Wick and Rachel are barely surviving at the fringes of a city destroyed by an apocalypse so bizarre that it almost defies description. All we know is that a skyscraper-sized floating bear named Mord frequently zooms across the sky, terrorizing the area’s remaining inhabitants. In bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer’s new novel, Borne, we’re plunged into a future environmental hellscape. The best part is that lurking beneath this book’s bitterness and body horror, there is a profound, complicated story of hope.

When we first meet Rachel, she’s scavenging bizarre, half-alive devices from the urban ruins, bringing home alien items like shell medicines and alcohol fish. She lives in the half-buried remains of an old apartment complex with former scientist Wick, who has converted the swimming pool into a wet lab. There, he patches up insect-based weapons and grows the medicines he needs. It’s a rough life for the couple, but they’ve managed.

Then Rachel scores the ultimate scavenger prize. While Mord is sleeping, she sneaks up his flank and pulls an unknown blob of biotech from his fur. Hoping Wick can turn it into something extraordinary, she discovers too late that the blob is actually a polymorphous, highly intelligent creature. She names it Borne, and thus begins a strange and moving tale of family life.

Watching Borne rapidly grow up feels oddly familiar—like many smart children, he experiments with language, makes up goofy games, and does crazy things to get the attention of his “parents.” Of course, he also learns how to flatten his body so that it covers the entire ceiling of Wick’s lab, grows hundreds of eyes on a whim, and discovers that he can morph himself into a glowing rock. Also, there is the small problem of Borne’s growing appetite for flesh.

Still, VanderMeer manages to create a strangely human story out of this odd domestic triangle. Rachel and Wick’s romantic relationship suffers as they deal with the “baby,” just as any couple’s would. Seeing their squabbles played out against the backdrop of a giant, floating, bloodthirsty bear doesn’t diminish the legitimacy of their problems. Starting a family always means navigating a bumpy terrain of mistrust and desire. Even when the world seems to be ending and children are synthetic bio-blobs, love remains just as complicated as it has always been. This simple truth provides us with an anchor as we drift through scenes of unhinged kaiju mayhem and toxic weirdness.

The most powerful part of the novel comes from VanderMeer’s ability to find beauty in all forms of nature, whether it’s a foul slime or puffy-tailed fox. Readers familiar with his bestselling Southern Reach trilogy already know VanderMeer is obsessed with spores, fungus, and oily pools. But his aesthetic is especially important for this story, which is ultimately about how Rachel and Wick come to recognize the humanity in Borne, an artificial creature made by scientists in a lab for an unknown purpose.

As Borne grows up, he constantly asks Rachel, “Am I a person?” She answers “yes,” but we only believe her because VanderMeer has created a world where artificial nature is as precious and important as “natural” nature. Another writer would have turned Borne into just another horror created by scientific and corporate hubris. Instead, VanderMeer pushes us to look beyond Borne’s genetically modified origins. He may be a GMO, but he’s also a living creature with his own identity. He deserves love just as much as people who evolved the old-fashioned way.

Though Rachel’s relationship with her family forms the backbone of the story, Borne also delivers the action you’d expect from a post-apocalyptic thriller. A mysterious figure called the Magician has come forward to challenge Mord, and the city’s remaining people are picking sides. But just like everything else in this wondrously disturbing novel, our protagonists’ quest to free the city hardly goes in the direction you think it will.

In the end, VanderMeer leaves us with an uncomfortable question. When our ecosystems have been distorted beyond measure, how do we save the environment? The answer, like so many things in nature, is complicated. But after reading Borne, you might not be so quick to reject GMOs. One day, in a distant world, they might become your friends.

If you’re fascinated by bioscience and environmental futures, Borne should be on your must-read list this summer (Amazon US/UK). Come for the weird tech, but stay for a knotty, philosophical exploration that rejects easy good-versus-evil conflicts. You won’t be disappointed.