276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Whether Violent or Natural

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

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.

Calder is an intensely lyrical writer whose passages in another form might be read as prose poetry. While there are moments of great brilliance in her prosaic style, the claustrophobia of the relentlessly dense work means they are seldom given room to breathe. The cumulative effect reads as self-indulgent on the part of the author who becomes a victim of her own writerly talent by over-cooking it. Less would definitely have been more. For those drawn to this novel for its premise, looking to inhabit this dystopian world and understand how it works, these eloquent but elongated musings will be difficult to wade through. If you are attracted, however, by the thought of luxuriating inside the mind of an intelligent, verbose narrator who articulates her observations and reflections in minute detail, then Kit is the protagonist for you. 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…” Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. 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. Whether Violent or Natural" is a dystopian novel with a rather interesting premise: antibiotic resistance is purging the world of humans.The author has used the unreliable witness trope to drive the plot. For me there's nothing wrong with using tried and tested methods to explore human nature and the darkness therein, the nature of reality and how suffering can break us and spread to those close to us. In this book, it worked a little sometimes and lapsed into dull cliché other times; generally bogged down by the language. On balance lukewarm. A complete antibiotic resistance has decimated the planet, resulting in the loss of almost all human life. Kit and Crevan are the exceptions – two people with an ambivalent relationship who have eked out an existence in an underground bunker of a dilapidated castle on a remote island. When a woman washes up on shore, still alive but unconscious, their fragile reality is challenged with grave consequences. In this world plagued by mutating bacteria, prevention of contamination is all consuming. The remaining survivors must do what they can to survive infection, including avoiding any other humans. When a woman washes ashore, barely alive, the real story begins. Kit and Crevan are always on the same wavelength so when Crevan wishes to save the woman and Kit disagrees, tension ramps up, events escalate and buried secrets surface. Is this idyllic existence all it seems or is the truth too much to bear? There’s a twist at the end, kind of a two-part twist, and I won’t spoil anything but I didn’t care for it because I felt like half of it was not foreshadowed well enough. It just kind of felt like it came out of nowhere. That being said, I did enjoy the book overall.

Throughout, I kept the manuscript private: a secret between me and Kit. I didn’t show it to – or discuss it with – anyone. I needed all possible versions of it to exist simultaneously, and I knew that if I so much as talked through the plot, I’d fix it into a single, non-viable form and that would be that. if i had a penny for every useless word in here i would be reading my next book on a throne of pennies, inside my house made of pennies on the slopes of Penny Mountain.Whether Violent or Natural is a visceral and tension filled read … dark, thrilling … I finished it in three days.” – writing.ie Whether Violent or Natural by Natasha Calder is set in a dystopian future, in the aftermath of complete antibiotic resistance that has wiped out most of humanity on Earth. It’s a truly, terrifying, thought provoking, brutal and all too real look into the future. As Science Fiction books go, this one certainly didn’t disappoint on any level. in fact is any character in here worthy of care from us? i just feel sorry for crevan for being trapped on that island with her.

Lets just say, I should have trusted the people and moved on with my life. Whether Violent or Natural was the most pointless addition to my life, ever. Barely an addition at all, possibly even a subtraction. 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. 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.” I hate being negative when I write a review, but I also need to be honest. This is one of the oddest books I’ve read. I have read many dystopian books, and this just didn’t hit the mark for me. This book takes place in a post-apocalyptic scenario in which antibiotic-resistant superbacteria have evolved which can eat through any and all plastics as well as being deadly and contagious, a combination which swiftly destroyed humans and their society at the same time. Kit, our POV character, was all alone on her island for a long time before Crevan came along and changed her lonely world. But after Crevan rescues a drowning woman from the ocean, everything changes.

Complete this captcha to connect to Foyles

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.

Even better – and somewhat more critically – Kit’s arrival also precipitated a revelation as to subject matter. Kit relates how a bacteria had emerged on the mainland that could “devour plastic by the tonne”, offering a solution to the proliferation of plastics destroying the planet. But new strains evolved and began to consume everything. Then they developed “a taste for the human…”. Tantalizing prose carries what is essentially a cautionary tale about unintended consequences; Calder is worth watching. Whether Violent or Natural hits you like a shot of the very good stuff – which it is. I downed it in one. It went down very smoothly. There is – in all the right ways – a faint top-note of Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory, but it’s very much its own dark-hearted, complex, and accomplished thing, with an engaging narrator as snarled in the seductive tangle of her own words as she is hemmed in by the overgrown vegetation that covers the small island on which she is trapped.” – C. A. Fletcher, author of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World Thriller lovers will most probably be left slightly disappointed, but as literary fiction it is indeed an enjoyable read.Now I’m at the point of publication, I’ve had enough distance from the book to see several things I’d do differently, but I’m happy with it as a product of what I was capable of at the time. My only misgiving is Kit – in bringing this story to a wider audience, I can’t help but feel I’ve betrayed a confidence. I know: ridiculous. I hope, though, that others will enjoy Kit’s company as much as I have.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment