Borne by Jeff Vandermeer
Ahhhgghh, creepy. I loved this. Jeff Vandermeer was the guy who wrote Annihilation (which became a popular film, equally as creepy as this book). This is not YA. It’s the first of his books I’ve read but I’ll definitely be reading more.
It’s set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, in a future when the world has been all but destroyed, we think, because of a biotech disaster. The biotech organisation, “The Company” left behind a variety of weird and wonderful biotech experimental by-product – including Mord, a flying bear taller than Big Ben. Our main character is Rachel, who survives the wasteland by scavenging. It is Rachel who discovers Borne, hidden in the fur of the sleeping Mord. Borne (a weird squid-anemone thing) grows under Rachel’s care, causing rifts between Rachel and ex-Company worker boyfriend Wick. Together they battle to survive – fast-paced, post-apocalyptic weird and wonderfulness. Recommended.