Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

Secret Life by Theo Ellsworth

A double-dose of nature-filled weirdness. VanderMeer’s horror/science fiction novel tackles wildlife trafficking, extinction and the climate crisis in predictably nightmarish fashion.

Nightmares of a different sort pervade Secret Life. Ellsworth, one of my favorite artists, adapts a surreal VanderMeer short story into graphic novel form. The tale takes place in a horrifyingly familiar office building, where human nature goes awry and plants and mice have a way of invading the narrative and the workers’ lives.

This is a collection of scenes making up a graphic adaptation of a short story by Jeff VanderMeer. The illustrations are black and white and lots of linework. The bizarre features and designs are interesting but I would have enjoyed it much more if there was some color, even if it was only the plant that had color. Jeff's story may be dark but it is also bold and colorful and it felt like the illustrations were missing that.

The story itself is from a collection of 23 stories from 2004. If you don't know (and how do you not know??), Jeff VanderMeer is like the David Lynch of science fiction. His stuff is weird and there's a lot of nature in much of his work. This is no different. I enjoyed the pacing of flipping back and forth between the nature part and the individual stories of the people in the building. The story mostly revolves around a plant that a woman brings into the office to refresh the view of her office, but scattered throughout are stories outside of that, of weird weird people like one floor developing their own language, board members who disappear and leave behind their briefcases, janitors who maintain the status quo, and one of my personal favorites, the rat lady. I could go on and on about this being a metaphor for social structures and the drudgery of office work, and how something that should be terrifying (an out-of-control plant taking over an entire building and entangling everything in its path) actually becomes a comforting thought. Or maybe I just hate my job lol.

Now I need to get my hands on the original story collection that Secret Life is from because it absolutely is intriguing and I cannot believe I have not read it yet. However, upon looking it appears there are two different versions of the book (a remixed version???) and neither one is cheap, so it appears I will be either hunting this one down for a while or impulsively rebelling against my budget (I haven't decided yet). Overall, although I enjoyed parts of it and feel this is definitely worth a read, I honestly think I may have just enjoyed reading the story itself alone. If I get my hands on the original story and feel differently, I will come back and update my review!

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy. Let me be the first to apologize for taking ages to get around to reviewing this book even though I received it before it was published. I am a bad little bean.

Fantastic example of a graphic novel adaptation - manages to not overly rely on the original text to do the story telling, and Ellingsworth is given several page stretches to actually do graphic storytelling, which is always great to see. The original text is office life as horror, which ngl it kinda is as a baseline. Ellingsworth does amazing ink work here. Definitely worth a read.

I love Jeff Vandermeer, and this did not disappoint. It was weird, a bit confusing, and just the right amount of unique. Theo does an incredible job, and the artwork is not something to gawk at. I sped through this thing in an evening, which is not something I normally do when it comes to graphic novels... but I just couldn't put it down.

Great pen drawings in this book. I LOVE the art. The story was very odd to me. I didn't really like the transitions between the different threads of story. I finished it because I did want to see how things ended. It felt like a fair representation of life. Feeling trapped, finding an outlet, finding adventure, resigning oneself to the inevitable and life continuing.

This is a fun read that, for me, wraps up a little bit too quickly and neatly. I think I would have liked to see more of the same sprawling pace at the end that there was in the middle. Theo Ellsworth's illustrations are very well rendered, but often a little too fun and silly for the story in my opinion - especially in the moments of what should be genuine disquiet and horror, but come across a bit jokey visually.

I'm a big fan of Jeff VanderMeer. The Southern Reach triology is one of my favorites. I was delighted to see an illustrated version of his short story. Theo Ellsworth's visual representation nails VanderMeer's voice.

I have always struggled with VanderMeer's work and I hoped that perhaps a visual version might help..... it did not. It is simply too surreal and obtuse for me. That said, the artwork is really nice, albeit busy, with strong linework and swirling patterns. I think this would be a solid recommendation for people who do like VanderMeer and would like the novelty of seeing it brought to life through art.