The narrator of British author Calder’s eerie dystopian novel is a young woman living on an isolated island within sight of a mainland ravaged by infection. 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. Sly, sharp, and utterly captivating, Whether Violent or Natural tumbles headlong toward its surprising – yet inevitable – end. Calder’s voice is one I won’t soon forget.” – Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls the main character is so distasteful and despicable (and cringe might i add) that i want to spend the least amount of time with her as possible. this is the first and hopefully last time i will see a character use 'daddy' to refer to their partner.

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.Intelligent and refreshing … The prose is intoxicating – dark, heady, lyrical.” – The Daily Telegraph 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). 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…” 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? 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.

An unconscious woman washes ashore on the island where 'Kit' and Crevan dwell in isolation and safety from an, ostensibly, savage post apocalyptic outside world. Drama unfolds from there. 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. 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. 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. This is a book about trauma, and Kit's inner monologues make up the majority of the novel. They are written in lyrical prose with lots of wordplay. Because so much of the story is told through Kit's eyes, with few brief moments of dialogue, the prose was overwhelming at times. This was definitely not a novel I could finish in one sitting. I needed breaks from Kit’s wandering, unsound inner monologues. I was also slightly annoyed that a lot of the story’s mysteries were resolved in info-dumpy sections. I thought the story could have been more compelling if as readers we got some of the details about the distopian world and Kit's past from more natural character interactions, or that Crevan could have let more information slip. While this narrative wasn't my favorite, I was intrigued by the prose style and look forward to seeing more work by this author.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.” 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.

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. In an underground bunker on a remote island two survivors are hiding from the horror on the mainland. Crevan and Kit are living the proverbial paradise-like life in their Eden when the serpent arrives in the form of an unknown woman washed up by the waves. Although barely alive she causes the first serious rift between them: One wants her to live, the other wants her to die.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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.Gripping, treacherous and visceral, Whether Violent or Natural is an unforgettably dark and strikingly original work by a major new talent. 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. Experimental fiction . . . Calder tells a unique tale that will appeal to many cli-fi fans.” – Library Journal 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.) bones of an interesting story - dystopian chaos future where a superbug has left a woman and a man to their own on an island. enter (on the tides) a floating mystery body.