Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)

author: Jeff VanderMeer

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.66

book published: 2014

rating: 4

read at: 2015/02/15

date added: 2015/02/15

shelves: sword-and-laser

review:

'Annihilation' by Jeff VanderMeer is the first book in a trilogy, but it does work as a standalone novel as long as you can live with a vague ending. With it's weird setting and unreliable narrator, it's certainly not a novel for everyone, but I kind of have a crush on it.



A mysterious government organization is heading up expeditions into Area X, a mysterious area of the planet where inexplicable things are observed. There have been 11 previous expeditions which have met with varying fates, and this book follows the 12th. The 12th expedition is comprised of women, but we aren't told why. We also only know the characters by their job function, so we have a psychologist, a biologist, etc. The story is told by the biologist who has secrets of her own.



It's part of a genre known as New Weird, and it is certainly weird and somewhat defies classification. It's part SF and part horror, but the horror aspect feels detached due to the way the story is told. That's not a complaint, at least not to me. I liked the vagueness, and the strange environs, and a narrator who is not sure if what she is seeing can be believed.







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