Borne: A Novel

368 pages

Published Feb. 27, 2018 by MCD.

ISBN:
978-0-374-53765-4
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5 stars (3 reviews)

In a ruined city, Rachel, a scavenger, finds a small creature named "Borne" tangled in the fur of Mord, a gigantic bear made by a biotech firm. She knows her lover, Wick, is keeping secrets about working there, so she searches his stuff and finds a journal titled "Mord." What is he hiding?

8 editions

reviewed Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

Haunting and Inspring

5 stars

Fantastic bit of worldbuilding and every bit as weird as I was hoping for. There is alot more fantastical elements to this story than Vandermeers previous books. This was a feature to me, while it may not be for others. Be warned though, this ride will be very pulpy and hard to stomach. The beauty is there, it just requires a greater toll.

Addon after completing the series, hopefully this helps someone know what they're getting into: I would say Borne is great as a standalone and doesn't need any of the other two books. Strange Bird adds a heart breaking and beautiful layer of nuance to the world and makes for a great Duology. Dead Astronauts does for me what Strange Bird did, while requiring a huge cognitive lift to really enjoy.

"it was good"

4 stars

my take: "post apocalyptic anime with giant bear, starring sad scavenger mom who adopts a ditto"

jeff's ability to write a believable woman is mostly ok, but you can still tell he is a man writing a woman

i read it pretty quick. i was surprised and confused by a few parts, which was nice.