Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

I would like to thank Matt from 4th Estate Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – 4th Estate Books

Published – Out Now

Price – £16.99 hardback £9.99 Kindle eBook

Security consultant and former wrestler 'Jane Smith' receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.

Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina’s footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running out―for her and possibly for the world.

Dear Reader a question for you what is the attraction of a conspiracy? Solving a puzzle? Confirming your suspicions about those in power? Possibly to fill a bit of your life lacking excitement. If we throw ourselves into these topics, are we perhaps avoiding bigger issues such as our family, climate change and our own dark secrets? In the brilliant yet unsettling thriller Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer we are thrown in a story of ambiguity, competing factions, guilt and the end of the world making it truly haunting.

We are sent the testimony of a woman calling herself Jane Smith who claims she is likely now dead. This story is how we end up where we are. Jane is a security consultant specialising in cybercrime who receives out of the blue a note and a stuffed hummingbird that no longer exists. She investigates and finds it was sent by Silvina Vilcapampa the recently deceased heir to a wealthy family turned environmental campaigner – someone Jane has no recollection of ever crossing paths with Silvina and is puzzled as to why. It certainly appears other people want it and Jane finds computers being traced and lockers being broken into. Her investigations start to consume Jane’s day to day life – her workplace gets suspicious of her; her family think she is back to old habits of lying to them and yet it would appear Silvina had a plan of some kind. As the seasons behave ever more weirdly; more and more species become extinct, and our own air becomes difficult to breathe Jane throws herself into solving this mystery at the ultimate cost. WE now need to find out why.

If this was a standard thriller you can imagine fast throwing action heroics and clear answers. This isn’t that type of tale. Instead, it’s a brilliantly constructed thriller that also holds up a mirror to the actual concept of thrillers – like how Le Carre made spies look quite hum drum compared to Bond. We are told characters are not being given their real names – even our narrator. Our narrator isn’t either a heroic young man or cynical private eye but a middle-class working mother who loves the gym and knows how to wrestle as well as having a history of affairs in her marriage. Factions come and go and it’s not immediately clear as to the why – money, revenge, love or just for fun? We are entering a shadowy world of secrets – a conspiracy where this could all be real or just coincidences being read in the wrong way by different parties. Everything is a mystery and we like Jane have to decide what to believe and sometimes we may even doubt Jane’s own honesty about her life – one she has only just started facing up to.

Jane isn’t a passionate environmentalist, but she finds this perhaps could redeem her in other ways or give her very average life purpose. It’s a story of shadows and guilt that makes it a haunting read as we unpick who Jane really is and see her slowly remove her layers in her separation for answers making her a sympathetic yet unsettling character who realises that she will lie, steal and kill when required to meet her goals. In opposition or potential alliance, we have ‘Jack’ a unsettling character joining her investigation who revels in games, disguises and manipulation who may have his own political agenda or just like causing trouble. Jack and Jane circle and mirror one another throughout the story and again the idea of people doing this for themselves not a noble cause is a key theme as Jane has to continually ask herself why is she doing this?

This is not though to say the plot has no substance to it either. While Jane investigates Silvina’s life and secrets we get constant clues as to the state of the world we are in. A sky that is now a sparkling grey-green colour, weird illnesses, fires, and floods. In your standard thriller this is your special effects extravaganza but it’s all brief references in either brief descriptions or news articles characters note in papers or tv. VanderMeer by doing this makes it even more unsettling and horrific. It’s our world where we are like lobsters being boiled alive in a pan and yet helpless to stop it happening. It is so clear as we understand more of Jane’s world that most people have just accepted this. I you’re rich you just can try to afford to move to live to better places or just accept this is how the world is. It’s hard not to think that for many people that just this is how they are dealing with the steady daily stream of facts people see but shrug their shoulders saying well what can you do. It also gives Jane’s quest hope that perhaps Silvina has a way to help us or perhaps she just put the planet first rather than us? It gives the story an urgency and realism that makes it a hugely satisfying read.

Hummingbird Salamander from it’s title onwards is never quite what you would expect an environmental conspiracy thriller to be. It plays with the tropes and format questioning if such characters in them really do this for the best intentions. It blurs the boundary of science fiction and thriller as we go into an uncertain future where the world appears to be ending and no one really cares. It’s deliciously unsettling, compelling, and troubling as we look at our own inability to confront the world’s biggest problem that affects us most of all. Easily going i to my best books of 2021 and one I know I will be thinking about this tale long after reading it.

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