‘Annihilation’ takes readers to a one of a kind place
I have been lucky to read a lot of books recently. When I heard they were making Annihilation into a film I was eager to check the book out. I doubted I would be able to get a review copy, but thankfully I did. Here is what I thought of this book.
You can read the plot for Annihilation here:
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent 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 expedition 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 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—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—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.
Annihilation was a good book. It was interesting to never learn the names of any of the expedition members. The biologist had her imperfections, but she was the shining star of this story. She goes through a lot on this expedition, and learns dark secrets about the others who are with her. I liked the ending, and am curious to see where this trilogy went next. If you want to learn more about Annihilation click on this website.
Annihilation is available now. You can order this book on Amazon, at Barnes and Noble and at Indiebound.