Annihilation
Ratings952
Average rating3.7
I really enjoyed this book, and can't wait to see the movie adaptation! It's an interesting story that builds layers of information that keep you guessing what's going on.
(This review can also be found on my blog.)
When I saw the first trailer for the Annihilation movie several months ago, I immediately added the book to my TBR-ASAP shelf on Goodreads without even reading through the description. I put in a hold at the library, waited patiently, and then devoured the book immediately after checking it out.
The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.
It's been a while since a book has hooked me so strongly from the first page, but Annihilation did just that. The writing was just gorgeous, and I was instantly pulled into the world of Area X that VanderMeer had created. From the outset, I didn't want to put it down, but I forced myself to work my way through slowly and to savor every page.
But there is a limit to thinking about even a small piece of something monumental. You still see the shadow of the whole rearing up behind you, and you become lost in your thoughts in part from the panic of realizing the size of that imagined leviathan.
I adored the narrator and loved the style in which the book was written: a journal penned carefully by the biologist, detailing her experiences on the expedition. The reader's awareness of Area X, and the events taking place within it, relies completely on what the biologist is willing to share. I loved that she could be a bit of an unreliable narrator, and that she was able to outright admit to intentionally manipulating the reader with what she shared.
But soon enough I banished this nonsense; some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.
If you're the type of reader who wants all of their questions answered, this book isn't for you. There is no omniscient narrator to share the secrets of Area X with us. There is only the biologist and what she knows, or what she thinks she knows.
I can say without a doubt that Annihilation is now one of my all-time favorite books, and will certainly be on my top 10 list at the end of 2018. I can't wait to see what the rest of the Southern Reach trilogy has in store for me.
Suspenseful, creepy, and very well-written. It really sucked me in. My only issue is with the ending. Not that it is a bit of a cliff hanger, but that it was slightly less than I expected after the build up. Maybe the next book in the series will clear up why it ended this way, but for now my rating stays at 4 stars. Also, I listened to the audiobook, and I would recommend it, the reader does a great job.
Unnerving. This is my first impression of this book, but then it is also so much more, but then again, I'm not sure I can explain my other impressions. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed the way it pulled me in and wouldn't let me go, flipping pages, thinking things I'm not sure I can explain. I'm not sure I've read anything quite like it. In fact I'm not quite sure what I read, but I found the ride unique and thoughtful and that is no way a bad thing.
Pretty quick read. The whole story is a long wind up to the end reveal. Mysteries abound and you as the reader are slowly drip fed information. Not super engrossing but you do want to keep reading to find out what the hell is actually going on.
This was unsettling and intriguing. I definitely couldn't wait to find out what happened next! This sets up an immediate setting (Area X) and an outside setting (the government sending the expedition) really effectively. Which is the larger source of danger? Who has what motivations? What is going ON?
The potential for answers is complicated by the narrator. We have only her point of view - her journal. Her perceptions may be unreliable, her interpretations even more so. Or she may wind up as the most knowledgeable and reliable investigator ever to visit Area X. Don't expect clear, objective answers.
In that context, I felt like this was satisfying enough. I fear the trilogy at large may suffer from “Lost” syndrome - setting up irresistible mysteries and then utterly failing to deliver on solutions. But this first book doesn't truly present itself as a mystery, at least primarily. It's more a psychological journey tinged with nostalgic and revelatory romance.
To be sure, the catalyst for the personal story is a perilous and surreal setting that will resonate with fans of weird fiction, and there's plenty of fodder for deliciously paranoid conspiracy theorizing. But even if those threads don't pan out in later books, I enjoyed reading this one on its own merits.
Pros: interesting premise, strange
Cons: few answers
The Biologist is one of four women sent into Area X on the twelfth expedition to learn more about this mysterious region.
Written as a journal, the book details the expedition, their findings, and the strange occurrences of Area X. Events happen quickly and are very focused, so there isn't time to learn much about anyone other than the Biologist. The Biologist herself is taciturn and secretive, though you do get flashback scenes that help flesh her out. She's also not the most reliable narrator, as you sometimes learn that she hasn't been entirely honest in this account.
The mystery is interesting, though don't expect to fully understand what's going on. The story does wrap up nicely.
It's a quick, unsettling story.
I'll give it 3 stars based on the Goodread guidelines - I liked it, but didn't REALLY like it but it was still better than “ok”.
It's a difficult book to pin down for me. I haven't read any of Jeff VanderMeer before so I can't comment on the ‘creepy' aspect of his other work - this wasn't creepy for me.
Annihilation was compelling enough to keep me reading - I wanted to see what was going to happen next; I wanted answers! - and yet I'm not sure whether or not I want to continue the series.
It was a satisfying read and I still felt there could have been more - of what? I am not entirely sure. I just had a feeling of something out of grasp upon finishing.
I will be curious to see how they adapt this into a film given the overall lack of human interactions/conversations and the biologist protagonist being alone for the majority of the time. Time, again, would be interesting to see how it is played out as the book only really lasts a week in expedition time.
As this book seems to have split opinions quite dramatically, if you are reading this looking for an answer on if you should read it, I can only give you what I based my choice on. I stood in a bookshop, thought the cover looked interesting and the back jacket blurb intrigued me. It was in a 3 for 2 offer and I was buying my mother 2 gifts at the time. I didn't read reviews until I'd already got half way through; if it intrigues you, go for it, if you're sceptical, leave it. See what the film's like and maybe that'll convince you either way.
Very well written. the story kept me hooked while i was reading it, but the ending didn't hook me so much that i have to rush to the next book.
Four women, known only by their occupations of psychologist, anthropologist, surveyor, and biologist, comprise the twelfth expedition into the mysterious Area X. Each previous expedition has met with different fates. The first reported an Edenic landscape, the 2nd in mass suicides, the 3rd ended in a hail of gunfire, etc. With the psychologist as the de facto leader, our narrator is the biologist. They're on a mission to map the terrain, record all observations, and eventually report back. But what they find is initially odd, then gets stranger and stranger and more and more menacing. It's a cool, odd, story that kept me turning pages quickly. It's the first of a trilogy known as the Southern Reach. I'll continue.
Along with [b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians (The Magicians #1) Lev Grossman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg 6278977], this book belongs to my “I have no idea what I was expecting, but I added it to my to-read list because it's kind of controversial with the reviewers and I want to be surprised”. I loved The Magicians (bite me, I really did), but this.... I have no idea how I feel about it. 2 stars means IDK in this case, as there is no way of marking it in any different way for me. Area X is this mysterious place overtaken by nature where things are weird, it is more of a myth to the outside world than a real place where you take your family with a tent. The army sends expeditions there, after some rigorously brainwashing training, this time the protagonist (the biologist), the surveyor, the psychologist and the anthropologist. They don't know the goal of their trip, so you don't know either, they just go because they are sent and then things are starting to be weird. I swear this book makes no sense, it is all just one sequence of unexplained things that happen and make you feel like everyone is probably a bit high and getting paranoid. (Remember the flasback sequence from the Simon Pegg-Nick Frost movie The World's End, when they all get high on top of drunk and it's all fucked? Yeah, like that, but the characters all feel distant.) Things happen and you feel no rhyme or reason, at least I didn't. The worst about it is that it never really gets a proper reason and the protagonist is probably losing her mind, so you are not even sure if you can trust her. Some people love that form of ambiguity, but I personally felt like the book was weightless because of it. Sure, the things go wrong and you pretty much just know that there is no way of a positive outcome, but to me that wasn't enough to care for real. The distance from the characters didn't help with that either. The whole thing was philosophical, to the detriment of making the characters truly relatable and believable. They stayed weirdo , artsy fictional characters who never really acted like people. I guess that can be an interesting exercise if you are looking for one, but I'm still not convinced by it. The protagonist is especially infuriating in her rambling artsy ways;she is actually being sold as a true scientist with an asocial and rational mind, while she keeps rambling like an poet on crack. On what level does that make any sense? It goes against what we learn about her. Sure, I guess the author was just writing in the way he does (which was pretty sweet, I really liked it at some point), but I don't think first person narrative was the right choice for it. Made no sense to me. When the end rolls around, it doesn't feel like a proper ending, which was possibly expected from a book that made so little sense. Sure, the protagonist offers some idea, which is probably right in my opinion, but it is nothing objectively, proven right and while an open ending is not something I automatically dislike, this book seemed to lack any real factual information about the world and with the weird plot, it just resulted in a mess of “or whatever”. The style of the whole thing is just very defined, very bold in its ways, which is something you will either get and like or not get and dislike. In that way it reminds me of China Mieville and that one half book of his I tried to read. I guess weird fiction is just not really my cup of tea? All I'm saying is that it is something not everyone is going to dig, which is supported by the reviews. I'm back to not being able to say anything meaningful about this. Did I love it? Nope. Did I hate it? Nah. I just don't think I'm the right person to appreciate it. The weirdness is making it likely that I'm going to attempt the next book, not sure with how much success, plus the covers are absolutely awesome, I wouldn't mind hanging them on my walls. The artist deserves some kudos. Not sure how many times I will be recommending this book, other than the times when I want to hear someone's opinion about it; I don't really think I'm friends with anyone who would truly enjoy it, which probably makes me a sad human being with boring friends. All in all, kind of meh. Have a good night and preferably avoid camping in the Twilight Zone!
3.5! I liked it enough to immediately start the next book, but I'll keep more comments to myself until the book club meeting. :)
Me ha costado tanto leerlo como tanto me ha gustado.
es CF en estado puro. Por momentos, muchos, me ha recordado a Solaris.
Es lenta, pero buenísima. No digo más, si te gusta esforzarte en las lecturas, te va a gustar.
I really enjoyed reading this book but, somewhat against what one might expect, I have no interest reading any others in the series. I like it as a standalone story.
This rotting explosion of greenery and decay and ghostly faces has already entered and disturbed my dreams, as I am sure it will continue to do for a time. There are images that will not be leaving me soon, and I am eager to read the next book in the trilogy.
After the last few duds I read, I wasn't expecting much from “Annihilation.” Is that fair? No. But, do you start expecting less when a pattern of garbage (to be fair, a pattern of two stinky, waste-of-paper/time, garbage books) has been developed? Sure. Which brings me back to “Annihilation.” What do you see in the patterns of writing, of human speech, of nighttime sounds? Are you always able to recognize changes in patterns, or does your brain fill in the omissions or changes so it keeps finding the same pattern? Can you make sense of the pattern even if it is unchanging? Can you extract the building blocks of the pattern to understand why? And are your memories or the memories of others truthful? Is evidence really evidence and of what?
Jeff VanderMeer creates a dreamy, nightmarish Area X, which I can still see when I close my eyes. In under 200 pages, he captures not only the shifting environment, so similar and yet so different from our own, as well as the shifting emotions of the main character in such a way that you can practically feel the sun on your skin or see the wall words of the Tower/tunnel, as well as a compulsion to find out WHAT THE F is going on and what is with your cohorts.
The biologist, whose name we never learn, is an introverted character, who needed to experience a significant loss and embark on an adventure few in the post-Area X world experience to get her shit together. Her flashbacks to episodes during her childhood, first job, and married life brought her to life so much so that I felt as though I knew her. In many ways, I could relate to her interest in being a keen observer and sense of detachment in social situations, which has lessened for me the longer I've climbed the accounting ladder. However, if I had selected a career observing and documenting tidepools, I might be more insulated like the biologist. This introversion and strong sense of self are some of the reasons that the biologist is able to survive without the pack and find answers more quickly to questions previous expeditions had taken weeks to solve. Are we sure the brightness described happens and is one reason the biologist makes it? Is she unreliable? I submit that narrators are always somewhat reliable if they are in any way human. It's all about what the narrators remembers and experiences, accurate or not. Is she still hypnotised to some extent and that's why even she never refers to anyone's proper name, even her husband, when we are in her inner thoughts? Did the Southern Reach vaccinate her in some way so that she was able to keep going, or did the contact with the shell of her husband after his return give her an immunity? As far as she knew, she was the only spouse of a previous expedition member that chose to go on her own expedition.
In some ways, the novel feels like things are moving slowly, but if you sit back and think about it, there's quite a lot of action pillowed by moments of introspection. And who wouldn't be introspective if in an environment in which you have no digital/electronic distractions, few or no other humans with which to interact, or cultural events to distract you from actually noticing what's happening within and without? The pacing seemed just right given the events of the novel.
Don't think for a minute that the length of this book or the fact that it is the first in a quickly published triology (from 2014) means that it doesn't pack a punch. This isn't fluff. It's science fiction/mystery/horror/romance (okay, I thought so on that last one - lots of ugly bumping does not a romance make in my mind) and at no point did it feel forced or badly nailed together. I was so engrossed in this book that I had to detach myself from my boyfriend after getting home from the city so I could finish the last 20 or so pages. Quite a feat! It's interesting that the great movie trilogies (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future) seem to have spawned a trend in book publishing, albeit years later. Why not? Humans like stories that are suspense-filled and that don't give you the answer right away, despite claims that immediate satisfaction is penultimate. Serial publishing made Dickens, Dumas, and Melville, so what's wrong with that style today? Nada, I say. Unless it is garbage filled, as are the Passage, Twilight, and Divergent series. Then it should rot, slowly moldering. Or maybe quickly so it's presence stops troubling me.
What's also great about “Annihilation” is that it stands on its own. As much as you want to find out whether the biologist makes it to her next goal, there's something to be said for the author creating a good enough story that you imagine several options for her, but feel as though the story arc was complete. I don't know whether they'll be answered in the sequels, but I'm definitely going to read them!
In many ways breaks some rules I expect. Characters only known by their role serving some common purpose which beyond exploration they barely know. Difficult to see beyond their roles make connections but then they are not meant to either. Team in enemy or hostile territory but nothoing about them speaks of a team other than some purpose that if they dont know neither do you as reader. So as reader you are walking with the protagonists. Viewpoint of the Biologist. Her understanding, her knowledge she distrusts even the landscape around her and the little she does know from previous expeditions unclear how given that she knows few have returned and this is the 12th expedition.
A difficult read. Little to attract the reader to other characters and not much to sympathize with the Biologist. But it is a mystery. Shades of Lovecraft and his narrators.
Unsatisfactory ending. I and the Biologist know more or have experienced more but have no more significant understanding than perhaps how survival may be possible. So i immediately start the second in the series and am irritated early in that it seems I could have started reading here. But it drags me on. I want answers . What is Area X or rather the Why of it.
Definitely worth reading.
It is basically the pilot episode of the TV Show “Lost”. Very unsatisfying but promising and interesting. Unfortunately this is not a pilot but a whole book.
After finishing it I have more questions than answers, it seems the author set it up that way so you will buy book 2. With just 200 pages that feels just wrong. If you subtract the dreadfully boring ramblings of the protagonist's past and marriage it is little more than a prologue of a real book. If it had a proper ending or at least some resemblance of an ending or would even answer one question I would maybe give it three stars.
It was interesting, but wasn't a fan of the style. Didn't want to continue a trilogy of more of the same, especially since I didn't really see any of the mysteries being resolved.
Interesting and page-turningly compelling, like LOST, but at times reads like a tedious recounting of a psychedelic trip.
This is a quite strange story, so I can understand why several people wrote opposing reviews or are kind of disappointed.
I'm glad I enjoyed very much this book, even though it is sometimes a bit slow. Well, probably the pragmatic, curious and scientific approach of the biologist to new situations helped a lot XD
Overall, it is very fascinating and totally caught my interest. I couldn't put it down: that's why I finished it in one day.