Who Would Like This Book:
Dive into wild imagination and weirdness with "Borne"! If you like your sci-fi post-apocalyptic and unapologetically bizarre, this book delivers: flying bears, bioengineered chaos, and a shape-shifting not-quite-pet at the heart of it all. Fans of inventive world-building, philosophical questions about what makes a person, and stories that balance eerie, heartbreaking, and hopeful vibes will absolutely eat this up. If you loved Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, China Miéville, or want a mind-bending take on found family in a ruined world, this is your jam.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Not everyone is going to love a story that leans hard into ambiguity and strangeness. If you prefer clear explanations, straightforward plots, or get frustrated by dense, surreal prose, this might not be your cup of tea. Some readers wanted more backstory about the ruined world or a tighter focus, and the book's tendency to juggle many themes can feel overwhelming or meandering. If you need everything tied up in a neat bow, you may walk away scratching your head.
About:
In a biogenetic post-apocalyptic world, the book "Borne" by Jeff VanderMeer follows the journey of Rachel, Wick, and the shape-shifting entity named Borne as they navigate their relationships while fighting for survival. VanderMeer's imaginative storytelling delves into themes of love, identity, and the blurred lines between humanity and monstrosity. The narrative is described as a mix of dystopian elements, philosophical musings, and a focus on found families in a world overrun by biotech and monstrous creatures.
The book explores the strange and haunting cityscape created by an evil corporation's biotech experiments gone wrong, where characters encounter giant flying bears, shape-shifting entities, and deadly biotech creations. Through the eyes of the scavenger Rachel and her bond with Borne, the story delves into themes of survival, evolution, and the complexities of relationships in a world teetering on the brink of destruction.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of violence, trauma, and ecological destruction.
From The Publisher:
Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, PopSugar, Financial Times, Chicago Review of Books, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Thrillist, Book Riot, National Post (Canada), Kirkus and Publishers Weekly
From the author of the Southern Reach Trilogy comes Jeff VanderMeer's Borne, a story about two humans and two creatures.
"Am I a person?" Borne asked me.
"Yes, you are a person," I told him. "But like a person, you can be a weapon, too."
In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company-a biotech firm now derelict-and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.
One day, Rachel finds Borne during a scavenging mission and takes him home. Borne as salvage is little more than a green lump-plant or animal?-but exudes a strange charisma. Borne reminds Rachel of the marine life from the island nation of her birth, now lost to rising seas. There is an attachment she resents: in this world any weakness can kill you. Yet, against her instincts-and definitely against Wick's wishes-Rachel keeps Borne. She cannot help herself. Borne, learning to speak, learning about the world, is fun to be with, and in a world so broken that innocence is a precious thing. For Borne makes Rachel see beauty in the desolation around her. She begins to feel a protectiveness she can ill afford.
"He was born, but I had borne him."
But as Borne grows, he begins to threaten the balance of power in the city and to put the security of her sanctuary with Wick at risk. For the Company, it seems, may not be truly dead, and new enemies are creeping in. What Borne will lay bare to Rachel as he changes is how precarious her existence has been, and how dependent on subterfuge and secrets. In the aftermath, nothing may ever be the same.
Ratings (39)
Incredible (8) | |
Loved It (19) | |
Liked It (7) | |
It Was OK (4) | |
Did Not Like (1) |
Reader Stats (96):
Read It (40) | |
Want To Read (48) | |
Did Not Finish (1) | |
Not Interested (7) |
5 comment(s)
I have conflicted feelings about this book. I love the worldbuilding and the creature that is Borne: there aren't enough fascinating nonhuman creatures in fiction and Borne will stick with me for awhile. But getting through Vandermeer's overwrought prose was a slog.
I know that many people love his writing style, so it may just not be for me, but it feels like he's just trying way too hard to make every sentence poetic and unique and *beautiful.* I don't mind that approach when used sparingly, but in these doses it feels like a dinner that's been loaded up with a sugary sauce that hides the flavor of the ingredients underneath, or a film with an overpowering score urging you to feel. If your story is good, you shouldn't need to douse it in sugary prose: it just gets in the way. (See: Octavia Butler, a master of telling deeply moving stories with simple, straightforward prose.)
There were also many passages that felt unnecessarily confusing: and I couldn't help but feel that Vandermeer is more committed to being seen as someone who writes deep and beautiful prose than to telling a story that his readers can track. For instance:
"The way back was harder, and no getting around that-no truth I learned struggling back, except that life is struggle. It placed me in some gray realm beyond, a landscape of exertion and anguish. I had nothing left to give, and yet still I had something left to give."
Ok what? Again, fine if this was every once in awhile... but every page was like this.
But the worldbuilding was great and I'm partial to tentacled shapeshifters and apocalyptic scenarios, so... 3 stars I guess.
a little less opaque than some of his other books
this has a fairly straightforward plotline and it is easier to tell who is doing what when
until
twist that is
rachel and wick are survivors in a city that's been overrun and destroyed by a Company that makes biotech
in fact, the whole world has been destroyed by global warming, wars, disease, and rachel herself is a refugee turned scavenger in the new, more dangerous version of the city
she finds a piece of biotech, a blob, on a giant (like three stories tall) bear called mord
vandermeer loves to explore our obsession with biotechnology and genetics with the weirdest creatures he can come up with, and then make us figure out whether they are human or people or is there a difference and what am i by the way?
the biotech turns out to be sentient, and rachel calls it borne, teaches it and comes to love him (she assigns him a gender even though he has no physical human characteristics)
rachel and wick are eking out a survival in the city by scavenging biotech and selling it to other survivors
when borne grows into his unexpected abilities, the power structure in the city starts to change and secrets are, necessarily, revealed
what i love about vandermeer is that he goes in directions other science fiction authors wouldn't think of
his prose has a lyricism that reminds me of china mieville
but at the same time his plots are strong and weird and always throw you off guard
borne is proof that the southern reach trilogy wasn't just a fluke
3.5 stars
Borne is set in a dystopian world. A Jeff VanderMeer style dystopia. Its equally weird and enthralling.
Rachel, is a scavenger who hunts for food and supplies in this dystopian world to keep herself and her boyfriend alive. In this world biologically engineered organisms (biotech) have been allowed to run wild and boy, they hunt.
Then there is Mord, a raving mad, flying, 20-storey tall bear who reigns over the city like some bizarre predator. And Rachel find Borne on Mord's body and removes it. She develops a motherly relationship with Borne when her boyfriend has his doubts.
It is about the relationship between Rachel and Borne in dire circumstances in a dystopian world. It was good, I enjoyed it.
Happy Reading!!
DNF at 17%.
I love VanderMeer's prose, and the characters felt like they had real depth, but the world was just too weird. Not for me.
This is like nothing I've read before, I couldn't put it down!
What can you read after
Borne?
About the Author:
Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor, and the author most recently of the New York Times bestselling Southern Reach Trilogy. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in the Library of America's American Fantastic Tales and multiple year's-best anthologies. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife.
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