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kuronekostea's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
An incredible narrative about a young woman and her struggles to survive such a unique, scary apocalyptic city. I absolutely loved the characters in this book.
Easily my favorite book of this year.
I enjoyed the progressive play through of Rachel, Wick and Borne as they all grew and developed as characters who inevitably came to their own conclusions about the world around them and their places in it. I also found the underlying mystery fascinating as well. Like many of VanderMeer's books there are many questions still left unanswered. I plan to read the others in this series and hope we hear more about the possible AMC TV Series based on this novel.
Easily my favorite book of this year.
I enjoyed the progressive play through of Rachel, Wick and Borne as they all grew and developed as characters who inevitably came to their own conclusions about the world around them and their places in it. I also found the underlying mystery fascinating as well. Like many of VanderMeer's books there are many questions still left unanswered. I plan to read the others in this series and hope we hear more about the possible AMC TV Series based on this novel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Infertility, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Abandonment
diana_blackmoon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
4.0
In this crazy story about big bear, I was amazed to find such a compelling story. About motherhood, love, hope, betrayal and what it means to be a person. It is gruesome and terrifying but also beautiful and hopefull. The narration style takes a minute to get used to but was the best possible choice for this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Grief, and Alcohol
scytheria's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Gore
Moderate: Chronic illness and Death of parent
cryosphinx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I went into this knowing very little, having a friend recommend it to me. I was sold on post apocalyptic but that's quite it for my knowledge.
VanderMeer's writing style took a little bit for me to get used to, coming off a long string of romantic fantasy books so the beginning was hard for me to get into, but once I got a feel for the writing and the vivid and lush environment and characters, I was invested. His writing does so much in such an a beautiful and unique way they I felt sucked into this world, even with the mysteries such as why is there a giant bear flying around?
There's a lot of turns in this and it's been a long while since I've had a book where I read a sentence and had to put the book down to stare and mentally recover from what I just discovered. I did find the book was on the slow side, with a bulk of the book being centered around Rachel and Borne in the Balcony Cliffs (but I supposed the book IS titled Borne after all). It's very character driven with the great plot just being about survival in this strange but plausible apocalypse.
VanderMeer's writing style took a little bit for me to get used to, coming off a long string of romantic fantasy books so the beginning was hard for me to get into, but once I got a feel for the writing and the vivid and lush environment and characters, I was invested. His writing does so much in such an a beautiful and unique way they I felt sucked into this world, even with the mysteries such as why is there a giant bear flying around?
There's a lot of turns in this and it's been a long while since I've had a book where I read a sentence and had to put the book down to stare and mentally recover from what I just discovered. I did find the book was on the slow side, with a bulk of the book being centered around Rachel and Borne in the Balcony Cliffs (but I supposed the book IS titled Borne after all). It's very character driven with the great plot just being about survival in this strange but plausible apocalypse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual violence
maryellen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
troisha's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Gore, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
carmexfiend's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was recommended to me as a "woman raises [alien] kid" story so I was a little skeptical if I would like it but I loved it a lot. While raising a non-human person is an important part of the story, I think the main threads throughout the book is grief, regret, memory and how people live and thrive despite hardships and trauma. There's an established (het) main relationship that is also a major part of the story since you're watching these two characters conflict and support each other throughout. The main character is telling the story to the reader, but she sometimes keeps information back and reveals it later. This gave it a more natural feel despite the very weird world and I think this lends itself to future re-reads.
The story itself is about a woman named Rachel who survives in a post-apocalyptic world filled with cybernetic tech animals ("biotech" - it reminded me of the tech in the movie eXistenZ (1999) though less body-horrory). She lives with her business/love partner, Wick, and scavenges tech for him. One day she finds a piece of tech he doesn't recognize and she eventually ends up raising it as "Borne". Borne isn't human, doesn't have human limitations, and doesn't think quite like a human and this leads to a lot of the conflict between the three characters. Without getting into spoilers, I'd say the book deals a lot with grief but is hopeful overall. It really captures that feeling of "I wish I could have done that differently" that you remember someone who has passed away. Rachel has a lot of trauma in her past and the present day isn't much kinder to her but the book never felt like a trauma-fest. In the end, I really loved the writing, the world, and the characters.
The story itself is about a woman named Rachel who survives in a post-apocalyptic world filled with cybernetic tech animals ("biotech" - it reminded me of the tech in the movie eXistenZ (1999) though less body-horrory). She lives with her business/love partner, Wick, and scavenges tech for him. One day she finds a piece of tech he doesn't recognize and she eventually ends up raising it as "Borne". Borne isn't human, doesn't have human limitations, and doesn't think quite like a human and this leads to a lot of the conflict between the three characters. Without getting into spoilers, I'd say the book deals a lot with grief but is hopeful overall. It really captures that feeling of "I wish I could have done that differently" that you remember someone who has passed away. Rachel has a lot of trauma in her past and the present day isn't much kinder to her but the book never felt like a trauma-fest. In the end, I really loved the writing, the world, and the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Child death, Death, Torture, and Grief
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Sexual content, and Death of parent