This original and at times quite disturbing novel is about Katya Grubbs, who, like her father runs a pest company, but in contrast to him – an unpleasant and uncouth man if I’ve ever met one – Katya relocates the insects and pests that she is called in to deal with rather than exterminate them. One day she is asked to check out a new luxury gated complex just outside Cape Town which remains unfinished and uninhabitable due to periodic invasions of goggas – and yes, they do exist, you can look them up. Katya goes out to investigate and matters don’t go quite as she might have hoped. Innes writes well and the descriptions are vivid and atmospheric. The infestation of the goggas is quite horrific and, unfortunately, remains in my minds’ eye. The power of nature which is never slow to reclaim her own, civilisation versus the wild, greed and corporate development versus the rights of the indigenous population – there are many layers to the story and I found it an unsettling read. And a very enjoyable one.

A surreal allegory of a novel. The language is surging with the descriptions of the verdant swamplife and it pulses through the novel. Katya is a very isolated character but she's a pleasant head to be in even as the novel drags its way through the allegory.

I loved the premise of this book – relocating rather than exterminating insects – and all the ideas that sparks about who/what has a right to live where.
It’s very descriptive, which didn’t give this reader a problem, even though I’m not a huge fan of insects!
But…I find books written in the present tense very difficult to get through. I think authors do it for immediacy, but I find it monotonous after a while. This was a stumbling-block for me. However, I shall look at the author’s other novels in case the tone is more varied, as overall this had a very original narrative.

Amazing!
Well written and intriguing, this tale makes you see a world beyond our perception. There is more than we can see and we are just a part of a complex ecosystem where cracks an creepy crawlers are just the beginning.

This is a strange, evocative novel about an exterminator who doesn't exterminate - instead, she relocates the pests, returning them to the wilderness. When she is asked to get rid of an infestation in an abandoned gated community, and live there alone in the meantime, things get even stranger. I feel like there are more metaphorical layers happening here than I realize, and while it was an interesting concept, I'm not sure I have it all figured out. Still a short, intriguing read.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.