"Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything."
Review:
Annihilation is one weird book, man.
Where to begin? I really did enjoy this book; the main character was a biologist with a complex relationship with her husband, and a surprisingly sterile outlook at an unprecedented ecosystem slowly transforming our planet. I sense the force is strong with this one.
This was Sci-fi horror at its peak. It had a creep to it, a rising in anxiety page by page. And our biologist is both acutely aware and also acutely affected by the world around her. I will say, the first half of the book really dragged. The chapters (there were only 5 in the whole book) were naturally very, very long. And yeah some stuff happened, but jeez, I needed a break every once in a while!
Once we got passed some of the set up and, really once our biologist started to separate herself from the group, that's when things got going. The more we learn about this expedition and the expeditions past, the stakes keep getting higher. More than that, we start this book knowing no one comes back from Area X, but by the end we hope for a brighter future for our main character. It honestly surprised me how much I was rooting for this gal!
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It was such an adventure and I'm glad I held on for this one! As always, let me know your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments. I'll see you very soon for the next one!
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