Whether Violent or Natural

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Contrary to what I’ve seen from other reviewers, I really enjoyed the main character’s narration in this dystopia-survival novel. It’s not a style for all readers, but you’ll appreciate it if - like me - you enjoy feeling like you’re in the protagonist’s head viewing the events through their lens. Since Kit is an unreliable narrator, their observations are tainted by their palpable but unknown past trauma. Tantalizing prose carries what is essentially a cautionary tale about unintended consequences; Calder is worth watching.” – Kirkus 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?

But then again, there isn’t that much of a plot, not really. The plot to narration ratio leaves a lot to be desired.The prose was poetic and full of attempted twists of language and wordplays to turn meaning. Not all such attempts failed or fell flat. On balance though, for me they added little more than a lot of words. I tried to get into this book; the premise seemed to fulfill my hopes that it would be a enjoyable read (and namedrops books I quite enjoyed, like Piranesi and Station Eleven). I like it when post-apocalyptic books get you to think about the world they depict, and especially how that reflects on our own. However, this book has a bizarre writing style, not to mention a protagonist whose way of thinking was alienating rather than inviting. There’s also a really strange quasi-sex scene in the first part of the book that felt really out of place. The book sends a lot of mixed signals on what type of book it is trying to be, and the mysterious nature of the setting and the characters only made me frustrated, not intrigued. One of the novel's strengths lies in the captivating voice of the narrator, a young woman living on the island. Her narrative style is archaic and poetic, drawing readers into her story. However, her reliability and the coherence of her tale are questionable, as she withholds crucial information about her past and the reasons for her presence on the island. This ambiguity adds intrigue but also leaves readers wondering if her account can be trusted.

While I agree with other readers that the writing was VERY forced and overly flowery and confusing, I felt like it fit well with the unreliability and instability of the narrator. The main characters were creepy and unlikeable and the relationship between them was unnerving. I enjoyed reading this and liked the twist toward the end. 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. I’m the first to rate and review this book. It’s always optimal when the book was great and one gets to sing its praises and attract it some much deserved attention, but sometimes it’s just… 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…”.

With “Whether Violent or Natural,” author Natasha Calder has given us a dystopian novel about the end of humanity. While I admired some of her expressive, even lyric prose, I also thought the book burdened by a number of problems and inconsistencies. All in all, it’s not the best dystopian novel I’ve ever read. 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. Bottom line up front? The main character is a psychopath. Jesus, by the end of it I couldn't help but wonder if reading this book made me one too. The writing is chaotic; from the first chapter all I could think about was that this author HAS to have OCD. She sure writes like it. Some people are definitely going to find Calder's writing beautiful, but it will take a very specific type of person. 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. When a woman washes ashore—near drowned but clinging to life—the question of her fate threatens the fragile balance of Kit and Crevan’s isolated world. While Crevan wants to keep her alive, Kit isn’t so sure. And there’s more to wrestle with: Kit and Crevan each have secrets—secrets they have been keeping both from each other and from themselves. As the crisis brought about by the drowned woman’s appearance consumes them, the fictions of their shared existence crumble, and the truth begins to emerge.

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…” 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 WorldThe two have an odd relationship that is pushed apart after a comatose woman washes up to the island one day. One wants to help her; the other doesn’t. What will happen now? 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.

Experimental fiction . . . Calder tells a unique tale that will appeal to many cli-fi fans.” – Library Journal A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. Whether Violent or Natural is a visceral and tension filled read … dark, thrilling … I finished it in three days.” – writing.ie Polyethylene terephthalate was welcomed as a miracle invention; cheap, durable, light. Good old plastic. But the savior turned out to be a leviathan in disguise, threatening to suffocate the earth due to the very characteristics that were once regarded as benefits. A solution arrived in the form of plastic eating bacteria, unfortunately metamorphosing into a usurper when rogue antibiotic resistant bacteria evolve and mutate. Mankind is helpless in the face of medical threats resurrected from the past: syphilis, tuberculosis, cholera, tetanus, bubonic plague, pneumonia, septicemia. Infrastructure and medical and household appliances are destroyed when all plastic components are consumed in a bacterial feeding frenzy. What is left of humanity is less than human; constantly fighting for survival. 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.Whether Violent or Natural" is a dystopian novel with a rather interesting premise: antibiotic resistance is purging the world of humans.