The Biggerers

by Amy Lilwall

Introducing a witty and unique voice poised to take the literary world by storm. For fans of The Borrowers, Munmun and The Truckers .

Everybody became a bit mean. A bit individual. Units . That's all humanity could say for itself – well, it couldn't actually, because it was made up of too many, um, units. And then there were the elderly, who could never bear to be so isolated, yet isolated they were. It was cruel, really it was. And kids – not that many people had them any more – they seemed to be born sitting in one of those egg-shaped chairs, only seeing what was right in front of them.

So, the government asked a doctor, that famous one, to get a team together and figure it all out. He did. Everyone got a playmate. Well, everyone who wanted one, could buy a playmate. About a foot tall, they stood, naked (except in winter), very affectionate, not too intelligent. Mute, but cute - exactly what every home needs . Something to love, little units of love.

The Biggerers is set in a dystopian future where our two heroes, Bonbon and Jinx, spend their days gathering stones and feathers for their basket, and waiting to be fed by their owners. But it’s not long before getting sick, falling in love and wondering why they can’t eat with a spoon pushes them to realise they are exactly the same as their owners…only smaller .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy

528 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2020

About the author

After studying at Kent University, Amy Lilwall went onto a Master's in The Contemporary Novel and a PhD in Creative Writing. She lives in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Reviews

[Blair]

(Review originally published at Nudge, now NB magazine, May 2018; removed from their site when they switched domains)

Amy Lilwall's debut The Biggerers is one of the most original, challenging and strange books I have read in a long time. Whether this is a good or bad thing is likely to depend on your perspective and your tastes as a reader.

The story is set at some indeterminate point in the future. We learn, for example, that religion was 'scrapped' some time ago, and that humans have succeeded in relegating robot labour to Sundays only. But the key development is that small people, or 'littlers', have been genetically engineered as an alternative to children (because no-one bothers having those anymore). Initially, the littlers are designed to be 'mute but cute', miniature pets to be loved rather than fully cognizant companions. But then the two littlers at the centre of this story, Bonbon and Jinx, start to remember and understand things they shouldn't know, from words and smells to feelings. This is how they realise they're exactly like their 'owners', just smaller – which, of course, is a potentially catastrophic discovery in this carefully balanced world.

The first few chapters are so dense and idiosyncratic, I wonder how many readers will be willing to slog through them until the details coalesce. Along with Bonbon and Jinx, whose activities are frustratingly obscure, we're introduced to a seemingly endless parade of humans – whose relationships to other are often unclear – and numerous odd uses of language, references to imagined technologies, and so on. In line with all this peculiarity, Lilwall's prose style is unusual, seeming to have more in common with the scattered pattern of thoughts than it does with storytelling.

If there was ever a novel that would benefit from book club discussion, this is it. Writing a review when there's little to no interpretation already out there is daunting; it feels like it needs dissection and context to be properly understood. It's part fantasy epic, part satirical comedy, and if the blurb's comparison to Terry Pratchett's Truckers feels bang on the money, the packaging and marketing of The Biggerers as commercial literary fiction doesn't quite seem to fit. (The misjudged strapline – 'Little people. Big ideas. Huge hearts' – makes it sound like a twee romcom.) Only for those willing and able to commit to the truly bizarre.

I received an advance review copy of The Biggerers from Nudge. I wasn't paid for this review and I was under no obligation to be anything other than honest about what I thought of the book.

TinyLetter

[Figgy]

Review to come, but in the meantime...

Despite quite a bit of head-hopping (for the most part not too jarring) and frequent use of really strange phrases like “she looked at him from the side of her head” and “he wrinkled his head” and “she slit her eyelids” and “the other slit his eyes”.... and despite some uncertainty as to just how small these littlers are...

I really enjoyed this one.

This has got to be one of the first books I’ve read in a while where I wasn’t constantly counting down how many pages I had left, and was just totally caught up in it.

It only took me as long as it did to read it as I had some website issues that ate a few days there...

________________

You know... I have books I should be reading first, including two titles by Aussie authors...

But...

This book is EXACTLY what I'm in the mood for, and I've been trying to push through this annoying, moody slump for the last couple of months, so... Imma read this now.

[Amber M. McCarter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very unusual, thought provoking, and full of such complex relationships... And written so skillfully that you feel as though you've recovered your own reality right along with the characters...

[Leo]

I wanted to like this, the concept sounded so unique and special but it didn't do it for me. 500 pages in the book and I'm not invested in the story and don't really care what happens. Maybe it's in the rare instants where I would like it better in a movie. I'm DNFing this but it's has a great concept

[Karen Bartlett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uggh.... someone really needs to convince me to persevere with this one. Barely 2 chapters in and I can't do it anymore. Strange little 'people' doing strange things with big people and spending their days collecting threads and hair ...
Nope..... moving on thankyou!

[Lies De Vadder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een boek met een veel dieper verhaal dan je op het eerste zicht zou verwachten. Bonbon en Jinx hebben mijn hart veroverd met hun levenslust en leergierigheid.

De aparte schrijfstijl is even wennen maar het past perfect bij het hele concept. En eenmaal door de eerste hoofdstukken had ik geen moeite meer.

Zeker de moeite waard om te lezen.

[Ian Clark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too confusing of a novel!
It just ambles along and gets too descriptive from the Littlers' POVs - whose names all blend in too one.
Save your time - is my recommendation....

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the things I like most about this book is that the writing style is refreshingly unlike any book I've ever read. It is beautifully and sometimes hilariously descriptive and once I got into it I couldn't put it down. The author's unique imagination starts you off with several different threads to follow and they all satisfyingly get tied up by the end of the book, leaving no loose ends. THE BIGGERERS is incredibly heartwarming and had me laughing out loud and crying real tears. Nothing I could write would do it justice, so I'll just say that it's one of my new favourite books, and you'd be missing out on a wonderful fictional world if you decided not to read it!

[Mary March · Rating 4 out of 5]

You literally have to just read through the first couple chapters and be okay with being confused but this story is SOOO wild and so good!

[Jenny Segal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ideas in this fairly horrific dystopia, where a race of tiny humans has been created to serve as pets for childless couples. But I found the writing style a bit clunky which made it a bit tough to read at times...

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and imaginative idea - people are becoming lonely and the kids are lacking empathy, so why not develop a race of tiny people to be used and owned as pets? I never really understood why "traditional" pets were not good enough, but then there wouldn't be a book. The rest of the story describes how the "littlers" gradually start to remember and relearn how to speak and communicate with other littlers and with their "owners". But such communication is deemed illegal, and the offending littler is taken back to the laboratory.

I enjoyed the book but it is a bit hard to follow at times. Events are described from the point of view of the littlers, which is different from the typical human (biggerer) view. It is also quite broken up, jumping from person to person without much flow. I thought it would explore why people feel the need for pets, but it didn't in any depth. The final sections did touch on the horrors of keeping sentient beings in cages, but again only in passing.

This is the author's first book. I look forward to future works from her to see how her talent and imagination develop.

[Dree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is over 500 pages. It didn't have to be. I feel like there is an interesting and fast-paced disturbing dystopia hidden inside this over-long book. And I love big books, and I love dystopias.
———
This novel is a dystopia--at least, it is for the Littlers. Unfortunately, they don't really understand that until the very end, and we don't get much of their perspective on the entire situation. We also don't get a lot of explanation about how the situation is resolving--just that it is beginning to (who's in charge? what steps are being taken?). We don't get a lot of information--is this worldwide? Just UK? Just England? Just part of England? Or what the timespan we are talking is, exactly--based on info at the end, I am guessing 20 years, with maybe 1 tops being covered in the novel. But really I think the novel covers 1-2 months and then certain flashbacks to the past.

What we do get is lots and lots of descriptive info of daily life. The first 300 pages is just background daily life information--so many points that seem important and come up over and over again (feather day, flakes, humcoats) don't really lead anywhere. Most of this is about Littlers, but also some confusing interludes of different Biggerers in their lives, and then of a different set of characters (and we slowly work out who they are), and some bears (I am still confused there, honestly). All of the different parts of the story just start. The reader is (presumably) supposed to put the different characters and their relationships together. What this book really needs is to be shorter. Everything really happens in the last 200 pages, and especially the last 100. With 300 pages of detail, I don't see why we couldn't have had some explanation as to the relationships between characters, the time frames, and so forth.

All in all, there were some interesting ideas here, but they were drowning in unnecessary repettive detail. 2.5 stars.
———
Thank you to Point Blank for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[River · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know how you meet someone, they don't give you the best first impression, but after a while you realize that they are actually fantastic?

That's me with Amy Lilwall's The Biggerers. At first, I was bombarded with various character names and different points of view. I felt as though I'd opened up the book right in the middle. A worrisome thing for me, because A) I am a slow reader, and B) this book is over 500 pages. I did not want to have to sit through 500- plus pages of confusion.
But I stuck with it, because the concept of shrunken down people being kept as pets is way too cool a concept to not explore.

Yes, tiny calf-high people, called "littlers" are bought from a company called Billbridge & Minxus. Littlers are not considered people - they cannot even speak aloud in front of "biggerers" or communicate with them in any way.

The Biggerers takes place in a dystopian future. Instead of smart phones, they speak into their wrists, and "bleep" rather than text. Hardly anyone writes or uses paper. Hardly anyone has children. People live into their 130s.

The book follows littlers Jinx, and Bonbon, who spend their days collecting things like rocks, and feathers, depending on the day.

But, where do they come from? And if they're not human, then why do they look exactly like human beings, only smaller?

The littlers are lovable, and when they realize that they're just like the biggerers only smaller, things start Happening. Because there is something Billbridge & Minxus don't want people to know.

Though things aren't exactly clear in the beginning, it is definitely worth sticking to; more and more things begin to unfold, the story making more and more sense, all culminating to a conclusion that leaves hope for a brighter future.

*This review also appears on my blog, www.paperbackpropensity.wordpress.com

[Anita Max Wyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

i would have loved to have read this book, but unfortunately i can't.
for you see, i am but a simple peasant horse.
my little dainty hooves cannot turn the pages, i am very upset by this as it is my horsey dream to become a successful debut author and i cannot do this without first being able to read.
please could some generous soul please come to my stable and read this to me, as i fear the time for me to be turned into horse glue is fast approaching.
please could somebody help me please? it is my dream to finally publish my novel: 'horses - what comes after neigh?'.
A thrilling story about two horses who ponder lifes questions like, what really DOES come after neigh?
Thank you, kind human, for listening to my story.
Although my untimely demise will be at the hands of a human, i bear no ill will to human kind. I understand that the ability for greatness lies deep in the heart of any man, no matter his status or circumstance.
I will go in peace, a heart full of love and wonder. I will venture to were my ancestors have gone and to were the living cannot cross.
Goodbye my sweet companions, bedfellows of the earth.
Dr horsey horse face
NEIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

On paper, "The Biggerers" is an interesting book - it takes place in a future where people live older, rarely use paper, have restricted robot workers to Sundays, and, most importantly, have little interest in children. This is where the "Littlers" come in - they are essentially tiny humans that are unable to talk in front of their bigger counterparts, and they are kept as pets.

In my opinion, much of the first half of the book can be cut out - it's mainly a menagerie of mundane activities and a juggle of numerous human characters which can be hard to track. Not helping matters is the Littler's different POV, which can drop in randomly and can be difficult to parse at times.

The second half, which sees Jinx and Bonbon taken, is much stronger but still suffers from some of the issues from the first half, especially when it starts exploring the idea that the Littlerers have memories from the human they were cloned from, an idea not well explored.

Still, not a bad book. Keep up the good work!

[Dustin]

Via http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books...

"Imagine a pet’s-eye view of the world, but then replace dog or cat with a sort of updated Borrower: a genetically tweaked mini-me, designed for the comfort and entertainment of its full-sized owner, but capable of so much more . . .

Two couples sit at the heart of the story: Susan and Hamish, a pair of dysfunctional human Biggerers, and Jinx and Bonbon, their devoted Littlers.

But it’s not simply the dynamic between owner and owned that drives this unnerving and funny dystopian debut.

As Jinx and Bonbon develop — the pains of dawning consciousness are brilliantly evoked — everything changes.

Domestic bliss is shattered by their growing understanding of memory, language and the darker needs of Biggerers.

Exiled from Eden to a very human hell-on-earth, they must find themselves, and the world must find a place for them."

[Kim McGee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should be honest enough to admit that I had trouble reading this book because there were just so many names and too many voices in my head. It is a very dark dystopian look at the future of pets - in the form of warm and cuddly little mini-versions of ourselves. Jinx and Bonbon don't speak, they are really cute and don't require much maintenance except a coat in winter much to the delight of their owner couple, Susan and Hamish. While I really enjoyed the Littler spin on their world I really didn't like the Biggerer adult couple at all. This is not your average BORROWERS or GULLIVER'S TRAVELS but a darker look at how we treat creatures (even if they are modeled after humans). Readers who enjoy a slightly quirky and dark look at the future of cloning and the sad fate of mankind will enjoy this debut. My thanks to the publishers for an advance copy.

[Serendipity Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amy Lilwall's novel, The Biggerers, is built on an extremely creative premise (the keeping of “clonables” should you need a body part). The story does tackle some of the best and worst of humanity, which can make for interesting story telling.

However, the writing is too sparse - an attribute I'm seeing as fashionable these days, but which I do not enjoy. This gives the story, in my opinion, too great a buy-in cost for the intriguing payout of the latter half of the book - unless you are one who truly loves speculative fiction. I'm giving it it 4 stars because I think it could be enjoyable if that is a style of fiction you enjoy, even if I didn’t.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what I think of this book. There are multiple story lines in multiple time lines that interweave. I had a lot of trouble telling which story I was in and how the various stories linked up. The different story lines are separated by an extra space between paragraphs but no other indication that you have switched stories. The first 20-75 pages were uninteresting and confusing enough that I almost gave up on the book. When I noticed I was on page 100 I realized I was now very interested in the story. I definitely need to re-read this book.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is an astonishing work, such an interesting idea that only gets more interesting as it goes along. The flashbacks are initially a bit confusing until it's obvious that that's what they are...

[Jjean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unusual, and full of such complex relationships - have never really read a book like this before but holds your interest - just have to remember who the "little people" are and who are the regular humans - well written with some humor thrown in also - thought provoking,

[Potsdam Public Library · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me, I don't get it at all.

[Pixie Ware · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like the writing was all over the place. Lots of strange descriptions like 'she slit her eyes' repeated throughout the book. Overall an average reading experience. The ending seemed rushed too.

[Kate (Looking Glass Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ladies and gentleman, I have finally finished the largest book I may have read all year – #Tometopple books included. The Biggerers by Amy Lilwall is a massive 500+ page dystopian, near future novel by a strong new voice in the genre.

The Biggerers is a story about several tiny humans known as Littlers. These Littlers are sold as companions to regular sized humans, a sort of pet-like creature. But Littlers are being recalled, slowly at first but then in increasing frequency because something strange is happening. They’re starting to communicate, and that is something Littlers are not supposed to be able to do.

This is a long, slow story that follows several groups of characters in tandem. The narration jumps from group to group – from the Littlers to their Biggerers, to a former scientist, to his daughter. Now, if you don’t like jumping points of view the beginning of this novel might be a bit hard to follow. We are introduced to several groups in rather quick succession. Overall, I liked all of these characters. Some were interesting right off the bat, others I grew to love as the story drew on. By the end of the novel I was invested in each of their plots, and wanted the best for all of them. However, there are a lot of characters, so if you have trouble keeping books with a lot of characters straight you might want make note of this before starting the book.

The story itself is set on earth at some point in the near future. Everything appears rather the same at first, with some obvious differences. The world is more automated now. Writing with pen and paper is rare. But it becomes apparent rather quickly that this is not simply a future society, but a dystopian one as well. Littlers are, well, tiny people who cannot communicate and are kept as companions – pets, more or less. This is uncomfortable, doubly so with the normality we see in the opening chapters of the book. Neither the littlers nor the biggerers find the situation at all odd. Lilwall draws you into this space that is equal parts comfortable and extremely uncomfortable. Watching the everyday lives of these characters makes the turning point in the novel hit all the harder. That comfortable space – eerie as it is with the keeping of tiny humans as if they were pets – is quickly shattered.

The second half of the book is much faster paced than the first half. Around page 200 everything begins to change. Everything we’ve learned is slowly turned on its head. The pacing continues to increase until the very end of the novel – I read the second half much more quickly than the first. The dystopian aspect of the story is brought to the forefront. Characters that were interesting, but seemingly less relevant are suddenly quite important. The strange, uncomfortable aspects are explained. The littlers are more fully explained.

While I am of mixed opinion on some aspects of the book – it does bear some uneven pacing and a scenes have the unfortunate habit of cutting off and switching viewpoints right when I was extremely invested in those characters – I really did enjoy this book. There is something there that begs you to read further, even when the pacing may be slow. The characters feel very real, with very understandable motivations.

I look forward to seeing what else Lilwall might have in store for us in the future. If you don’t mind a book with a slower pace and enjoy a story set in a somewhat dystopian world, I would suggest picking up a copy of The Biggerers by Amy Lilwall.

I received this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

[TheCosyDragon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jinx and Bonbon live with their She-one who feeds them flakes from a bowl. They have an active social life Outside where Chips and Blankie visit them. These four people just happen to be only a foot or so high – and they aren’t supposed to be human. Being human could get them kidnapped.

Now, this was a decidedly odd novel. I forced myself to read it because I believed that it could get better or have something really powerful to offer me. Cloning to produce little humans as pets? It could be really fascinating because it’s a possibility.

If memory suppressants work on Littlerers, why not just use them on the old people who don’t want to be lonely without their dead partners? Why clone and produce little humans? I don’t get why people would want a pet human. What’s wrong with a dog? The pet humans aren’t even as intelligent as a dog – they aren’t supposed to communicate after all. And of course, they aren’t supposed to be marketed as toys for children, even though I felt like they could have just been dolls for the way that their owners tended to treat them. What the author did manage really well was the characterisation and character growth of Jinx and Bonbon. They really were little people!

I didn’t understand, but did understand at the same time, the behavior of Susan and Hamish. They both spend a lot of time introspecting about their feelings, and blaming each other for the relationship. And of course there is Hamish’s relationship with Emma. Was their relationship supposed to represent the typical disconnected people that will exist in an age where digital technologies are all that are on offer?

The ending left me feeling very confused. Was the storyline with Watts and Drew in the past? What were those last two chapters really about? This novel had excellent potential as a plot but the language left me cold and uninterested. Maybe pick it up at the bookstore and read the first couple of pages or so to see if you can tolerate the language. If you can, maybe buy this novel to read. But be prepared for a wishy-washy ending. 2 stars from me.

Did you enjoy this goodreads review? If so you may find it useful to visit my blog The Cosy Dragon . I regularly post new reviews on a variety of genres.

[Rachel K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was like a roller-coaster ride of invoked thoughts. There was some confusion in the beginning, and still some confusion here at the end, but it was a superb read. Possibly more of a 3.5 star from me personally, but I’m rounding it up to a sturdy four

[Kristy Sayer-Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting storyline but also really strange and difficult to get into. Not a book I’d read again in a hurry, unfortunately :(