Whether Violent or Natural

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An interesting take on the post-apocalyptic novel with the young, turbulent Kit who lives on an isolated island with the enigmatic Creven. They live off the plentiful supplies of an emergency bunker and a fruitful greenhouse after catastrophic antibiotic resistance sweeps the world . Their strange, shifting relationship is challenged when an unconscious woman washes up on shore. Creven is determined to aid while Kit is unsure of letting someone into their haven who could bring disease with her. Their conflict brings deception and and secrecy to the fore. 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). I really wanted to like this book. Some of its passages will stay with me for a very long time; it carries a lyrical resonance that reminded me of being caught in a daydream, contemplating all kinds of metaphors for life. The book’s narrator Kit is incredibly insightful and sharp in her observations on post-apocalyptic life and scarily enough, some of these observations are useful for everyday life too.

For me the surface level story was arresting enough, the suspense sparingly sufficient to move me, occasionally grudgingly though usually willingly, through the read. British novelist Calder previously co-wrote a dystopian sci-fi novel – The Offset, with Emma Szewczak – that was published by a small independent publisher, Angry Robot Books. This time, Calder is launching her solo debut with indie publishing powerhouse, Bloomsbury, but her preoccupation with dystopian societies is sustained. 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. But oh was I disappointed. I struggled to finish it, irritated by the voice of the narrator, Kit, and uneasy about the relationship between her and Crevan, with its underlying hints of some sort of weirdness between them. (Is it supposed to be some form of consensual sado-masochism? Or a man taking advantage of a vulnerable woman? Later events throw some light on this but in an unsatisfactory way.) 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.

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. 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 then again, there isn’t that much of a plot, not really. The plot to narration ratio leaves a lot to be desired. 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.

Even better – and somewhat more critically – Kit’s arrival also precipitated a revelation as to subject matter.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. 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. A woman washes ashore, unconscious, puncturing their private existence. Crevan wants to save the woman; Kit sees her as a threat. Without spoiling anything, the course of action Kit settles on is startling. This first section of the novel is gripping and persuasive – genuinely unsettling. 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.

There’s a quality to the narrative too, like it’s all one long freeform poem. Very lyrical, but also…too much so. For a book it’s supposed to be, anyway. 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…” 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. In fiction, not every apocalypse is apocalypse wow. It’s what you’re hoping for, looking for, but not all apocalypses are imagined equal. This one, was imagined well, alarmingly so, and even spun around into a neat twist in the end but getting there was as slog.

The new arrival will implode Kit and Crevan's world with dire and fatal consequences, churning up the waters of the past and unearthing secrets they have kept from each other and from themselves. Who is really in control – and what are they both capable of doing to protect their haven? 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. 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.

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Thriller lovers will most probably be left slightly disappointed, but as literary fiction it is indeed an enjoyable read. Intelligent and refreshing … The prose is intoxicating – dark, heady, lyrical.” – The Daily Telegraph 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… 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.