Whether Violent or Natural cover art

Whether Violent or Natural

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Whether Violent or Natural

By: Natasha Calder
Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £14.05

Buy Now for £14.05

Bloomsbury presents Whether Violent or Natural by Natasha Calder, read by Kit Griffiths.

'Darkly unsettling' Guardian
'Intoxicating – dark, heady, lyrical’ Daily Telegraph
'Terrifying and inventive' Observer

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

__________________________

Years after complete antibiotic resistance has resulted in the loss of most human life on earth, Kit and Crevan eke out an existence on a remote island. Under a collapsing castle, they spend their days in an underground bunker packed with emergency stores, venturing out only at night. They are safe.

One evening a woman washes ashore, nearly drowned. Crevan wants to keep her alive, but Kit isn’t so sure.

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?

Gripping, treacherous and visceral, Whether Violent or Natural is an unforgettably dark and strikingly original work by a major new talent.

'Sly, sharp, and utterly captivating' Rory Power, New York Times-bestselling author of Wilder Girls

'Hits you like a shot of the very good stuff ... Dark-hearted, complex, and accomplished' C. A. Fletcher, author of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World©2023 Natasha Calder (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c

Critic reviews

Intelligent and refreshing ... The prose is intoxicating – dark, heady, lyrical
Intimate, evocative, darkly unsettling ... With an undeniable strange power
A terrifying and inventive tale ... The twists come thick and fast and Calder keeps us guessing until the final pages
An intensely lyrical writer ... Calder is excellent at conjuring an eerie atmosphere, with Gothic undertones and a creeping sense of unease
Whether Violent or Natural hits you like a shot of the very good stuff - which it is. I downed it in one. It went down very smoothly. There is - in all the right ways - a faint top-note of Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory, but it’s very much its own dark-hearted, complex, and accomplished thing, with an engaging narrator as snarled in the seductive tangle of her own words as she is hemmed in by the overgrown vegetation that covers the small island on which she is trapped (C A FLETCHER, author of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World)
Sly, sharp, and utterly captivating ... Calder’s voice is one I won’t soon forget (RORY POWER, New York Times-bestselling author of Wilder Girls)
Praise for THE OFFSET: '“Smart, compelling and absolutely of the moment (LUKE JENNINGS, author of the Killing Eve series)
A twisted reversal of The Handmaid’s Tale set in a ravaged dystopia, simmering with menace and tension. Bleak, haunting and intriguing (JENNIFER SAINT, author of Ariadne)
Thrilling, terrifying and beautifully crafted ... the perfect science-fiction novel for our times. I devoured it (ANGELA SAINI, author of Inferior)
A powerfully told debut
An honest, terrifying and sincere look into our future (KEREN LANDESMAN, Geffen Award-winning author of The Heart of the Circle)
Spare, elegant, and thought-provoking as the best classic science fiction ... Calder Szewczak is a name to watch (Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse)
The Offset crushed me. This is an expertly – and starkly – written, well-drawn eco-dystopian novel about the ultimate measure of austerity taken in order to save the planet. There’s so much that was done well here: the world, the science, the societal conflict – but to get into the (possibly carnivorous) weeds would distract from soul of this book. It is a bare-knuckle punch to the heart. Calder Szewczak made me suffer – brilliantly (CHRIS PANATIER, author of The Phlebotomist)
A prophetic, urgent, gripping read that throws into question what saving the world really means. A tender warning of a book, lest our efforts become as futile as our tragedies (NATALIA THEODORIDOU, World Fantasy Award Winner and Nebula Finalist)
A chilling evocation of a possible future (SUSANNAH WISE, author of This Fragile Earth)
A bleak but thoughtful dystopian sci-fi. It asks questions about where we are & where we are going through intricate world building and a compelling story. Very entertaining, compulsive & thought-provoking (KATE SAWYER, author of The Stranding)
All stars
Most relevant
…is how I felt towards this. Had it been a tangible, paged-based book, I would have hurled it against the wall.
The idea is interesting, and although I found Kit’s cod-shakespearean turn of phrase incongruous at first, I persevered to see how things would turn out.
But as the plot develops, Kit’s ramblings become so self-indulgently theatrical I’m amazed Calder’s editor didn’t tell her to get a grip. Especially as Calder makes Kit use three metaphors where one will do. This is the sort of writing a precocious sixth former feverishly turns out in the hope that their staggering genius will be held up to the light and revered in hushed tones.
Maybe mine is a lone voice as there seem to be plenty of praise for Calder, but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to finish the book. It just annoyed me so intensely that I couldn’t concentrate, as I was continuously wishing a violent demise for Kit - and resenting Calder for inventing such a truly awful protagonist.
PS: felt sorry for the narrator who did a heroic job ploughing through this turgid guff.

Unnaturally violent…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.