Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

16 reviews

beansandrice's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

There are some neat moments in this, but it undermines so much of Annihilation. Also, it emphasizes how much Annihilation benefited from Only Women Characters syndrome, since

wow the hetero pairing in this book is supposed to be romantic but is soooo toxic. I have yet to read Acceptance but, i doubt Vandermeer really understands how toxic this is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Misogyny

droggelbecher42's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this one as much as the first book in the trilogy.
Like other people have mentioned Control is a less compelling character than the biologist.

On top of that I just found the southern reach agency less interesting than actually being immersed in the atmosphere of Area X like in the first book.
The slow pace of the book wasn't necessarily a problem for me but I found

the sudden climax of the Area X expending/Control fleeing quite jarring. Felt very abrupt, although I suppose that might have been intentional.

It felt like a bit of filler book between book one and three, setting up a lot of things, but not really coming to satisfying conclusions.

I still enjoyed aspects fo the book and really enjoyed some scenes e.g.

Control finding Whitby in the attic of that room. Any of the interrogation scenes with the biologist were fun

. Also I'm excited to reread Annihilation at some point while having the knowledge from Authority.

Definitely will be reading the third book soon and I'm hoping that the third book finally answers some questions while still focusing on the weirdness of Area X.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Gaslighting

judassilver's review

challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Body horror

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gun violence, Grief, and Death

coelwa's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, and Drug use

emilywemily6's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book was weird just like the last one, but it was much slower and lots compelling to read. We got relatively few answers for the length of this book, and while it was interesting to take a different perspective on Area X, it was mildly frustrating. I think this writing style is not for me and most of the book said nothing and then big moments were passed over too quickly for me to grasp. It was still intriguing, and kind of a pseudo-character study, but the payoff was not as much as I anticipated when I started reading it. I’ll probably read the next one to get more answers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Cancer

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Stalking, Misogyny, Cancer, Terminal illness, Confinement, and Alcohol

Minor: War, Sexual content, Gun violence, Cursing, and Abandonment

mosshaunt's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

struggled to get through this one. something about it made me reread passages a lot, thinking i missed something.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Animal death, Cancer, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Racism, and Vomit

calico_camaraderie's review

mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, and Cancer

Minor: Death and Death of parent

samdalefox's review

adventurous mysterious reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Incredibly disappointing after the first book. For the first 10% of the audiobook I actually quite liked the change in perspective, I thought it would be interesting to gain insight into the authority and researchers behind area X. But no, what this book is instead is a steady stream of conciousness from the new Director of the Southern Reach (John Rodriguez/Control). We only get small, unsatisfying, tidbits about area X that neither inform or grow the mystery, only frustrate the reader (in a bad way). We get long winded descriptions of the Director's daily habits that do not build suspense, only boredom. He frequently over anaylses and describes things by what they are not, rather than what they are, which is infuriating. We get no substantial insight into the 'authority' of the Southern Reach. Where there is any possibility for an insteresting sub-plot, it is completely forgotten about e.g.,

Whitby's artwork or the plant, mouse, and mobile phone.

At over double the length of 'Annihilation', I frankly don't see why this book is justifiable, or even necessary at all. I guessed the indicators of theings going awry e.g.,

the rotting honey smell, the doppelganger biologist, the voice using hypnotic control

and did not find any of the story's 'revelations' shocking e.g.,

Control's fieldwork fuck up, the old Director returning, or the area X border advancing/breaching.

Overall, this is mostly useless filler story, I will however read the final installment with high hopes of a better ending since the first book was so excellent. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Death, and Murder

bedtimesnack's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, and Cancer