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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Wowowe very mysterious
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The author is very good at building a compelling atmosphere and good tension. A little surreal too.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My friend Kyle wrote his Honours long essay on Annihilation last year, and was kind enough to lend his copy to me.
Sometimes, a setting feels more like the main character of a story than the characters in it. In this case, it feels almost as if Area X itself is the main character, and the biologist is less of an individual than an allegorical representation of humankind's need to catalogue and categorise nature, which is inherently messy and full of contradictions and unknowability if we break it down far enough. (E.g. quantum dynamics etc.) Thus, VanderMeer's characterisation seems a bit flat to me. Granted, I don't think that was what he was trying to achieve, but in my view, a story needs more dynamic character work and interconnected relationships in order to be more compelling to read.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Annihilation. This idea of being compromised by spores seems similar, to me, to the way the Yeerks from the Animorphs books trouble normative conceptions of personhood and humanness. Also consider how so much of the person you think of as you is in fact a bacterial colony.
We tell stories to ourselves, about ourselves, and this is how we make sense of the universe. Because this book unsettles those stories so well (despite its rather two-dimensional characterisations), I give Annihilation 3.5 stars.
Sometimes, a setting feels more like the main character of a story than the characters in it. In this case, it feels almost as if Area X itself is the main character, and the biologist is less of an individual than an allegorical representation of humankind's need to catalogue and categorise nature, which is inherently messy and full of contradictions and unknowability if we break it down far enough. (E.g. quantum dynamics etc.) Thus, VanderMeer's characterisation seems a bit flat to me. Granted, I don't think that was what he was trying to achieve, but in my view, a story needs more dynamic character work and interconnected relationships in order to be more compelling to read.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Annihilation. This idea of
We tell stories to ourselves, about ourselves, and this is how we make sense of the universe. Because this book unsettles those stories so well (despite its rather two-dimensional characterisations), I give Annihilation 3.5 stars.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm so glad that my professor choose this as one of the books we would read because I'm not sure I would've read it otherwise. It was so good, and I loved it.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Until the last few pages, you do not realize that Annihilation is a profound recapping of grief. Much of what the biologist says and does is driven by grief: the way she consistently brings up her husband, tries to distance herself from him, insists that their relationship was heading to an end point, but then finds him in every part of Area X...
"Trapped within the Crawler, the last lighthouse keeper stared out at me, so it seemed, not just across a vast, unbridgeable gulf but also out across the years. For, though thinner—his eyes receded in their orbits, his jawline more pronounced—the lighthouse keeper had not aged a day since the photograph was taken more than thirty years ago. This man who now existed in a place none of us could comprehend."
What struck me, and I had not realized this until the biologist returned to the lighthouse and mentioned circling the photograph a second time, was that the biologist was not the first person to understand that the Crawler was the lighthouse keeper. Someone else had made the discovery too and that's why the photograph was circled in the first place. The biologist being drawn to the photograph, too, might have indicated that she knew, somehow, thanks to the spores within her, that the man in the photo held considerable weight in Area X. There's much to consider.
I did, however, find some issue with Vandermeer's writing. Clearly intelligent and well-read, I found some sections heavily weighed down by purple prose. The world building was immensely well done, but his descriptions, at times, seemed quite longwinded. Vandermeer also had several phrases he obsessed over and used to such an extent that it continually captured my eye (though rather awkwardly): "colonized by" and "a kind of" coming to mind first.
Overall, Annihilation works really well as a standalone. I'm not sure why it needed to become a trilogy, and I have no interest in continuing reading the series. But I would highly recommend the novel to those who enjoy science fiction and unsolvable mysteries. Hoping to rewatch the movie to see how much
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Grief, Murder
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated