“Jane Smith”, an unnamed security consultant, becomes embroiled in turmoil when a taxidermied hummingbird is sent to her by a mysterious stranger. This launches her into an elaborate conspiracy and sets her on a dangerous path to discover a taxidermied salamander. What is she willing to risk to find the answers? Is it worth it?

I haven’t read any other books by Jeff VanderMeer, but when I read the premise of Hummingbird Salamander, I was intrigued. Thrillers and suspense books are my go-to, and I was very interested in the endangered species aspect of the narrative. And overall, the book was very interesting, suspenseful, and worth the read, but I think there are a few things worth noting.

“Jane”, the MC, is neither a likeable nor a reliable narrator. She is very cryptic, and jumps fall over the place in her narration. This makes portions of the book hard to follow along with and made the novel very confusing at times. One of my biggest personal pet-peeves is unlikeable narrators, and “Jane” fits the bill. She implodes her whole life unnecessarily, and every time I don’t think she can get worse, she does.

The book is also written in a stream of consciousness narration style. I have read books like this before, so this didn’t bother me – I actually really enjoyed it. But I know that this style will not be everyone’s cup of tea. This is a thriller, but is also not your typical thriller. There is no set time period or location given, and there is a number of science fiction/dystopian vibes. All of this creates a different thriller than most other thrillers marketed today.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes unlikable narrators, environmentalism, and stream of consciousness narration – this book will not disappoint! 3.75 stars.

I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley and Blackstone Audiobooks in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review. I found the main character very unlikeable and felt it was stereotyping overweight people.

Did not enjoy this book; it actually felt like a chore to finish it and was only able to because I was listening to an audiobook. The "mystery" was so loose and scattered and drawn out that it didn't keep my interest. And the end-of-the-world details were so cryptic and seemingly inconsequential that it felt like a false layer to the story. I finished it because if I'm going to give a bad review, I want to give it a fair shot to redeem itself; for me, it didn't. However, because I don't think the writing is necessarily poor, I gave it at least 2 stars.

I love Jeff Vandermeer’s novels. Why? Because the worlds he creates are at once both foreign and recognizable. You instantly are plunged into a murky web, unsure exactly what has transpired. Here, in Hummingbird Salamander the reader is issued into a world just a bit beyond our present day. Vandermeer addresses his usual themes of climate change, pollution, animal extinction, pandemics, and gradual decline of the environment. The protagonist of Hummingbird Salamander is Jane Smith, a security consultant, six feet tall, 230 lbs, a former wrestler/ weightlifter, who receives a mysterious missive from Silvinia, a woman known as an Argentinian eco- terrorist. You aren’t really sure what’s going on, but you are right in the thick of it while it happens, inhaling the smoke along with Jane, as the world burns. This is a wild ride of a mystery, sure to thrill Vandermeer’s many fans.