Whether Violent or Natural

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Some may take issue with Kit’s narrative voice – a combination of precocity and naivety – and the opaque chapter titles. She is a flawed but compelling character, her repetitive, dense language deliberately evasive. But it definitely didn’t work for me. Not as a story so much, certainly not stylistically. Should have known by the title – the title is kinda of all weirdly, unwieldy, debut-y. For me the surface level story was arresting enough, the suspense sparingly sufficient to move me, occasionally grudgingly though usually willingly, through the read. 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.

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. Gripping, treacherous and visceral, Whether Violent or Natural is an unforgettably dark and strikingly original work by a major new talent. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the lyrical nature of the prose throughout this book and it is the reason that I continued reading even though I wasn't otherwise 100% sold on the book. I am a big fan of stream-of-consciousness writing and the fuzzy/daydream-like feeling that comes along with it. If you also enjoy this writing style, it might be worth a read! 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. 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.Kit and Crevan are living on an island while bacterial infections rage on the mainland in this dystopian novel. One day, they find a half-drowned woman in the sea, and Crevan chooses to save her. The novel is told from Kti’s perspective, and she slowly reveals the secrets of her traumatic past and how she is coping with them in the present. 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. Even better – and somewhat more critically – Kit’s arrival also precipitated a revelation as to subject matter.

There's nothing I like more than a good apocalyptic, end-of-the-world scenario novel, so I grabbed this, interested in the premise of a world where antibiotics have failed (a plausible scenario).

Reviews

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. Thriller lovers will most probably be left slightly disappointed, but as literary fiction it is indeed an enjoyable read. In a world devastated by antimicrobial resistance, two survivors are thrown into crisis when a woman washes ashore on the remote island where they live