Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Dead Astronauts

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer

9 reviews

paloverdepages's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Reading this book makes me want to read the whole series again. I have academic articles pulled up to read after finishing this. Good god.
I saw a review somewhere describe this as a

~270 page poem

, and I think that's accurate. I think it needs to be read once for the experience, and many more times for understanding.
Definitely requires your complete and undivided focus. I want many quotes from this book on my wall.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, in looking for a way to read this online, I found an academic article about it! Caracciolo, Marco & Ulstein, Gry. (2022). The Weird and the Meta in Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts. Configurations. 30. 1-23. 10.1353/con.2022.0000.
The article classifies the book in the genre of "weird fiction" and mentions a few similar books. It also explains a bit of the plot, so it's a good place to look if you want some clarification on things.

Content Warnings

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a hugely acerbic, mobius strip-esque novel that weaves in parallel realities and explores the concept of archetypes in a post-apocalyptic wasteland following an ecological disaster. Saying that means nothing; Dead Astronauts is, like so much of VanderMeer's work, a book where the prose and format are immensely important to imparting the surreality of death and destruction. In this sense, it's like ecological ergodic literature - you travel throughout different perspectives of machines, mutants, creatures, and survivalists in which the organization of words on-page tells you more about their lens and experiences than the actual words on-page. Some reviews of this book lamented the difficulty in following the plot, but that's kind of the point - if you're interested in a speculative fiction take on early 20th century modernism and mid-20th century environmentalism (though that's putting it too reductively), then this is absolutely for you. Given VanderMeer's residency in Tallahassee, FL, it's hard for me to imagine he isn't a little bit inspired by fellow USA southerner William Faulkner.

Content Warnings