was satisfactory, the dragging middle 75% was enough to make this an unenjoyable read. I am always sad to read a VanderMeer that does not even approach the greatness of Annihilation.