Annihilation

I'm gonna be honest. Annihilation started off as a slow burn and a slightly irritating read because the descriptions are so alien. Then about half-way through, something clicked, and I realized what many people have realized: that this is one strange, clever, off-putting, beautiful and disturbing book. It's both maddening and magnificent. Surreal and honest. VanderMeer somehow wraps Annihilation in a veil of mystery that keeps you turning the pages even if you don't get straight forward answers. There are incomplete discoveries. The hows and the whys of Area X are disposed of (and really don't matter but I'm still wondering about it). And yet, you end up caring for the Biologist, our narrator, and her plight in Area X. And the ending is show more strangely satisfying.

For those who haven't read the book: An Anthropologist, a Surveyor, a Psychologist, and a Biologist, all female, make up the 12th expedition to AREA X. The expeditions that have come to this region before have not fared well. They have disappeared. They have come home mere shells of themselves and died of cancer. They have turned on one another and killed each other. There is a reason why the expedition members are only known by their field of expertise.

Our Narrator, the Biologist, embarks on the expedition after the death of her husband. Their fractured relationship haunts her journey into the unknown regions, as she is witness to the trauma Area X creates and the startling beauty that also resides within it. The region slowly begins to change her (and she refers to it as a form of brightness) as she comes to terms with herself and her husbands death.

My conclusion (without giving too much away) is that this atmospheric novel is dealing with questions of regret, memory, and manipulation (be it scientific, environmental, or emotional). It deals with the often frightening and darkside of human emotions and Area X almost feels metaphorical. I'm sure many others will have a different interpretation and I think that is why VanderMeer writes the way he does. The loose mystery offers many different readings.

For me, it was the relationship between the biologist and her husband, that was the emotional crux of this book.

I ended up liking this one more than I thought I would.

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You must understand how I felt then, how the surveyor must have felt: We were scientists, trained to observe natural phenomena and the results of human activity. We had not been trained to encounter what appeared to be the uncanny. In unusual situations there can be a comfort in the presence of even someone you think might be your enemy. Now we had come close to the edges of something unprecedented, and less than a week into our mission we had lost not just the linguist at the border but our anthropologist and our psychologist.

Now that is a fascinating sort of book. It's essentially a slice of life mixed with cosmic horror. The entire story follows an expedition into the mysterious, alien Area X. There's not really any overarching show more plot, other than exploring and perhaps surviving... and maybe if you're really really lucky, coming back without going mad.

If you go in wanting answers--or even to some extent, questions--then you're going to be disappointed. If you just want to hang on for a quick, creepy exploration into something just past the edge of otherworldly, this is a wonderful ride for it.

One of the most interesting parts for me was the complete lack of names for any of the characters. They're always referred to by their jobs.

The psychologist had written a name on the envelope; at least, it looked like her handwriting. The name started with an S. Was it her child’s name? A friend? A lover? I had not seen a name or heard a name spoken aloud for months, and seeing one now bothered me deeply. It seemed wrong, as if it did not belong in Area X. A name was a dangerous luxury here. Sacrifices didn’t need names. People who served a function didn’t need to be named. In all ways, the name was a further and unwanted confusion to me, a dark space that kept growing and growing in my mind.

I have a problem with names sometimes, even in my own writing. I find myself writing that way, referring to people by traits or jobs rather than names. I never really realized how disorienting it can get when taking to the extreme. This novel... certainly showed me that.

I guess in a nutshell, it's a fascinating work and I'm glad I read it. It's somewhat a niche book and I expect people are going to react strongly to it one way or another. It's certainly an odd book.

I have no idea where a sequel could go, but you know what? Let's give it a try! show less

hey what the fuck!

i enjoyed this. it holds a very enthralling balance between the supernatural and the organic, and the perspective of a woman not named but titled is refreshingly distant, even as she reveals so much about herself as a person. the incomprehensibility of area x, the way it undulates and grows, is somehow beautiful. not sure if i will read the other books in this trilogy--it stands beautifully as an isolated novel.

I made the mistake of starting to read this book late at night, in an unfamiliar city, with the sound of unknown insects and strange night calls pouring into my open window.

This book is terrifying. Now that I have had time to digest the story and consider the questions left unanswered, I feel like I need to read this slim volume again. I do doubt that a second read will answer my lingering questions...

VanderMeer's prose is eerie, reminiscent of Lovecraft. The strange world he created is deeply unsettling. If I have one word to describe Annihilation, it is ineffable. Perhaps I don’t read a lot of sci-fi horror, but I’ve never read anything like this book. This novel plays with your mind; it captures the deep and dreadful mystery of show more what it means to be alive. I was unsure whether to trust the narrator, and the indescribable mystery of what the hell is going on in Area X kept me turning the pages.

Our narrator is a nameless biologist who volunteers for a government mission to explore an otherworldly, uncharted wilderness, simply called Area X. Rational thought begins to leave her as she examines the strange new organisms in the land that can’t be defined or classified under any science she knows. As we follow her harrowing story of survival through Area X, her own developing madness and the madness and manipulation of her comrades, more of her melancholy backstory and the horrific expeditions that came before hers float to the forefront.

The answers were not clear by the time I finished this book. The puzzle pieces never quite fit together in my brain. Which, in a way, is a poignant metaphor for life. Luckily, there are two more books in the series that will hopefully unravel the mystery of Area X. I plan to devour this series.

Annihilation is a skillfully written, fast-paced, yet introspective, almost philosophical adventure/horror book of sorts. I would highly recommend this dystopic novel to readers interested in preternatural science fiction, survival stories, and even monster stories – and to adult fans of The Hunger Games. show less

Annihilation carries the best of H.P. Lovecraft into the 21st century. Our unnamed narrator is the Biologist, member of a four woman expedition into Area X, a mysterious zone of otherworldly circumstances, overgrown and haunted by unknown horrors. Area X consumes expeditions, either by the assault of unknown forces, or psychological breakdowns and self-inflicted gunfire. The biologist is a consummate observer, someone who stands outside of events, who sees her own beauty in the natural world, and in whatever force is at the center of the Area X.

VanderMeer unrolls the strangeness and the fear in a great novella. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series goes.

Annihilation is the first book in a trilogy about agents of a clandestine government agency exploring a forbidden territory.

Annihilation is a parable about personal identity, epistemological frustration, and the elastic boundaries of human consciousness.

Annihilation is a short novel structured around themes of exploration, control, and survival. The principal character and narrator, identified only as "the biologist," is simultaneously de-personalized and carrying out a deeply personal agenda regarding her lost husband. She is part of a small team which experiences catastrophic internal conflict, and she encounters phenomena of evidently non-human origin that are overwhelmingly exotic. The book defies genre, but I might class it as show more mystical horror, with some science fiction and espionage tropes.

Despite the obvious differences, Jeff VanderMeer's "Area X" and the "Kefahuchi Tract" of M. John Harrison's novels (Light, etc.) have more than a little in common. The infection/mutation of characters and their ambivalent encounters with transcendent power are in both cases oriented toward a mysterious region of putatively non-human influence. Protagonists have all-too-human motives working themselves out in shockingly inhuman contexts. VanderMeer's prose is less writerly than Harrison's, but it is efficient and engaging, and both manage the sort of impressionistic feat of bringing the reader to identify with the crucial ignorance of the characters, who are themselves not terribly sympathetic in their traits and histories.

I enjoyed this book and intend to read its two sequels. show less

3.5/5

Annihilation is a tricky book to contain within the confines of a review. Honestly, even now I'm not sure how I feel about it exactly. Nevertheless, I do know a few things. First, VanderMeer creates an excellent tone throughout the book. It's dream-like, tense, mysterious, wondrous. I was effortless receptive to these moods, particularly because of the writing, which was beautiful and even melodic at times.

I particularly enjoyed how weird this book was. Nothing is as it seems, questions are left hanging with no concrete answers. The flora and fauna of Area X defy human logic, and are deeply imaginative. This is made especially obvious through our protagonist, the biologist, who purposefully unreliable, so I never really knew what show more was either a lie, a bending of the truth, or actually true. She is also mysterious in her own ways, just like the environment. Through her, we experience a lot of self-reflection and contemplation, which is at odds with the fantastical nature of everything else. There's also some exploration of identity, and what it means to be. Not only is the ecology of Area X being altered by the creature in the tower, but some people are replaced by doppelgangers of themselves, and seemingly every person on the expedition is subject to hypnosis.

It's a delicious little nugget of weird science fiction that's over in a flash, which left me with all sorts of theories about the truth behind everything. I think I preferred the beginning of the book when Area X was still an absolute mystery in every sense, and found myself slowly losing interest over time. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between the expedition members, so it was disappointed that became less of a focus as the story progressed. show less