A review by lauraglovestoread
Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer

challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Veniss Underground is a classic in what is now known as New Weird, and this 20th anniversary edition includes additional stories set in the same world. VanderMeer describes it as “an unabashedly decadent, phantasmagorical novel,” and it includes themes — such as the implications of biotechnology — that also appear elsewhere in his work. Blending three character POVs and first, second, and third person, it is an ambitious book that mixes the illusory and the concrete in ways that blur the boundaries between them. It is almost entirely setting-driven: the plot is quite simple and straightforward and the character development somewhat sparse, but the descriptions of the scenes are impactful, evocative, and deeply disturbing. It is a book that gets under one’s skin and refuses to leave. This is an early work from VanderMeer — he notes in a brief essay here that he was still learning his craft at the time the initial ideas for this novel came to him — and is not as strong as some of his later work. This is decidedly not a book for everyone, but it is one I’d recommend to those into New Weird; it definitely has the beginnings of the style that can be recognized in his later work such as the Area X trilogy. I appreciated the additional stories for the most part, and the inclusion of Vandermeer’s thoughts on these works.

Content warnings: Graphic body horror throughout — this book is not for the squeamish. Violence, murder, body horror, gore, blood, vomit, suicide, death, torture, animal cruelty, animal death, medical content, medical trauma

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for providing an ARC in exchange for this review.

 
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