Borne by Vandermeer

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really love this book; I was absolutely riveted the entire time I was reading it. It reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake series but is in no way derivative. I think what I like best about Vandermeer is how absolutely weird and novel and unpredictable his imagination is. I never see whatever he's got up his sleeve coming.

For that reason, I don't want to spoil anything about the novel except for in the broadest strokes. I would say this is set in a post-apocalyptic world except the apocalypse seems ongoing and interminable. Rachel and Wick have eked out a pretty good existence in a place dominated by a giant, murderous bear who can fly when Rachel encounters Borne, some wholly new sort of sentient being whom she begins to treat like a child. Their relationship will have pretty extreme consequences for everyone living in the City.



View all my reviews


I am so taken with this novel. It's so so good, y'all. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished.

( SPOILERS, SERIOUSLY DON'T READ AT ALL IF YOU INTEND TO READ THIS BOOK )