Looking For a Good Book

Kirmen is different. Seriously different.

Due to some cruel-though-for-good-reason experiments by a doctor, Kirmen, one of the last humans born after the apocalypse, is slowly seeing his physical form reshaped and adapted for a better life in the new world. He is becoming more plant-like.

While the adaptation may make life easier in the future, it’s hellish today. He is also becoming a pariah among his peers, an outcast. AS the transformation becomes more and more complete, will he be so different that he’ll no longer be able to interact with his community – the only people he knows and loves?

I am always looking for science fiction and fantasy that is rooted with an environmental theme. Other than the awesome Kim Stanley Robinson, I haven’t found much, so when I read the description of this book I was thoroughly excited.

The concept here is fabulous! Wow. Why I haven’t I seen anything like this before? It’s just brilliant. It works on so many different levels – the coming of age for Kirmen is a story in itself, but to be purposefully transformed this way – to have to suffer the indignities of a strange metamorphosis while also dealing with peers is a shock most of us couldn’t imagine. But the reason for this change – the hope for ‘humanity’ to find a way to not only survive but thrive in a new world is strong. Are we still human in such a case? The ethics of this is discussion-worthy!

I just loved this.

But the writing….  First, let’s note that this is a translated book. Where the writing doesn’t work (for me) could just as easily be in the translation as in the original writing – who knows.

We never get in to the fabric of the community. We never get in to Kirmen’s life. We are only observers in this storytelling. As one other reviewer has noted (I found this to be spot on): “The perspective was more over the shoulder than in the head, keeping the reader at an emotional distance from the action, and for me, preventing the prologue from hitting hard.”

I sensed an attempt at poetry in the language, which was interesting and sometimes beautiful, but also sometimes confounding. I didn’t want soft, poetic language when learning of surgical transformation or when learning of sexual misconduct. The language doesn’t work at these times.

The concept is brilliant but the storytelling is a failure from my point of view. This kind of story needs to be told directly and harshly, not with romantic, poetic language.

Looking for a good book? ChloroPhilia by Cristina Jurado, and translated by Sue Burke, is a bit confounding – both beautiful in theme but disappointing in delivery.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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ChloroPhilia

author: Cristina Jurado

translator: Sue Burke

publisher: Apex Book Company

ISBN: 9781955765244

paperback, 140 pages