Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

I had a hard time getting into the shoes of the first person narrator Jane. She was relentless in her pursuit of Silvina, a person who has allegedly placed a taxidermied hummingbird and salamander in her locker. This pursuit unchains a whole list of events to take place.

I had trouble following along, because I couldn't really get into Jane's perspective. There are so many people she runs into, and I didn't really understand their roles in all of this. There's something about a brother. My main gripe would be Jane's body image. She keeps referring to herself as large and muscular. I don't know, it just wasn't for me.

I'm rating it to two stars, because there's something in her that was a bit compelling. Why the hummingbird and salamander were left in her locker. The pandemic she refers to and the ecoterrorism are things I don't read about often so that caught my interest.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

VanderMeer is just such an accomplished stylist. Hummingbird Salamander is paranoid and atmospheric, a pandemic novel and climatelit, a thriller full of false clues. I liked the fragments that delved into "Jane's" backstory the most, but descriptions were very well done in general. That said, the thriller didn't quite grip me - which was, perhaps, on purpose, this is a deconstruction of thriller in some ways, but while similar devices (defamiliarisation, aporia) worked very well in some of VanderMeer's earlier novels, I didn't quite love them as much here.

Still, I love the way he reveals and obscures his characters. They are never quite intelligible to themselves, so they are also somewhat hidden from the reader, even as we can feel with them, we cannot fully know them. They're in crisis, falling apart. Like their/our world.

I love Jeff Vandermeer, but could not stand Dead Astronauts. I am glad he has turned things around again with this book. This was an Incredibly compelling story and beautifully written.

This book was not what I was expecting! Instantly engaging, it soon had me gripped. I highly enjoyed the voice of the main character, which drove the plot quickly. An occasional stumbling block came with further twists and turns that attempted to be ground-breaking, but I found to be quite confusing. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced read, with a lot of engaging action.

DNF at 13%

I've been trying to read this book for months, starting and not having the desire to continue. I'm frequently drawn in by Vandermeer's concepts, but have found it so difficult to feel connected to his characters and writing. This just isn't for me, but I'm sure it's an incredible book!

Thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review :)

Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.

This is my first novel by Jeff VanderMeer and I was very excited to read it. The writing felt very confusing, but complex and interesting. The whole atmosphere was very cryptic and claustrophobic. I was very confused (still am) by the motives behind Jane's behaviour. I didn't fully understand why she was doing all this from the start and I was confused by some of her decisions during the book. Because of this, being in her mind was not 100% enjoyable for me.

On the other hand, the book touches some very interesting topics: pandemics, pollution, extinction of animal life (people killing animals because they can spread/start pandemics), escalating climate change, anarchy, collapse of democratic institutions, refugees, curfews. Also, a lot of disinformation and conspiracies - very interesting. From this point of view the book offers a lot of food for thought and I enjoyed speaking about these aspects with friends and family. The whole story felt a little sad and dark for me. There seems to be a glimmer of hope at the end, but the conclusion is left open-ended.

As a whole, I feel generally confused by the book - I cannot really say I properly love it, but I do recommend it.

This was a difficult book to read and probably an acquired taste. I can see myself recommending it, but I struggled through it myself. The main character was so secretive that as a reader I sometimes felt excluded by the action and it was hard for me to connect with her. The plot also moved slowly.

However, the thriller itself was gripping enough that I stayed with it until the end, and the underlying environmental message was one that I fully support. The final twists and reveals were also extremely satisfying and felt like a wonderful payoff after having spent so long in the dark. All in all a title that I can see being a feature of a sci-fi section in the future!

Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy blended sci-fi, ecology and suspense to often thrilling effect. His latest novel takes these same three events, but almost completely ditches the sci-fi aspects. Hummingbird Salamander takes place in a 5-minutes into the future USA in which there are some pointers to a looming national crisis (unspecified pandemics, increased surveillance) but the technology is only the next upgrade of what’s around us today. The protagonist, Jane Smith, is an anonymous cybersecurity consultant who happens on a message delivered in a coffee shop, and linked to a stuffed hummingbird. Cue a mounting obsession with decoding the message, which she discovers from a dead heiress linked to animal trafficking and ecoterrorism. Jane follows the breadcrumbs, an odyssey which takes her far from the drone-patrolled suburbs and into an ultimate confrontation with the natural world as humans have shaped and exploited it.
Like The Maltese Falcon the stuffed hummingbird and partner the also-extinct salamander, are mcguffins to set the characters in motion, but also symbols of their ultimate destination: an earth which appears to have run out of time. His short chapters keep the action moving along briskly, Jane is an engaging narrator, and this is an absorbing novel that perhaps only lacks the tang of weirdness that powered Annihilation so brilliantly.

In Hummingbird Salamander, Jeff VanderMeer has written both a taut, twisty thriller (which has fun with some of the conventions of that genre) and a spot-on exploration of climate change and environmental degradation.

In, I think, a near future, but one very close to our now (anyone remembering the last eighteen months will recognise the background chatter and rising fear caused by a novel pandemic). The narrator is Jane - she tells us that's not her real name - telling her story after the catastrophe that it represents for her and family. That's catastrophe at a personal level, on top of the pollution laden skies, societal breakdown and spreading chaos that occasionally intrude.

Jane has a husband and daughter, although we never learn their names. She has a safe, well-paid middle class job in the security industry. She also has a sense of detachment from all this - again, there are passing mentions of one-night stands while she's away at conferences ('Never knew the last names.') That detachment seems to be rooted in her distinctly strange childhood, growing up on a farm with an abusive grandfather ("Shot"), a feeble dad and a mother who had mental health issues. And then there's the brother. As the story proceeds, Jane interrogates her past, matching up moments, memories and bits of her current experience with it. Notably she tells us much more about this, and in particular her experience with Shots - who seems to have beaten her and her brother, but also taught her to wrestle - than she does about that husband and daughter: as to the latter, it's really a series of missed opportunities and disengagement and indeed, a reckless attitude to whether what she's doing might get them into danger.

What she's doing... well, in the best thriller/ noir style, that all begins with a mysterious message, leading to a trail of breadcrumbs. Exactly why the message is for Jane, and why she is so drawn to follow it up - with many, later, regretful comments about how things would have been different if she'd turned aside at that moment - well, that's rather unclear for most of the story.

The message is from Silvina Vilcapampa, a rebellious but recently deceased member of a South American family which has becomes rich, basically, from environmental destruction: mining, logging, trafficking in endangered species, you name it. They are not only rich but scary, responding to Jane's interest with guns, muscle and threats. But this is a thriller, and the Vilcapampas are not the only players here, VanderMeer weaving together a delightfully baffling and tense array of subplots as Jane attempts to discern the truth, find out if any of the actors here are potential allies, and solve the riddle that Silvina has set. Whether she's motivated by insatiable curiosity, boredom with her middle-class, middle-aged life, or a desire to fill in gaps in her own history, was something I mused on right the way through this book. Jane seems obsessed with Silvina, and the taxidermied hummingbird that forms the first message form her, obsessed to the point of of researching Silvina's life and following her travels as set out in her journal. The overt reason for this would be to discover a secret she suspects has been hidden - and presumably that's also the reason the Vilcapampas are so keen to stop her - but she knows so little of what it might be that there must, surely, be more going on than that.

Either way, the story Silvina tells, and Jane's lived experience - especially her comparisons between the wild world she exploited as a child on the farm and the tame, habitat-sterilised land that has replaced it - are intimately bound up with what we are losing as the planet is degraded: the book calmly describes extinctions, environmental stress and climate change, treading a narrow line between discounting them and portraying a future that is completely without hope. As the last words, addressed to a time one hundred year in the future, have it: 'Is there a hummingbird, a salamander? Is there a you?'

Above all, despite the temptation to identify Big Business as the Big Villains in all this (and the Vilcapampas in particular are clearly no angels), the confusion and complexity of the world is acknowledged. The book notes the damage done by those who see themselves as on the right side, by the most unexpected people, the seductiveness of the "means to an end" argument, the sheer ambiguity of living - as well as the inertia of living, the way that catastrophe does not, on the whole, come about overnight. The societal breakdown portrayed here is real and certain (and encapsulated in those closing words, I think) but it's something that the privileged are able to ignore for most of the time even so.

Hummingbird Salamander is not, at times, an easy book but it is a rewarding one and it's one I'd recommend. As a listener to the audio, I found Lisa Flanagan's dry, slightly insinuating tones always absorbing and at times chilling, brilliantly animating Jane's reserved affect: here is a woman with secrets, are you really sure you want to know them? It might change you...

I liked the writing style and thought it really fitted with the story. But overall i'm disappointed and the main reason is that i really didn't like our main character. She abandons husband and daughter to go on a wild goose chase and she's just not likeable which made the story a bit of a chore to read.

I always go into a Jeff VanderMeer book fairly sure I'm not going to have a clue what's going on, but that I'll enjoy the ride all the same. That was exactly what happened here! We follow a woman who we are told to call Jane as she investigates the mysterious woman known as Silvina - a possible eco-terrorist and daughter of a wealthy industrialist. What follows is a wild journey involving taxidermy while all around her, the world descends into climate disaster. I really enjoyed the noir vibes of this book and thought that 'Jane' was a really interesting character. I didn't understand a lot of the plot, but I thought that there was some great commentary on the state of the planet and where we are heading. Ultimately, I probably won't remember this book in a few months, but I certainly enjoyed the experience while I was in it.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to #NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in return for a fair review.

This cryptic novel provoked my interest, but ultimately failed to deliver on its initial promise.

The narrator - who informs the reader early on that they are not always telling the truth - deliberately uses false names for herself (Jane) and all of the novels many characters, which led to confusion at times.

In a near future version of the U.S. our protagonist 'Jane' receives a mysterious gift, which leads to an unknown threat and and increasing paranoia.

Jane is a physically imposing woman, she's not intimidated by thoughts of violence and she responds to the implied & explicit threats to her & her family's safety with ruthless determination.

Beautifully written, but didn't work for me, lacked a satisfying resolution of the many plot threads.

Honestly, I just dont think Jeff VanderMeer is for me. This is the third book of his I have tried to read with little success. I enjoyed the premise, the mystery and the near future world and im sure that I would have enjoyed this book if it was written by someone else. But im sure that any VanderMeer fan would love this.

Hummingbird Salamander is a book told through what the narrator omits to tell you and feels like a constant hunt for clues in what you are being told. It is bizarre and beautiful. The narrator calls herself “Jane” and she recounts the events following her receiving an envelope left for her in a coffee shop by a stranger. It is slow and difficult to grasp as “Jane” only reveals snippets of information at a time, and only when they are necessary to her current point, yet it is incredibly engaging and addictive trying to piece together what has happened and why. I love the unreliable narrative of this and how cold and unlikeable “Jane” comes off, it adds another layer to the mystery of the plot to know so little about the character’s personality and feeling toward the events that happen to her.
My only issue with this book was that I could never fully immerse myself in the story because I couldn’t understand what was motivating “Jane” to make all these choices, and that was an issue I had until very close to the end, and even then it was only a vague idea.
I personally think this is another of Jeff VanderMeer’s books that should be read twice to experience the full impact, although that is by no means necessary. Rereading his works allows the reader to see how incredibly clever they really are, I know that everything will have been foreshadowed, and that there is so many things that aren’t apparent as you are trying to understand the plot yet become incredibly obvious on a second read. I strongly believe I will up my rating from a 4 to a 5 when I get around to rereading.
I would not recommend this as a starting point for VanderMeer, this story is a little harder to follow than others but I think if you enjoyed the ambiguity of Annihiliation, you would enjoy this.

Thank you, NetGalley for a chance to review this! However, this book is not worth reading.

I've wanted to read Jeff VanderMeer for some time now so when I came across the ARC on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to read and review this. I started this on the 17th of May and tried very hard to like it, but it's just boring.

Putting aside the fact that it's boring the main character is a really odd and awful person who doesn't care about her family at all (besides her dead brother). Towards the end of it, her husband does manage to read out just to say, hey I need the money because you literally emptied out our bank accounts and maxed out our credit cards before you disappeared. People are literally beaten up because of her but she just doesn't care. By that, I mean no f***s given no flicker of guilt doesn't care. She as a whole seems to be slightly emotionless, and paranoid, because who else would suddenly agree to go on a thing like this and abandon their entire life. Its like bad action movie but just boring.

Really disappointed with Jeff VanderMeer.

I am not sure how to describe this book – intense? weird? uncomfortable? This was like a more confusing, modern *Monkey Wrench Gang* (a compliment, FYI).

This is my first Jeff VanderMeer book and I was warned that his writing style is "confusing," and I can indeed confirm that. I was and still am very confused by this book, however, the writing never felt overwhelming. The story revolves around taxidermy, eco-terrorism, and endangered species and manages to make what most people might consider a boring subject into a thrilling rollercoaster.

There are many characters in this book who I do not really understand, including the main character Jane, but it is because some information is purposely not revealed to create more mystery, not because the characters are underdeveloped or badly written. There are some answers towards the end, but you are still left with questions. Personally, I love an ambiguous ending, so I enjoyed that aspect. The last paragraph of the book is also deeply haunting and definitely something I will be thinking about for weeks after finishing.

trigger warning
<spoiler> domestic violence, trauma, grief, being kidnapped </spoiler>

A woman who works in security analysis recieves a weird message: A person she doesn't know has put her in her will, and given her a stuffed hummingbird.
Said woman tries to find out why, no matter the cost.

You need to know four things about Jeff VanderMeer: He writes weird, he writes slow burns that are character driven, and have a post-apocalyptic twist in some way or another.
This book is no exception. Though the postapocalyptic element is vague, it is sci fi but in the nearer future. The main difference I can see is that drones technology has advanced, and all the problems we now have - droughts, hurricanes, floods, pandemics - have reached a new level, but society is not fragmented yet.

This book is a journey. Though our protagonist has a home for some time, she never gives the names of her husband and daughter, calling them exactly that: Husband and daughter. When a new character is introduced, she invents a name and tells you she invented it, at least if she does know their name. Some get nicknames, and when their legal names are given, it doesn't matter anymore because you already know more than enough about them. And, mist likely, they are dead.

Ethical questions concerning bioterrorism are raised. Does the end justify the methods it's reached by? If you have to wreak havoc to save this planet, but actually <i>do</i> wind up saving it, was it worth it?

I think either you like VanderMeer's books or you don't. Usually I give them about three stars upon finishing, but then realise that my thoughts wander back to the stories and the characters again and again and again. And what I've read by him so far could potentially be set in the same world, only at different times, which makes me curious to see if his other works fit in this, too.

Be sure you know what to expect when picking up one of his books, the slow weirdness of it all, and then keep an open mind. At least try one of them.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

Jeff VanderMeer is known for being weird. His Ambergris books, including, City of Saints and Madmen, featured intelligent mushrooms and Annihilation, the first book in his Southern Reach trilogy was made into a trippy Netflix film. So what happens when VanderMeer turns his hand to a day-after-tomorrow thriller? Well, you get something like Hummingbird Salamander.
Jane Smith, the narrator never gives her real name, is an expert at digital security. One day her life changes when a barista gives her a message from a dead woman called Silvina Vilacapampa– an envelope with the address of a storage centre and a key. Jane finds a box containing a preserved hummingbird and soon finds herself going down a rabbit hole trying to find out what happened to Silvina and what she is trying to tell her. As she does this, and finds herself finding more clues, including Silvina’s diary, and signing up to Silvina’s environmental cause, Jane finds herself increasingly under threat and more and more isolated. And Jane, an ex-wrestler, finds herself up to the task.
Hummingbird Salamander is a thriller but this mode is just to keep eyes on the page. VanderMeer is most interested in readers thinking about their world, what is happening to it, their place in it and what they might be able to do, no matter how minor, to stem the tide. As a result the book is full of pointed asides and observations like this one:

The hummingbird has gone extinct because of poaching, habitat loss and climate change. The wildlife trafficking cartels manufactured need – they told those inclined to buy that this or that animal was good luck or the next hip thing for the rising newly rich. They pried open the coffers of countries that would look the other way.

And this:

Europe was cocooned uncomfortable in a massive snowstorm that had killed three thousand people so far. The garbage in the Atlantic had slowed the Gulf Stream to near critical level. Some kind of contamination from the Far East would soon turn our skies green-gray, we were told. But none of this made us even blink anymore.
.
While readers might have to suspend a little disbelief as to how Jane lets herself be drawn in to this conspiracy so deeply and so quickly, there is some resolution that draws a more direct line between Jane and Silvina. The twists and reveals are not really the point, but they do keep readers guessing and they further shade some of the characters and situations. And VanderMeer does manage to bring it all together in a resolution that is both spectacularly out there and completely set up by the text.
Hummingbird Salamander is a slow burn thriller with a deep and troubling message. By explaining what informs his prognostications, VandeMeer paints a scary but plausible vision of the future. But the thriller element helps sell that vision. For those who already accept the potential for future corporation-led environmental catastrophe, this book gives them a call to action. Others may just go with the action, but possibly, like Jane, will end up absorbing the outrage and getting on board.

The gist: A nature book with a dire warning, this eco-thriller is a dark, twisting ride with its heart set in saving the world.

And who, really, can argue with that.

The book oozes the natural world from its pages, smells of earth and fur, tastes of rain in the forest, feels like walking through a land both overflowing with the richness of life and teetering on the edge of absolute nothingness. VanderMeer combines mystery and violence with a dose of David Attenborough detail, and the combination is a thing of beauty filled with fear, sadness, and perhaps, a glimmer of hope.

The main character, for the purposes of the book called Jane, is fantastic and I don’t think I’ve read a character quite like her before. She’s unusual, coarse, not entirely likeable, and carries you along with her into the unfolding mystery.

It’s not an easy read, at times complicated, confusing. It’s unusual and disquieting. The writing is clipped almost to the point it feels like poetry. But the vibe this all leaves you with is deep and will sit with you for some time.

And when it’s sitting with you, it might ask you, what will you do?

Favourite line: To care more meant putting a bullet in your brain. So, like many, I had learned to care less.

Read if: You want beautifully poetic writing with a message that won’t let you off the hook.

Read with: David Attenborough documentaries at the ready, and your recycling in order.

Review will be posted to www.thedustlounge.com near publication date