Did it take me over two years to read this book? Yes, yes it did. Had I stopped reading at the point where it was just about to get really good? Yes, yes I had. Was it worth it to get back into it and keep reading? Heck yeah.
I put it down two years ago because it was weird in a way I wasn’t interested in. I was used to Vandermeer’s more sci-fi edged fever dream style of writing, but Borne had an air of fantasy to it, a genre I rarely care for. I mean, there’s a giant bear floating over a city and a talking plant-thing. Cut to this year, and I was reading through a bunch of Vandermeer reviews because I was interested in his novel Dead Astronauts, when I found out that the three characters featured in that novel were also in Borne (kinda, sorta… I mean… in a manner of speaking). So I flipped back to Borne and the chapter they were in and was suddenly interested in the story. I don’t know, people change.
It was a fast read from there. If you look at it as allegory and fairytale, it goes down easier. This is not Vandermeer repeating Area X- it’s more of him going off on a slightly surrealist adventure that challenges the meaning of reality and narrative tropes.
Rachel, a scavenger in a ruined future, finds a creature she’s compelled to take home on her daily hunt for survival. It seems more plant than animal, and her boyfriend, Wick, is weary of it- especially when it starts talking, and even more so when objects and creatures around their home start disappearing. Rachel raises Borne as her own, but it’s clear that he knows he’s not what she wishes he was- that there’s a hunger inside of him no one can control. Meanwhile, Wick is increasingly anxious about his mortal enemy, Mord, a giant flying bear that terrorizes the city and all who live in it. Things breakdown, and soon Rachel and Wick can’t tell who they should fear more: Mord or Borne.
When I finished reading, I promptly picked it up and reread the beginning. The twist ending makes sense, and you won’t see it coming. It’s worth getting through.