I was a huge fan of Annihilation, also by this author. I appreciate the ARC greatly but could just not get into the story. It seems like it needed another pass-through by an editor or maybe a neutral party who could have streamlined things.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got me to read on even though it was among 296 other books I’m charged to read.

I confess that at this late stage in my reading career this is my first Jeff Vandermeer. What fun. This always sounds such a silly thing to say, in that it’s silly to be pleasantly surprised whenever we discover fiction writers have the capacity to understand others, particularly male fiction authors can understand women… but he writes women very well… there I said it. The pacing and wit of the novel kept me reading—if only to see if he can keep it up. Here’s a passage from the first pages that goaded me to read further… “Do you have a secret admirer? That feels both new and old, like the snooze button you hit three times that morning as your husband mumbled on the bed next to you . Your usual routine has been dull and kind of fucked up for too long.”-(4)

Oof I really wanted to enjoy Hummingbird Samander by Jeff VanderMeer. I really did and still do, but boy do I have questions about this world and book.

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.

Throughout my read through, I couldn't help feel like it could be a spiritual successor to VanderMeer's previous Annihilation series. The world felt abstract, where I was needing a few more concrete details to grasp onto. The characters motivations also felt questionable enough to leave me wanting more in places.

I think this book has so much potential to be for somebody, but I think I may be coming to realize that VanderMeer may not be the author for me.

Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book! I did not finish this book because it was confusing and I didn’t understand the point of the book. I’ve liked this authors books In the past but I just wasn’t into this.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, & Giroux for the free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review**

So it’s official….. I think I’m not a Jeff Vandermeer fan. I loved Veniss Underground for some reason - it was just a book that really worked for me and felt like a trippy lil fever dream that I was able to roll with. I struggled with the Southern Reach Trilogy (to be fair, I think I owe it another read,) and this book absolutely did not work for me. I haven’t read Borne yet, but I think I’ve given up on this author for at least a little while.

The synopsis of this book had me super excited. A security analyst, Jane, receives a secret note leading her to a taxidermied hummingbird that turns out to be extinct. This note/bird was left behind by an ecoterrorist who rebelled against her family’s crime empire of wildlife trafficking etc.

Unfortunately, I hated the main character with a passion. It wasn’t her fault, but a large, brute woman written from a man’s perspective just didn’t work for me. “Jane” dropped her entire life to follow breadcrumbs of clues left behind by the ecoterrorist (Silvia.)

I didn’t find Jane to be believable - I would have liked her more if she was written as a passionless sociopath rather than a woman that was just bad at life. The other characters in the novel felt like dramatizations of real people and mostly made me roll my eyes.

This book did have some redeeming qualities. I loved the themes of nature, and the underlying current of how messed up the world is in so many ways. I could feel that Vandermeer has a lot of commentary on the events of the past year and a half, I just didn’t like how he portrayed it in this book.

Read this book if you like crime books, thrillers, and nature. Skip this book if you are looking for Scifi, weird nature fiction, or clifi.

This quirky story revolves around our protagonist, who goes by the anonymous name of Jane Smith, as she tells us the story of her life starting with the unexpected delivery of an envelope containing a key to a storage locker from the deceased environmental warrior, Silvina. And if that sounds confusing then just wait until the story really takes off. Jane takes us on a labyrinth of twists and turns as she follows the breadcrumbs Silvina left behind. As Jane starts exploring the clues Silvina left behind her safety, as well as her family’s, becomes an issue since there are some dangerous people that don’t want Jane to find what Silvina had hidden.

This is such an original story and I enjoyed immersing myself in VanderMeer’s world. What this book is at its core is an ecological mystery which is an interesting mash up that ends up working so well. VanderMeer seamlessly weaves in facts about hummingbirds, salamanders, and nature in general along with slowly ratcheting up the suspense. We are thrown right into the story with Jane and since Jane is figuring out the mystery we are left in the dark with her while we wait for her to follow the breadcrumbs. This book also excels at the dichotomy of being both fast paced and slow. Make no mistake, this book requires work and effort as we work our way through the puzzle of Silvina. However, there are breathtaking moments that make all the slow trodding along more than worth it.

VanderMeer takes us on an exhilarating ride and the ending was both unexpected yet incredibly fitting. By the end Jane is a character that you have been through so much with that you can’t help but have an emotional connection to her. She is telling us the story in an intimate and almost journal like way that has left me still thinking about her months later. There is so much to talk about regarding this story but since I’m keeping this spoiler free I will just say that if you can get past the first part of this story you will be captivated by the rest.

This is my first VanderMeer book and it will not be my last. He has such a distinctive and eccentric way of writing that I really enjoyed and admired. I feel like this is a book for a very specific type of reader who doesn’t mind not knowing what is happening until practically the end. And even then it has some twists and turns. If you are looking for a book that demands you take your time to slowly immerse yourself into the story then this might be one that you could end up really loving.

I was sold on this mystery wrapped up in a VanderMeer package of weirdness and unrelenting eco-terror.

I haven’t read any of VanderMeer’s writing before but I found this hard to get into. The narration way odd for me which detracted from the story.

Mr. VanderMeer does it again, I really love the way he writes characters and a story. He has a way to get you invested in the world he built and keep you there. The story is a wonderful philosophical read and is well done. I can't wait to read more from Mr. VanderMeer.

Vandermeer is one of the most original writers that we have right now. His Southern Reach trilogy was fantastic.
While this is an inventive and fast paced look at how the world ends, it is not a happy book by any stretch. Still well worth the read just for the author's writing.

“Those of us who survived the pandemic, and all the rest, passed through so many different worlds. Like time travelers. Some of us lived in the past. Some in the present, some in an unknowable future. If you lived in the past, you disbelieved the conflagration reflected in the eyes of those already looking back at you. You mistook the pity and anger, how they despised you. How, rightly, they despised you.”

Well, shit.

Possibly the least New Weird thing Jeff VanderMeer has ever written, but, you know, it’s still a Jeff VanderMeer book. Interesting to read one where the science fiction is only barely science-fictional, getting truly wild right at the end after a series of escalating small near-future apocalypses, and instead everything is confusing and disorienting and horrible in essentially realist (“mundane”) ways because the actual world is confusing and disorienting and horrible. A thriller for the Anthropocene, people keep calling it, and it is, KIND OF, at the end, but also just a regular thriller with late-stage capitalism, dark family secrets, obsessions, secret identities, increasingly dismal and harrowing gunfights, explosions, beating the shit out of people, corpses, murder, etc. If I didn’t already have an anxiety disorder about the state of the world I feel like this book would have given me one.

I love too that at the end we learn the ominous “I am addressing you but who are you, my real name doesn’t matter anymore, I am probably dead” hints woven through the whole thing is that we’re meant to be reading it, message-in-a-bottle style, a century in the future. Where maybe the secret preserved ecosystem will have worked! Maybe the weird genetic engineering (which…changes? Hearts and minds, somehow? Or changed actual skin? Unclear!) will have worked or probably not, probably the world will be worse. I sort of like how we don’t actually get to know: “What is the world like after the end of the world? Is there a hummingbird, a salamander? Is there a you?”

Special thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Giroux and Strauss for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

What a wonderful gripping mystery that deals with our ecosystem of the future and of today and all surrounded by a mystery of taxidermy of a hummingbird.

Jeff Vandermeer continues to write things of a the nature of futuristic ideas of beauty and wonder of the world today and what's to come. What a beautifully written book with mystery and intrigue. I can't wait to see what he writes in the future.

4 stars!

In the near future, cybersecurity specialist “Jane Smith” unexpectedly receives a note delivered by a barista. She follows it’s clues to a storage unit hiding a taxidermied, extinct hummingbird left by Silvina, a reputed ecoterrorist and daughter of an Argentinian industrialist. This discovery leads her down a dangerous path estranging her from her husband and daughter and entangling her with competing organizations and individuals trying to thwart her efforts.

Against a backdrop of climate change, pandemics, and corporate greed, Jane questions Silivina’s purpose in choosing her and wonders if she can help create a difference—if a new future is even possible.

VanderMeer’s eco-thriller offers an alarming and all too possible vision of what awaits us on our current trajectory. The book is suspenseful, multilayered, impactful, and stunningly written. At times, it’s difficult to confront the imagery, though I considered it fair to witness the representation. And that is counterbalanced by Jane’s sardonic humor. A must read for those interested in environmental literature.

This book was not one that I enjoyed. It took quite a while to get into, and didn’t present me with any character that I could relate to. Although it is well written, I just wasn’t engaged

I love the way that VanderMeer writes and this book was no exception. It's just do splendidly unique and really draws you into the story! I really enjoyed reading this one from beginning to end. The mystery was well paced and the characters were interesting.

I feel like I should have read VanderMeer's other books before attempting this one. It's an eco-thriller where "Jane" gets an envelope with a key to a storage locker containing a taxidermied salamander. What a strangely interesting beginning. But I soon began to lose the threads that tie a book together and I lost my focus. I'm sure it was my fault as he is a well-respected writer and the prose is lovely. I just couldn't appreciate it as much as I'd liked. Plenty of rave reviews so don't be put off by this one!

Jeff VanderMeer consistently writes some of the most interesting and weird fiction. After the Southern Reach Trilogy, it can be argued that he is one of the top five authors currently working today. The best thing about his work is that it is unpredictable and so varied that you never know what you are going to get. This makes me excited for every new book that VanderMeer releases.

Hummingbird Salamander does not disappoint in making me wonder what is going to happen next. Following up his past two post-apocalyptic books (Borne and Dead Astronauts) with an environmental thriller only makes sense in his world. “Jane Smith” is the main character’s fake name. She is large, an ex-bodybuilder, and works in security. When a stranger dies and gives her a taxidermized hummingbird, Jane’s obsession with the meaning only increases when people start following her, watching her house, and eventually shooting at her.

VanderMeer’s novels can be very dense. The story unfolds in a very humid way, heavy, stifling, and hot. The more that “Jane Smith” discovers, the further into the mystery she gets. She ends being completely obsessed, leaving her husband and daughter to search for answers. One of the funny, interesting things that VanderMeer likes has returned to is the office politics novel. Most of Authority, the second in the Southern Reach Trilogy, is petty office politics, and there is some of it in Hummingbird Salamander as well. It is interesting that VanderMeer can spend such a great deal of time and detail writing about office work. Mix this with the secrets that every character not only hides from other characters but from the readers, and even though this does not seem like the typical VanderMeer novel, it really fits into his collective work.

There are so many aspects of this novel that are intriguing, like we are left questions, just like "Jane Smith." We have more to unravel and obsess about with Hummingbird Salamander, like does this story take place in the present or in the near future? It feels like Jane’s life falling apart is being paralleled with society falling apart around her, and his her life just a microscopic facsimile of the bigger picture. The search for the meaning for the taxidermy hummingbird (which is declared rare) and the clues to an accompanying salamander (rare as well) makes me think that many animals are dying out and the structure of civilization is failing. She thinks that there might be something in the meaning behind the gift, the hummingbird, because it is a preservation of the things that used to be. The more I think about the story, the more deeper meanings and questions are quarried from the story, like the true meaning of utopia and if it can exist. At the end, this is one of those novels you catch yourself thinking about, and one that leaves a lasting impression.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit, I don't really understand what this book was about. Most of it seems to be following the protagonist (if we can call her that) as she is sufficiently intrigued by a mysterious event to walk away from her life, her family, her work, everything, to try and solve a missing person mystery. A missing person she doesn't even know, in an environment surrounded by shadowy danger. But then most of the way through the book it all shifts and the missing person turns out to be quite closely associated with her estranged and dysfunctional birth family. Though whether that actually matters to the total narrative is up for debate too.

I wanted to like this but this is the second new book from VanderMeer that I've read that I found a narrative mess. He's a great writer, but his plots and storylines? Might be time for him to slow down his publishing in the interest of being associated with fewer, better quality titles.

This was my first book by Jeff VanderMeer, never having read Annihilation, and I am also pretty sure it was also my first eco-thriller. And, honestly, I am still not 100% sure what I think. I can see why the author has a devoted following from his world building. But, it's just a bit out there for me with the taxidermy and other mysterious elements. I know there's a big readership out there for this one.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

I really wanted to like this book. I was immediately drawn to it by the vibrant colors on the cover. I also initially really enjoyed the writing style - the short sentence structure and syntax. However, I ultimately found it rather confusing and did not really understand the direction of the plot. In the end, I only made it about 65% before giving up on completing it. I may come back to it at some point, but for now, it was a DNF for me.