Hiya bibliophiles! Today, we’re gonna dive into a book review for the first time in forever. I’m still trying to figure out this block editor nonsense so future reviews might look different. Anyways, onto the review! This review may or may not contain spoilers, so if you haven’t read the book, well, you’ve been warned.
The book: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
The synopsis: 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.
The Review:
This book was deliciously twisty. I loved it even more as a reread. VanderMeer has perfected the art of New Weird. Annihilation tells the story of the twelfth expedition into Area X, four women bound together by their own secrets and that of Area X. Our narrator, only known by her title the Biologist, is a wonderfully inconsistent and unreliable narrator. Can we trust this journal of the Biologist? Is she holding something back? We don’t know. We have to rely on her narration of what she experiences in Area X and the consequences of the group’s actions.
As Area X infiltrates her consciousness, can she even rely on herself? What about the Southern Reach? How much information did they leave out of the training to experiment on the expedition? As the Biologist changes, does it even matter?
This book asks so many questions and gives so few answers. I can’t wait to continue with this series to see what happens. I was on the edge of my seat, constantly had shivers of the spine, and had to know more. Annihilation is atmospheric, creepy, and compulsively readable. The world of Area X is so foreign, so alien, so pristine that it becomes a character in its own right. Its motivations at times drives the plot, which was an interesting choice for VanderMeer to make. The message on the wall of the tower is particularly ominous throughout the novel, as if the progression of reading the wall is the flashpoint for all of the action of the novel to be centered around.
Final Thoughts:
Read this book. No really, please read this book. You cannot supplement the reading of this book with the watching of the movie. 5/5 Stars
That’s it for now!
Until next time, Happy Reading!
Ashleigh
Ink & Tome 
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