ARC Review: Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

Borne by Jeff Vandermeer

Genre: Sci-Fi / Post-Apocalyptic

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 15th June 2017

My Rating: 

Synopsis: A ruined city of the future lives in fear of a despotic, gigantic flying bear, driven mad by the tortures inflicted on him by the Company, a mysterious biotech firm. A scavenger, Rachel, finds a creature entangled in his fur. She names it Borne.

At first, Borne looks like nothing at all― a green lump that might be a discard from the Company. But he reminds Rachel of her homeland, an island nation long lost to rising seas, and she prevents her lover, Wick, from rendering down Borne as raw genetic material for the special kind of drugs he sells.

But nothing is quite the way it seems: not the past, not the present, not the future. If Wick is hiding secrets, so is Rachel―and Borne most of all.

My Review

Thanks to my aunt who kindly lent me this ARC copy!

If you’re someone who needs answers immediately when reading a book or watching a film, someone who, when something unexplained happens, asks, “Why did that happen?” or “Why did they say that?” instead of waiting a few more chapters or 15 minutes more to find out, or someone who is not content with ever knowing the answers at all, then this is not the kind of book for you.

However, if you’re someone who likes a bit of ambiguity, who likes to be confused in a good, page-turning kind of way, then Borne is for you.

I read Jeff VanderMeer’s The Southern Reach Trilogy a few years ago and devoured each book one after the other. Usually, I leave a bit of a gap between books in a series if the series is already complete. However, I had so many questions, I needed to keep reading. That trilogy was fantastically creepy, suspenseful, horrifying and twisted. So that should give you a good idea of what Borne is like.

Borne, I would say, is the slightly calmer younger brother of The Southern Reach Trilogy. It’s still totally bizarre and full of some very creepy creations, but whereas that first trilogy was a full-throttle Sci-Fi Horror, Borne is more of just a Sci-Fi with a touch of Horror.

And immediately, the opening to Borne totally confused me. I had to go back and re-read sections because VanderMeer writes very intricately, yet with a throwaway attitude whereby he drops names of creations and places as if to say, “Keep up.” However, after the first twenty or so pages, I quickly settled into the rhythm and was captivated. VanderMeer has crafted a weird and wonderful story, with a bit more humour than his previous series, but with no less strangeness.

The story is narrated by Rachel, a young woman scavenging in a ruined city. She doesn’t quite know how she got there, but knows she travelled a dying Earth with her parents in search of salvation. Rachel lives with a man called Wick, who is a drug dealer of sorts, selling bits of ‘biotech’ to make a living. This crumbling city is haunted by a massive, murderous bear known as Mord. (Yes, you did read that right). One day, whilst searching Mord’s fur for bits to scavenge, Rachel finds a glowing blob that she takes home and calls Borne. She assumes it’s a strange plant, but it soon becomes apparent that Borne is much more.

Rachel herself is a great protagonist. Strong, hardened, but with a softness brought out in her by Borne. Borne, however, is the real star of the show, as the title would suggest. I won’t spoil what Borne is or much about him, but he’s a brilliant character. Innocent and funny, yet also deeply unnerving. He was crafted excellently and was easy to connect to, despite the fact he’s not even human. 

Wick was an odd character, but I ended up also liking him. I would say Wick is the most complex; you never really know what he’s thinking. He’s very flawed, yet clearly caring. I liked the dynamic the three characters had: Rachel, Borne and Wick. Despite the setting being just downright odd, the characters felt entirely real and relatable. 

And trust me, the setting is strange. It can be hard to imagine at times, but I find that VanderMeer manages to pull off describing these weird places. Whilst all my questions weren’t answered about the setting, I didn’t mind, and VanderMeer is able to write a setting and story shrouded in a bit of mystery, instead of feeling like he just couldn’t be bothered to tie up loose ends or have any reasoning behind particular aspects. The ending left me wanting to know more, but it didn’t feel incomplete. After The Southern Reach Trilogy, I have come to expect that VanderMeer likes to leave you guessing, and to leave parts open to interpretation. That works well for his novels, because any answers might actually ruin it in that they don’t feel right, or they feel anticlimactic.

For a while whilst reading, I compared Borne to The Southern Reach Trilogy and thought I liked the trilogy better as it was grittier and darker. However, thinking about it, Borne is totally its own entity and I shouldn’t compare it. Borne is a slightly ‘lighter’ read, and for that I found it had a little more meaning behind it rather than just being a brilliant idea. It’s a novel about loss and human nature, and can be quite moving at times. Not in the totally bleak and terrifying way of The Southern Reach Trilogy, but in a more bittersweet way.

If you haven’t tried any of VanderMeer’s books, I really recommend you do. If you’re not a Sci-Fi fan, and you’re scared easily, then you should probably skip them, but otherwise don’t be put off. They’re brilliantly imagined, entirely vivid and unique, and such gripping reads. Borne might be a softer introduction, but I honestly think VanderMeer has earned his place as one of my favourite authors, and I really look forward to more of his novels in future.

Have you read any of VanderMeer’s books? What did you think of them? Do you want to read Borne? Let me know in the comments below!

 

 

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The Willoughby Book Club Unboxing #3

The final package in my three month The Willoughby Book Club subscription arrived yesterday. And let me just say, this last book definitely didn’t disappoint. The people behind The Willoughby Book Club have made great choices the last two months (you can find the posts here and here) and I’ve been really pleased.

So, what did I get this month? It was A Lovely Way To Burn by Louise Welsh.

It’s an apocalyptic/dystopian novel with a murder mystery to boot. Set in a London ravaged by a deadly virus, one woman believes that it wasn’t the virus that killed her husband, but that someone murdered him instead. I think it sounds like a great idea, weaving my favourite genre with crime, and I’m excited to read it.

If you want to check out The Willoughby Book Club, you can find them here. I really do recommend them. They have so many different subscriptions and are great at tailoring books to your preferences. That way, you know you’re going to get a book you’ll like. Also, if they happen to send you a book you already have (which only happens to 1% of customers), they’ll send you a replacement completely free and let you keep the duplicate book so you can give it to a friend.

They’re UK based with free shipping, but do ship elsewhere for a fee. I also think they’re great value for money and really know their stuff when it comes to books! It’s an excellent way of finding new books and authors that you may have overlooked or never heard of.

Do you subscribe to The Willoughby Book Club or any other book subscription boxes? Have you read A Lovely Way To Burn? Want to read it? Let me know in the comments below!

Film Review: The Girl With All the Gifts

I read the novel The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey about two years ago now and it’s definitely a book that has stuck with me. Excellent writing, lots of tension, great characters, and a unique twist on the zombie genre. If you’ve followed my blog for a while now, you know I love all things zombie, so to find such a well-written addition to the genre was great.

Understandably, I had high expectations for the film adaptation, especially after seeing some glowing reviews from the likes of Empire.  Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed!

I dragged my boyfriend along to see the film and, strangely, we had an entire screen to ourselves. This was good in the sense that no one would be talking or texting, but bad in the sense that when Mark left to go to the loo, I was sat in a big screen watching a zombie movie all by myself with surround sound. Needless to say, it was creepy.

Anyway, onto the film itself:

The film itself is very, very true to the book. A couple of scenes were dropped, along with the concept of the “Junkers”, but the vast majority of the major plot points are pretty much identical, which was amazing.

For those of you who don’t know, The Girl With All the Gifts tells the story of Melanie (Sennia Nanua), a young girl kept in an army base along with other children. Each day, she is strapped into a wheelchair by guards who treat her like she’s dangerous and taken to a classroom for lessons from the kind Miss Justineau (Gemma Arteton). That’s when we discover that, outside the army base, the world has been ravaged by a zombie virus, specifically a fungal virus that turns people into “Hungries”. Melanie and her fellow kids in the classroom are Hungries, but they’re different. They aren’t mindless and feral, but instead act like any other average human child. I won’t say why, but be prepared for a very unique zombie story.

And then, one day, it all goes wrong and the army base must be evacuated. Only a handful escape, including Melanie, Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine), Dr Caldwell (Glenn Close) and a couple of soldiers. Will they make it to safety? Can the calculating Dr Caldwell develop a cure? You’ll have to wait and see.

The heart of the story is Melanie. A kind and courageous girl, you can’t help but become deeply attached to her whilst almost slightly fearing her, and I thought Sennia Nanua did an excellent job of portraying the complexities of Melanie on the big screen. Interestingly, in the novel Melanie is white and Miss Justineau is black, but it’s been reversed in the film. I think it’s great that a young black girl has been given such a big part as the main protagonist here, and she was definitely the best actress to play Melanie.

Aside from that one change, I thought all the characters were very true to the book in terms of personality. Helen Justineau’s kindness and protectiveness, Sergeant Parks’ bravado hiding a softer interior, Dr Caldwell’s determination, Private Gallagher’s innocence. It really is a very true adaptation, keeping the core values of the book and much of the plot.

However, whilst this is a film about zombies, it is truly a film about humanity. Some of the best zombie films and books are the ones that look at humanity, not just the blood and gore. I can’t explain too much without revealing the ending, but there are some huge moral dilemmas in The Girl With All the Gifts. Me and Mark had a long conversation about it all afterwards, with differing opinions on morality. It’s definitely a bittersweet story.

The film has also clearly taken inspiration from Danny Boyle’s amazing 28 Days Later so, if you enjoyed that, you should enjoy this. I don’t think it’s as scary as 28 Days Later (Cillian Murphy in the church? The infected at the window? Terrifying), or even as scary as the novel, but it’s not trying to terrify you with jump scares; it’s about so much more than that. It’s about terrifying you with the prospect of the end of humanity.

In addition, I have to give a special shout out to the score for this film. It’s amazing. So creepy and tense and eerie, it was one of the best scores I’ve heard in a long while for a horror film. EDIT: (See link at the bottom to listen to the main theme).

However, there were a few slight negatives to the adaptation. One was that I think the ending was a little rushed. It needed more explanation. This was where me and Mark argued a little as the climax missed out some key aspects from the book and I had to explain it fully to him to make him understand the reasoning behind some of the actions in the finale. There were also a few scenes from the novel I would have liked to have seen included, but there was probably issues with running time. Lastly, whilst most of the big scenes did make it to the screen, some had been changed, and I would have liked them to be the same as the book because I think it would have had more of an impact. But hey, that’s just me being a picky reader.

Overall though, this was an excellent adaptation of the book and I was thoroughly impressed. Excellent acting, very true to the novel and a great score, I couldn’t have asked for much more. I definitely recommend both the book and the film.

Have you read The Girl With All the Gifts? Or seen the film? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!

EDIT: I just managed to find the main theme from the composer on Soundcloud, so check it out here.

Review: The Fireman by Joe Hill

The Fireman by Joe Hill

Genre: Apocalyptic

Publisher: Gollancz, 2016

My Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis: The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. But everyone knows it as Dragonscale, an incurable spore that kills its host through spontaneous combustion. A million people have it. There’s a fire on every street corner; hospitals have become funeral pyres. Civilization is disappearing fast into the smoke.

Sunny, unflappable Harper Grayson is newly pregnant when she comes up marked and sure to burn. But her baby might be born uninfected… if she can live long enough to deliver.

Abandoned by her increasingly unhinged husband, hunted by the Cremation Squads, Harper hears a fantastic rumour: the story of The Fireman. He strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who may have learned to control the flames.

In the desperate season to come, Harper will take any risk to find him and learn his secrets – before what’s left of the world goes up in smoke.

My Review

I’d heard a lot of good things about this book and, being a fan of apocalyptic fiction, I was over the moon to find a signed copy in Waterstones. And I have to say, this novel didn’t disappoint.

However, it wasn’t what I expected. The blurb makes it sound like Harper is going to have to travel a dangerous, burning America in search of the mysterious Fireman, when in fact that’s not it at all. This novel goes in a completely different direction to the usual apocalyptic fiction, whereby the hero must travel the country in search of a cure or a lost loved one. The blurb really doesn’t even hint at the depth of this novel and the myriad of sub-plots. There are an abundance of characters as well and this makes for a satisfyingly complicated read. So, when I say it wasn’t what I expected, that certainly doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.

I say ‘satisfyingly complicated’ because I was never confused. The writing style is excellent and reminded me a little of Justin Cronin’s The Passage series (which is brilliant, by the way, and if you haven’t read it go start now!). Just like that series, The Fireman is a pretty hefty book. I think it could have been a little shorter. Some scenes were quite long when they could have been cut down, and others were too short, with one scene especially springing to mind for being too short and maybe a little anticlimactic, almost a slight cop-out. To give you a hint (no spoilers), we spend much of the time in a particular setting and so may of the sub-plots and characters are weaved about this place, and then something happens that means all the loose threads abruptly come to an end but never seem to be finished. However, some continue on afterwards and come to a completion, but I still felt this particular scene could have been done differently, or extended, for a more satisfying conclusion.

But like I said, I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. It was witty, full of action, lots of detail (but without being boring) and hopeful, and so were the characters. Harper, our protagonist, is very well-crafted. You really get a sense that she’s an actual person, out in the world somewhere, rather than just lying flat on the page. She’s caring, compassionate and great under pressure. She grows throughout the book from a loving, but easily walked over, young woman, to a loving, but won’t take no shit from anyone, young woman. I admired her resilience and her obsession with a certain Disney musical was endearing.

My other favourite character was actually a middle-aged woman named Renée. She was funny and determined like Harper, with a real sense of justice. She’s the kind of woman you’d definitely want as your aunt.

The other characters were all well-rounded too, but those were the standout ones for me. Allie, Nick, Don Lewiston, Father Storey and The Fireman himself were all great. I especially liked how the author got an Englishman right! For once, he was referred to as ‘English’ with an ‘English accent’ (even though there isn’t a true English accent as there are so many in this country, but I hate when people say ‘British accent’ because that doesn’t exist! Your typical Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish accents are extremely different in comparison to your quintessential English accent!). So Joe Hill definitely won brownie points from me.

In addition, some of the ‘science’ was a little fantastical and most probably could not happen in real life, but that’s why we read books, to see the boundaries being pushed, and these ‘fantastical’ elements never felt silly or ridiculous. Instead, they fitted in well with the story and made for a bit of a change from your usual viral outbreak book. The virus is very unique, not just your typical coughing up blood kinda virus you get in the apocalyptic genre, and clearly a lot of thought has gone into setting this book apart as an original addition to the genre.

As for the ending, I thought it was going to be unsatisfactory but thankfully it wasn’t, at least not for me. A little extra scene included as a Coda at the end provided some hope and possibility for something that occurred in the climax, so I was happy.

Overall, my only qualms were that sometimes the scenes were either too long or too short, and one scene in particular was a bit anticlimactic, but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it. It is pretty long, but it never really feels like it’s dragging, which can sometimes happen with big books. However, there was some of the best characterisation I’ve seen in quite a while so, if you want a really good character-driven book with an excellent story-line to boot, then look no further than The Fireman.

Have you read The Fireman? Or any other of Hill’s books? Do you like apocalyptic fiction? Let me know in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves | Fantasy & WW2 Lit | YA & Adult

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme from Tynga’s Reviews where you showcase the books you’ve received or purchased.

This week, I got four books, including my replacement book from The Willoughby Book Club after they sent me Red Rising which I already have! But they sent this replacement free of charge which is a really nice gesture. Of course I’d be in that 1% that receives a book they already have.

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Vivian Versus the Apocalypse by Katie Coyle

All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski

Where My Heart Used to Beat by Sebastian Faulks

Vivian Versus the Apocalypse was my replacement from The Willoughby Book Club and it sounds really really good, a very interesting take on the ‘apocalypse’ genre.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about The Girl of Ink and Stars too. It’s meant to be a magical, fantastical read and sits somewhere between MG and YA.

Today my dad bought me WW2 novel All For Nothing and Sebastian Faulks’ new book Where My Heart Used to Beat. All For Nothing sounds like it’s going to be very tense so I’m excited to read it. I’ve also read a couple of Sebastian Faulks’ novels, including the amazing Birdsong, so I’m looking forward to seeing what his new installment is like.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What books have you got this week? Let me know in the comments below!

My Long-Awaited Film Review for X-Men: Apocalypse

I used to occasionally watch the X-Men cartoons as a kid, but all I vaguely remember is really liking Rogue. It wasn’t until Bryan Singer’s first X-Men movie that I could officially call myself a fan. If you don’t love superheroes and/or want to be them, then I think there’s something a bit wrong with you. And even though some of the X-Men movies have been a little hit and miss (X-Men: The Last Stand anyone? Although I did still really enjoy it…) they’ve still been fun.

Now, X-Men: Apocalypse was always going to struggle to top its predecessor Days of Future Past, especially since that film brought together the cast of the original trilogy with the new X-Men cast, satisfying all of the fans at once. Undoubtedly, Apocalypse fails to outshine Days of Future Past, and doesn’t maintain that bleak, ‘all hope is lost’ atmosphere that the previous film did so well. But it’s still an enjoyable film and, whilst being a fan of the original trilogies, I’m enjoying the new direction the franchise is going in after Days of Future Past reset the timeline.

So let’s start with the villain. I enjoyed Apocalypse as the antagonist. I really like Oscar Isaac, he’s a brilliant actor, and he delivers Apocalypse’s grandiose rhetoric well. However, whilst I didn’t find him cheesy, I wasn’t all that afraid of him; I was never too worried that he was going to succeed. Of course, we always know the X-Men are going to triumph, after all that’s what we’ve paid to see, but I was never too worried that maybe, just this once, the villain might succeed. Even though the superheroes always win, we should still feel that fear that maybe they won’t.

However, I did enjoy the new cast of characters in this film, the next generation of mutants. Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique really bores me now and I’m glad she probably won’t be coming back for another film, even though I liked her in the last two films, and especially liked the character in the original trilogy. Unfortunately, Lawrence as Mystique just doesn’t have any of that mysteriousness; the clue is in the name after all, and she proved to be pretty useless in this film. As such, I’m glad this film gave time for other characters to shine.

One of these characters was Evan Peters returning as Quicksilver. He provided some great comic relief, and also some depth. Will Magneto find out Quicksilver is his son, or won’t he? Peters plays the character exceptionally well and I hope he holds a central role in the upcoming films as he did in this one.

As for some of the others, I enjoyed Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, which was great because Jean Grey is one of my favourite X-Men and her powers were allowed to shine in the climax of the film. However, I had to force myself to remember the X-Men timeline has changed and that Jean Grey doesn’t become the Phoenix and pretty much kill everyone, as she did in The Last Stand. I think it’ll be interesting to see what lies in store for the Phoenix in the future. I hope they’ll allow Jean to reach her power’s potential without going batshit crazy again.

I also liked Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers. He encapsulated the cockiness of Cyclops, as seen in the original trilogy, but also his vulnerability. However, sometimes the rudeness just got a little bit annoying and I wondered how Jean would ever end up with such an arsehole. Hopefully that was just teenage bravado.

Yet, as I said before, what let this film down a little was the fact that I never felt like the X-Men were truly in peril. However, it was still a really enjoyable film and it didn’t shy away from some dark themes. I’ve seen this film get mixed reviews, but I don’t think it deserves the panning that some critics have given it. It was still fun and sets up the future installments for the next generation of X-Men that we know and love from the original three films, as well as the comics (obviously) and the animated TV series. So I’d say don’t pass up on this film just because it got some bad reviews; form your own opinion instead.

Have you seen X-Men: Apocalypse? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below!

And sorry it took me so long to review it!