Book Review: Vevin Song by Jonathan Neves Mayers

Vevin Song was an utterly captivating dystopian novel full of violent action packed sequences, an untrusting found family that has to learn to work together and some complex, yet mesmerising worldbuilding.

Humanity is fleeing under the safety of rainfall. The Lightbirds have taken over and they are killing everyone and everything humanity holds dear.

Marla was just a child when she was saved from a cave, nothing but a cry heard by chance when Rowan and his family were running to the pods to be shuffled to the underwater cocoons the human population would now have to live in for the remainder of their days.

But Marla is unsatisfied, she hates her teaching job more than anything and wants to be on the surface world. She has so many unanswered questions but no one wants to take the time to listen, until she sprouts wings of her own, not unlike the creatures they fled twenty years ago.

With options of be experimented on for life or get the hell of out the cocoon, she chooses the later and flees back to the island, in hopes of finding out exactly where the hell she came from. Marla learns more than she bargained for and is being hunted by the Lightbirds (or Vevin’s) as well as her human counterparts. She will have to think on her feet if she is going to get her answers.

I really adored a lot about this book, first thing of note to me personally were the action sequences. From page one the stakes are there, we follow characters as they desperately try to flee their precious homes. If they are unable to make it while the rain is pouring, chances are they will die by a Lightbirds blade. The author kept these stakes high and had me as the reader on my toes until the end of the book. The number of battles we got to witness between these two populations which have not one shred of trust for the other, while simultaneously having conversations about things like prior beliefs and the power of one person taking a stand against them was awe inspiring.

Next up we have those deeper conversations taking place in this book, this is something that I as a reader absolutely love. At some point in the timeline of the Lightbirds and the timeline of the humans something has stirred inside both parties, saying, maybe we don’t have to fight. Maybe we can challenge these ideals that the other side has that tells them violence is always the answer. There was so much emotion behind both the humans and the Lightbirds or Vevin’s as we came to know them that drive these beliefs. This theme then played into how we deal with grief but gave us the safety of a fictional lens. In particular, the anger that comes from having lost someone so dear, or that feeling of losing control over something and at times it really did feel like a decent into chaos that our characters had to scramble to gain control from. Vevin Song offered a lot of deeper themes throughout all the action, all of the complex character dynamics and worldbuilding that I really appreciated exploring. Every scene packed a punch!

The final thing I will touch upon is the complex character dynamics because there were many and they were brilliantly executed in my opinion. The family dynamic in this book was complicated, and very real. From a father so far in the grips of grief that he can barely look at his children to two separate species figuring out how to not kill each other, Vevin Song offered a look at the best and worst of what people have to offer. Looking at Marla specifically. She is twenty, barely an adult who hasn’t seen the light of day since she was a babe. She longs for the surface but is stuck in a classroom teaching kids she doesn’t even care about. She numbs the pain with parties, and casual intimacies, but she also makes sure her father has a food ration each day and that he is still breathing. Family, friendship, new species it’s all messy, and the author doesn’t shy away from that.  

Now this book will not be for everyone; it does get into some heavier lore and complex family histories that can feel a little like lore dumps in exposition. This can sometimes throw a reader out of a story, personally I don’t mind that and if I did find myself getting a little lost, I was so invested I would read the passage again until I grasped it.

 Vevin Song was truly something special. I can already see this one being on my favourites list of 2023.