This book just wasn't for me. I felt like it went on forever and I had to force myself to trudge through it. If it weren't for the sense of obligation, I wouldn't have finished it.

When security agent "Jane Smith" gets handed a package with a note and a key, she finds herself embroiled in a mystery involving endangered animals and extreme climate change. I loved the pacing in the book and the perspective that were given as Jane tells the story. The mystery deepens as Jane becomes obsessed and we learn more about her. Not only is the mystery so engaging that you just need to know more, Vandermeer poses intense questions about loyalty, the lengths needed to combat climate change and how far people are willing to go to protect what they value.

After coming off the intense wild ride that is Annihilation, I was really excited to learn that I got a copy of Jeff Vandermeer’s newest book, Hummingbird Salamander. With a plot just as unique as the title and as beautiful and bright cover, this book was very mysterious, and nothing like I expected. Eco terrorists, murderous strangers, clown stalkers and taxidermy with numbers behind their eyes, I can safely say that I’ve never read anything like this before.

The story follows a woman who doesn’t want you to know her name. A badass bodybuilding and hardworking woman who we just know as Jane, who also has a husband and daughter and a great job. But unfortunately, she’s also a woman caught in the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy theory that has become a reality. And you’re right in there with her, seeing everything through her eyes.

Her life is pulled into a spiral the day the coffee shop barista hands her an envelope. Inside, a key to a strange locker and an address. In the letter, it claims that the writer is already gone, and that the main character is on her own now, but not completely alone. And that’s just the prequel. After arguing with herself about it, she decides to go check it out and finds a preserved hummingbird with a note that just says, simply, Hummingbird Salamander. Like that’s the answer to all the world’s questions. This, if you can believe it, sets the tone for the entire book. A mysterious confusing, and even maddening at times wild goose chase, this amazing book is unlike any other that I’ve read, and I never saw the ending coming.

The only thing that this book has in common with Annihilation aside from the same author, is that it’s just one of those books that are impossible to speed through. If you start skimming over stuff, you’re going to be lost, and it requires the entirety of your attention. A slow burn that has a lot of violence and just really unsettling scenes.

Overall, this is a really great book, and it’s something I never could have imagined it would be. Better for more mature readers, I recommend it to anyone looking for a good mystery, but also someone with a strong stomach. And also someone who will stick through to the end no matter what. But that’s just coming from me, someone who would buy the book just to display the cover.

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Not to his usual standards.
Very exciting and engrossing until about 90% when it seemed the writer just wanted to finish. Sad

This eco-thriller was a fast-paced, enjoyable read. A mystery that kept me turning pages, though not as weird/experimental as previous work (which is one of the reasons I adore JV, but Dead Astronauts had more than its share, so that's cool). The main character, "Jane," gets a cryptic note from a barista that sends her on a painful (literally, the poor gal gets physically beaten up in so many ways...) paranoid journey to solve a mystery that has lots of interesting twists and turns that get closure in the end, just not in the way I expected. As always, Vandermeer's writing is a thing to savor, and there is a "buried in dead animal pelts" scene that is ... superb. Oh yes, that cover is a thing to behold. Following on the Dead Astronauts cover which is one of my all time favs.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for allowing me to review this book. Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favorite authors and really like BORNE and Annihilation. I was very excited about this book Hummingbird Salamander. This is a very interesting book with psychological and ecological vibe. In this story we follow Jane who received an envelope and a key to a storage facility that hold a taxidermy Hummingbird and little clues about the person who left her this envelope and key which is Silvina who is an eco-terrorist. This book is very strange and take some time getting into, but I will still recommend this book if you enjoy Jeff Vandermeer other works.

This book was a great mix of a thriller and social
Commentary. This was set in a semi post apocalyptic world where species are going extinct and there are serious climate issues.

We follow a woman who goes on a bit of a wild goose chase following the clues her dead friend left behind. She finds a stuffed hummingbird and chases down a salamander on the path to understanding, hence the title of the book. The ending was a bit of a downer and left me wanting more from the story.
I do wish I read this story rather than listening to it. I found myself getting interrupted at important parts or getting distracted and not following the characters correctly.
This was a solid story but definitely one out of the norm.

I would like to thank Farrar, Strauss and Giroux and NetGalley for allowing me to read Hummingbird Salamander in exchange for an honest review.
A woman chases a phantom and, in doing so, loses everything. Watch her circling the drain.
I relished the writing style of the first-person narrative. Many a narrator is termed unreliable. Here, the novel itself is unreliable. The paranoid second-guesses every little action, motive and detail. And so does the reader here.
Mr. VanderMeer effectively paces the developments and revelations to match the protagonist's march to some kind of truth, amid harrowing memories that had been altered or repressed.
Apparently, Mr. VanderMeer's works sharply divide his readers into opposing camps. You can place me firmly on the side of his admirers.

Usually I like a story that doesn’t assume I know everything from the start. A story where I’m discovering knowledge at the same time as the narrator. But something about this one just didn’t click with me. It’s an slow start, it was almost 30% in that things started to happen. And things didn’t start to reach what I felt was a thriller pace until almost halfway through.

There is no doubt that Van der Meer is a deft hand at setting the scene, and he definitely was a way with words. But the almost stream of consciousness style of the whole book was tough for me to follow. It was disjointed and jumped around. I understand that it was a good choice to emphasize the unreliability of our narrator, and show the paths brains can take while obsessed. But it didn’t really work for me. And for all the time we spend in the narrator’s head, I didn’t feel like we ever really know her, not really.

All in all, I’m not sure what story was told here, or what I was supposed to take away from it. Was I supposed to feel some connection to the narrator creating an idealized version of a woman she had never met? Should I have focused on the glimpses of a world in some unknown future that is barely capable of sustaining life? Was I supposed to take to heart the story of a woman willing to sacrifice everything she said she cared about to obsessively solve a mystery? And by the end, I didn’t care. Even with all the new information we gain in the last little bit, recontextualizing everything we thought we knew. I was just left feeling depressed and hopeless.

4 stars. Honestly, I’m torn between loving and hating this one. It’s a well written and driven book but for me it felt like everything happened yet nothing happened. Mildly infuriating but intriguing enough that I want to read other books by this author.

Jane is gifted a stuffed hummingbird, rather randomly, one day when she’s out to get coffee. What this hummingbird and the search for answers does to her life is nothing short of extraordinary.

A dark and intriguing eco-thriller noir. Read my full review at the Chicago Review of Books: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2021/04/14/investigating-the-anthropocene-in-hummingbird-salamander/

I spent much of this book pondering “What is going on?” or “Am I really dumb for not understanding what’s happening right now?” and “What is the actual point of this story?”.

I’m done with the book and I’m soooo tired! I was playing mental gymnastics trying to keep all the threads together and making sense. I still don’t even think I really understood the entire plot.

I will say that the writing, at times, was very beautiful. The story was lyrical and at times I would stop to reread a sentence or passage just to take it in and think about it a moment. That’s a rarity for me. At other times, I found it completely sexist and perhaps misogynistic (a 6ft tall woman weighing 230 lbs is NOT far-fetched and does not mean she has to lumber around as if she’s a giant troll).

The Hummingbird taxidermy was interesting at the beginning, an intriguing mystery that Jane needs to solve. What does it mean? Why did she receive it? What is she supposed to do with it? These are the questions I thought the story was about and would eventually answer. But the story drifted so much. Jane becomes part spy/detective/victim/assailant/….. on and on. The character development was so fast that all I kept thinking was, how would one average person adapt to so many different situations like this. As well, the likability of the Jane seemingly declined with every page. Her family is constantly put on the back burner so she can solve this mystery. Why? She gives up everything to follow the steps of a dead person. Why can’t she just live her life?

The story gives you glimpses of the future world Jane lives in. Environmental climate change has wreaked havoc on the earth, we have poisoned our land and water, food is different and plagues run amuck. But this is only vaguely touched on in the book. I thought this was the main point of the mystery she is supposed to solve. But it is only ever mentioned in passing. And it appears that everyone just lives and works and goes about their daily lives while the world is literally falling to pieces. I would think in that drastic of an environmental change, we wouldn’t be living our normal daily lives anymore. That was really strange.

Then the ending. If I understood the ending, then nothing happens. Or I misunderstood the ending. I don’t know? There were so many tangents that didn’t go anywhere. So many assumptions made by Jane that took her to the next step but the assumptions made no sense.

I’m very frustrated to have put all this time into this book only to walk away with little understanding of what the purpose of the story was. I didn’t learn anything. I didn’t get any lesson from it. I don’t know why the character worked so hard to get to the end and then … that ending? I’m still shaking my head.

Complex and mysterious this book leaves you in the dark as long as possible . Our main character Jane smith is a bewildering person . Left with with two taxidermied things a hummingbird g bird and salamander this leads her to a hunt .this book is abou eco terrorist , endangered animals and clues to our MC’s life . Twisty and complex this is a truly unique novel

This was quite strange, which I expected. It was just a bit too out there for me. I couldn't really suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy it. Altogether, a great story though.

Hummingbird Salamander is a thriller with a tightly knitted plot that weaves in endangered species and climate change. The luscious prose will keep you wondering as you read this brilliant novel that is sometimes quite dark.

This was an awesome read. Fast-paced but still well developed. It spanned a few different genres in a beautiful way that brought a lot of depth to the book. I have already recommended to friends!

Before I start the review, let me say that I was confused during different parts of the book and still after after finishing I'm still not sure what VanderMeer was trying to say. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to follow the nuance and subtleness of his writing.

So, "Jane" receives a cryptic note from a Silvina that includes a key to a storage unit. Inside the unit is a stuffed hummingbird. What is the point? That's the justification for Jane searching into the life of Silvina and what she wanted Jane to learn. That's about the most I understand of this book which the downspires through a narrative by Jane and the juxtaposition of her life over Silvina's. I'll leave it at that.

Although much more rooted in the real world than other VanderMeer work, this is a rich mystery with unique, compelling characters and some truly special taxidermy. There is a hint of some developing climate chaos in several oblique references, but the world is mostly recognizable as a woman winds up with a stuffed hummingbird that leads her on a chance through a wealthy family, a mysterious activist, and people going after her. Fortunately for her, she's tall, powerful, and has some tricks up her sleeve.
A very timely read into identity and the hold that family has on you whether you want to or not, and what happens when you see things through a more experienced lens.

Clues and searching for answers… I was “worn out” by the end of this story. This story was dark and unique. Very good.
Many thanks to Farrah, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book could’ve used way more commas instead of full stops.

I felt like I was in a trance while reading this. That effect is probably due to the suspended narration and the sombre undertone.

I wanted to give Jeff VanderMeer another try as I didn’t like the Southern Reach trilogy. I picked this up as it’s supposed to be a thriller but instead we get a paranoid security analyst who does nothing for a good chunk of the book because.... she’s paranoid. It’s such a slow burn that the burn burned itself out.

Our ‘Jane’ receives a taxidermied hummingbird from Silvina and she becomes obsessed, so obsessed that she throws her whole life away. She loses interest in anything ‘mundane’- her husband, her daughter, her job and becomes a paranoid detective bunny all the while mulling over her childhood. She hops around playing detective with ridiculous clues and leads that don’t make sense to us but somehow, they work.

I liked her transfixed narration of the hummingbird’s life, but later I got sick of that kind of narration. Her idealisation of a fucking stranger while she doesn’t care for anyone around her. Don’t get me wrong, I liked some of the Silvina’s passages- I didn’t like the worship.

Her extreme paranoia felt ridiculous but later gets warranted as the story progresses. My only thoughts for a better chunk of the book were- What the fuck is she doing? Why the fuck is she doing this? Look, I get it. You got a mysterious letter and you were curious but no one goes around carrying a gun, beating up people and putting everyone around them in danger just to chase a ghost. And somehow this makes her life more exciting. Being with her family felt like a chore to her.

A ton of shit goes down after following seemingly absurd clues, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, ruining lives of many people and her body in the process. She then lives a life of a nomad running from people for years. This sums up about 80% of the book.

Then the story *kinda* picks up and starts giving us answers. Were the answers worth the wait? Nah.

Ps: This fucking book literally gave me a reading slump.

Total time spent: 10h 13min. (I wish I could take this back.)

~ ARC received from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.