Borne: A Novel
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.
"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.
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Community Reviews
Really engaging - still not sure what it was about, but I could take it in any number of directions and find meaning. Really enjoyed this
"He was born, but I had borne him."
So interesting and different... I find myself still thinking of the quivering urn-shaped baby Borne and his fierce scavenger of an adoptive mama. I've seen all the elements of this one before, but not in the shape they appear in here, and the story was not at all predictable. All the characters were flawed enough by their imperfect lives that I wasn't sure I loved anyone, but that just made them more real. Very enjoyable novel.
So interesting and different... I find myself still thinking of the quivering urn-shaped baby Borne and his fierce scavenger of an adoptive mama. I've seen all the elements of this one before, but not in the shape they appear in here, and the story was not at all predictable. All the characters were flawed enough by their imperfect lives that I wasn't sure I loved anyone, but that just made them more real. Very enjoyable novel.
While maybe not as satisfying as the considerably more dour Southern Reach trilogy this was definitely more enjoyable to read. Possibly, as others have noted, because we have protagonists that are essentially likable and that the reader can engage with or maybe because it's story with a giant flying bear at its heart. Dark, strange, nasty and death filled this tale may be but JVM is clearly having fun here and so did I.
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