Natasha Calder's debut solo novel is a dystopian book written in a classic style akin to Edger Allen Poe or Emily Bronte. The words pour across the page in a poetic and lyrical manner that adds to the ominous and gothic undertones of her story. Set sometime in the future, the reader is given a mystery filled quest to discover why the world has collapsed and who the islands only mysterious residents are. Kit and Crevan have an odd relationship that constantly felt like it was going to take a spicy turn. The passionate feelings and dark events reveal the characters' emotional intensity throughout the story even if you never quite get the feeling that you know who the characters are. At times Kit is obnoxious and the book is told through her perspective but in the end I feel the reader is given valid, but not justified, reason for her behavior. I enjoyed how this book was both a mystery and a dystopian tale. It sets itself apart by not divulging the source of the destroyed world in the first few chapters and it keeps the pages turning as only small bits of information are divulged at a time.

This book presents a very interesting dystopian world all through the eyes of our main character, Kit. I enjoyed the twist at the end, however it was a pretty slow going novel. The surreal atmosphere and stream of consciousness writing is hard to get into, especially if you haven't read much other surreal sci-fi. The writing did however flow very well and still gave you enough to create a mental image of the world. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Jeff Vandermeer or other similar authors!

With “Whether Violent or Natural,” author Natasha Calder has given us a dystopian novel about the end of humanity. While I admired some of her expressive, even lyric prose, I also thought the book burdened by a number of problems and inconsistencies. All in all, it’s not the best dystopian novel I’ve ever read.

According to the novel's narrator and main character, Kit, an escalating series of anti-biotic-resistant viruses has decimated the world’s population and just about everything humankind needs to function. Infections run rampant. Crops won’t grow. Herds can’t survive. There’s even a virus that’s eating all the plastic.

But Kit and an older man, Crevan, have somehow managed to escape to a well-stocked bunker underneath the ruins of a castle on an offshore island connected to the mainland by a causeway passable only at low tide. Crevan and Kit live together platonically. To avoid detection by anyone on the mainland, they sleep by day and go outside only at night.

One evening, they discover a woman floating unconscious in the sea. Ignoring Kit’s protests, Crevan rescues her, and, despite Kit’s bitter resentment, the two attempt to nurse the woman back to health. Will she regain consciousness? Will she upset the balance Kit and Crevan have achieved? Will Kit be able to keep Crevan for herself? And what will happen should any of them contract any sort of infection?

The novel’s premise is interesting. But unfortunately, I found Ms. Calder’s treatment of background and setting—in other words, her “worldbuilding”—much too vague. We’re never told what year it is or what country we’re in or when the virus(es) struck or how far into the future we’ve traveled. Nor do we know where Kit comes from, who her parents were, how far she went in school, etc. Nor do we learn very much about Crevan, except maybe that he’s a nice guy forced by circumstance to do some not-very-nice things (To be fair, I note that there is a “reveal” at the end of the novel that seeks to fill some of these gaps.)

I also thought Ms. Calder’s choice to have Kit narrate the story was problematic. Kit is not at all likable. She’s highly narcissistic, dishonest, manipulative, and even murderous. It’s difficult to become involved in a story told by someone so dislikeable and undeserving of sympathy.

Additionally, it seemed to me that there was a glaring disconnect between Kit the narrator and Kit as a character in the story. Kit the narrator spends page after page waxing eloquent about all manner of things, making ample use of references to current popular culture. But according to the facts she relates about her history, it’s doubtful she should be aware of those references. Time and time again, I found myself asking: how does she know that? And while Kit utilizes post-graduate vocabulary and sentence structure as narrator, much of what she says as a character is childishly simplistic.

As for Kit’s “waxing eloquent,” oh boy, is there a lot of it: eye-glazing, paragraph-skimming, page-skipping piles of stream-of-consciousness, existential, and/or nihilistic, and/or other philosophical-type musings that are off-putting in their stridency. They badly interrupt the flow of the story and caused me to wonder if “Whether Violent or Natural,” is more of a character study than a novel.

Readers who enjoy lyrical writing may well find parts of this novel pleasing. But those seeking a post-apocalyptic tale that concentrates more on world-building than the musings of an unlikeable, unreliable character may wish to look elsewhere.

All in all, 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 for the quality of some of the prose.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an electronic ARC. The foregoing is my honest, independent opinion.

There is a lot of visual and metaphorical usage in this story, which I loved. But, I could not get past the two main characters and their personalities and their constant ability to clash.

Kit us supposed to be an adult, but seems a child and her partner Crevan is more like a parent. It gave me the creeps. Just couldn't get past it

Didn't like the character's, plot or story line. Was a totally struggle to read. I almost quit and probably should have

Was a total waste in if my time. So many better books out there.

Can not recommend

NetGalley provided me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

I absolutely love dystopian fiction and was really looking forward to diving into this book. I love the writing and the flow kept me engaged. However, I personally did not like the ending. Overall I would still recommend it to others. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The author successfully created a a tight thriller of a science fiction book, and, spoiler free, teh root cause of the end of our world is one that is both very pausible and pretty darn scary. It is an imaginative book, well written, and the author deserves kudos for developing their characters and environment in a manner that was consistent and enthralling. If you pick up Whether Violent or Natural, you will very likely enjoy it enough to reread it. And there is enough detail that you will discover new things you missed in your first reading. I hope to read more By Natasha Calder in the future.

Writing:
I love purple prose. Flowery, descriptive writing is my favorite kind of writing. Though, flowery and purple writing has to have a purpose behind it. In-depth descriptions should be describing things that matter and things that have relevance to the plot or characters (ie. Stephen King). Purple purse with lots of figurative langue should make sense in context and add to the story (ie. The Handmaid’s Tale). The problem with the writing in Whether Violent or Natural is that most of the descriptions didn’t add anything to the plot, characters, or even help picture the world. It felt like “look, see how good my writing my wringing is? See how fancy it is?” There were entire pages of the book that could have been taken out and not only still made sense but might have made the story easier to follow. I had a difficult time keeping track of what was happening in some scenes because they were filled with long descriptions of things that had no actual relevance to what was happening. The first 35% of the book was the worst offender and it got better after that. Not all of the writing was bad though! There were sections that I really enjoyed, such as the one below.

“The sea is a macrocosm and cares nothing for the micro. And if you don’t think you’re part of the micro, then you need to stop taking yourself so seriously and take a proper look at where you fit into the scale of things. Really. You just look out to the horizon the next time you stand on the shore and see if I’m wrong…”

“Because you are not a body, not merely, not unless you mean it in the astronomical sense, not unless – by some glory of chance – you already see yourself for what you truly are: a heavenly body, a celestial body; vast and star-touched. That is what you are, don’t let anyone say otherwise.”

Characters:
I admit freely that the characters still confuse me. One of my main issues with the novel was the main character Kit. She’s in her late twenties, but acts like a young child. Literally. She also thinks like a child, most of the time, but sometimes she thinks likes a fully functioning adult. The man she’s with, Crevan, is around her age or slightly older, but acts as her caretaker. He is clearly more responsible and thoughtful than she is so this partly makes sense. Their relationship did give me the ick though. It was partially a parent-child relationship and partially a only-with-you-because-there-is-no-one-else relationship, but it had weird sexual undertones. See below:

“‘All right, daddy,’ I say. ‘Whatever you like, daddy.’
He looks relieved. ‘Go wash your hands, then.’”

“He holds out half and I eat from his hand, tonguing the rough seeds and hungrily sucking out the pulp.”

Plot:
The plot was very straightforward though the end did have some good twists. I did feel slightly let down by the description as it applies to only a small portion of the actual novel. My main issues with the plot revolves around the dystopia aspect which will be discussed in more detail below in the spoiler section of the review.

⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️

The Dystopia:
I enjoyed the premise of the dystopia: antibiotic and disinfectant resistant bacteria rapidly killed humans and plastic eating bacteria broke down many of the materials humans used to survive. The problem is… it was ruined by the revelation at the end. None of the dystopian setup mattered because it never actually was a dystopia. The dystopia was narrowly avoided. The main character was simply pretending to live in a post apocalyptic society and pretending to act like a child. It made the whole story incredibly creepy and unnerving. I hope that is what the author was going for because that’s what she ended up with.

Ugh. I could not make it past the first chapter. Too twee, too wrapped up in its own artifice, too boring. I would not recommend this a anyone.

I love dystopian fiction - but this one seemed to be trying too hard. Right at the start, I could read between the lines to the attempt at paralleling the world's recent pandemic, and this has now been done over and over again. I had a hard time relating to the characters, and the world that was described (I did like the island descriptions though), and the plot was weak in my opinion. I had a very hard time sticking with it even though it wasn't a long novel. Maybe it was a bit too YA for me, as a former teacher who read all the YA novels as they came out, I could be biased. It may not actually qualify for YA, but to me, it was that style of a novel.

Thank you for the ARC.
I didn't hate this but I did find the protagonist to be really annoying. She was like a feral toddler. I found the whole being baby and thing to be cringey, but I did not hate the book. I loved the way the end of the world came about. I liked the island and the den.

I really wanted to like this because I love dystopian fiction, but I just had a hard time connecting. Perhaps it is the writing style, which made me feel like I was back in high school trying to pick through "high" prose that I didn't understand. It felt as if there was an opaque barrier between me and the story that made everything seem misty and muddled, so as the reader I was having to do a lot of work to decide what was going on and how to visualize the story. The "age play" aspects field weird to me, and I had a hard time figuring out the true ages of the main characters, whether there was some kind of intimate relationship between them, and even their genders.

Thank you to ABRAMS, The Overlook Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to access this free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

“She’s hardly a threat. Look, she’s half dead.”

Which is not nearly dead enough, not according to me, not according to anyone.

Kit and Crevan are living on an island while bacterial infections rage on the mainland in this dystopian novel. One day, they find a half-drowned woman in the sea, and Crevan chooses to save her. The novel is told from Kti’s perspective, and she slowly reveals the secrets of her traumatic past and how she is coping with them in the present.

This is a book about trauma, and Kit's inner monologues make up the majority of the novel. They are written in lyrical prose with lots of wordplay. Because so much of the story is told through Kit's eyes, with few brief moments of dialogue, the prose was overwhelming at times. This was definitely not a novel I could finish in one sitting. I needed breaks from Kit’s wandering, unsound inner monologues. I was also slightly annoyed that a lot of the story’s mysteries were resolved in info-dumpy sections. I thought the story could have been more compelling if as readers we got some of the details about the distopian world and Kit's past from more natural character interactions, or that Crevan could have let more information slip. While this narrative wasn't my favorite, I was intrigued by the prose style and look forward to seeing more work by this author.

One of Kit's coping strategies for dealing with her traumatic past is playing pretend--mostly by engaging in ageplay. She refers to herself often as “baby” and Crevan as “daddy.” The age play doesn't have a sexual component, but it might be off putting to some readers.

I think this novel can prompt lots of discussion, but readers should be aware that this is not your standard trope-y YA dystopian novel. Instead, if you like lyrical prose, slow building tension, and the psychology of trauma, give this book a try.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

A brisk page-turner of a novel set in a mysterious and lightly brushed science fiction world, told to us through the words of a very distinct narrator, who speaks to us in a way that is both childish and literary, often in repeated synonymous idioms as if counting off from a list buried somewhere deep in her mind. The influences on this novel are very clear, but it does manage to strike a tone of its own through this hodge-podge (even mentioning the potential comparisons by name, as is done in the publisher's description, seems somewhat too revealing, but certainly even from a pure tone standpoint they apply).

I have two real criticisms, one being that the narration sometimes overworks itself and crosses over into the realm of, for lack of better terminology coming to mind, seemingly trying too hard. And I think there's some bias on my part, as I feel like I've read my fair share of amateur-ish short stories (in creative writing courses especially) that aim for a similar hyper-stylized feel without quite getting to a state of believability. I feel that this novel is mostly successful at its prose but it does threaten to crumble at points, which leads to my second criticism, which is about the way the novel reveals its hands, orchestrates its twists, if you will. It just comes off as a bit too written, if that makes any sense. I don't have a problem with the reveals themselves but I think they could have come more organically.

Of course, those issues clearly did not prohibit me from enjoying the novel, which I did immensely. Even with that sometimes overworked narration, I loved the main character in all her psychological complexity, in her charming yet sinister lens on the world around her. It helps that she is also set within an intriguing location-- an island that teeters on the edge of abstraction, a bunker that undulates in its visualization as expectation and reality clash, an alluring and terrifying sea that separates the island by who knows how much from the so-called mainland. The understated thematic currents running through the novel that would probably be spoiler to explicitly reference (particularly because it all comes to a head in a relatively short chunk of text near the end) were also intriguing, and the glimpses we get throughout had me deeply wondering what the overall messaging would be, especially considering this novel exists in this COVID-tainted world, and given the ideas it explores will inevitably be placed in that metatextual context. If this novel was written as a direct response to COVID, which I wouldn't be surprised by, it's enough on the side of subtlety to not cause one to cringe at the on-the-noseness that might arise from such a concept.

Thank you to ABRAMS and Netgalley for the eARC

I wanted to like this SO much because I love dystopian fiction, especially in times of stress and I'm a firm believer in these types of stories being great for emotional catharsis. However, in this case, you just never end up feeling connected enough for that to be the case. It wasn't bad, the writing was fine, and the characters were fine, but it just didn't do anything particularly compelling.

I’m the first to rate and review this book. It’s always optimal when the book was great and one gets to sing its praises and attract it some much deserved attention, but sometimes it’s just…
In fiction, not every apocalypse is apocalypse wow. It’s what you’re hoping for, looking for, but not all apocalypses are imagined equal. This one, was imagined well, alarmingly so, and even spun around into a neat twist in the end but getting there was as slog.
Not a long novel, but dense in a wrong way, heavily narrated, more like a stream of consciousness narrative of a young woman trapped on a small island following the end of the world as she knew it. It’s just her and a man, just the two of them. And then another woman washes ashore. Some drama ensues.
The math is as follows – 2, 3, 2, 1. Can’t say more without giving the plot away.
But then again, there isn’t that much of a plot, not really. The plot to narration ratio leaves a lot to be desired.
There’s a quality to the narrative too, like it’s all one long freeform poem. Very lyrical, but also…too much so. For a book it’s supposed to be, anyway.
Unless, of course, you’re into that sort of thing, in which case, sure, go for it.
But it definitely didn’t work for me. Not as a story so much, certainly not stylistically. Should have known by the title – the title is kinda of all weirdly, unwieldy, debut-y.
So yeah, wasn’t worth the time, really, but at least, it had the decency to not be overlong. Thanks Netgalley.