“Borne” Jeff VanderMeer — weird fiction book review

After reading great Jeff VanderMeer’s anthology The Weird, I decided to also check out other books by this author and my first choice was Borne. Quickly after being published, the novel became a bestseller and received widespread critical acclaim. Why? Let’s find out.

PS. If you like weird fiction, you might also be interested in my previous review — The Fisherman by John Langan.

“We all just want to be people, and none of us know what that really means.”

Borne’s action takes place in a ruined, nameless city, which fell victim to some unspecified ecological disaster. In addition to the remains of humanity divided into several rival factions, the town is also inhabited by genetically modified animals — remnants of experiments conducted by mysterious Company. gruesomely deformed children and the king of this fallen world — giant flying bear called Mord. In order for the picture of the universe skillfully created by Jeff VanderMeer to be complete, you simply cannot forget about the poisonous river flowing through the city, often acid rains and the atmosphere of decay prevailing pretty much everywhere. That’s the world where the heroine of the novel, Rahel, finds peculiar, anemone-like creature — Borne.