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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The bulk of this entry into the Southern Reach series centers around an agent of Central tasked with understanding some spooky stuff going on in pre-Area X. If you liked Authority a LOT, you'll probably like this one too.
If you're more a fan of Annihilation or Acceptance, the Lowry sections are top notch (5/5 no notes, exactly what I wanted), however you'll only get that in the last fifth or so of the book.
Absolution has a lot of great ideas, a lot of quotable moments, but it also drags a bit as it explores the why of Area X and the why of Central, when I much prefer the environmental oddities of Area X, the inability to understand the why, and how conscious minds react when colliding with a force wholly alien to our own.
If you're more a fan of Annihilation or Acceptance, the Lowry sections are top notch (5/5 no notes, exactly what I wanted), however you'll only get that in the last fifth or so of the book.
Absolution has a lot of great ideas, a lot of quotable moments, but it also drags a bit as it explores the why of Area X and the why of Central, when I much prefer the environmental oddities of Area X, the inability to understand the why, and how conscious minds react when colliding with a force wholly alien to our own.
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another bizarre addition to the Area X oeuvre.
I am a fan of the Southern Reach trilogy. This book is told in three main parts: 1) Old Jim reviews journals and other notes from a biological expedition to the Coast; 2) Old Jim goes on assignment to the Coast; 3) The first expedition goes to Area X. The first two take place prior to the border of Area X coming down, the third after the border has come down. The first part was ok. Turns out weird things were happening before the Area X border emerged. I really liked the second part. I liked the characters, the narrator, the horror of the situation, and the weirdness of it. The third part I did not like. It was told by an unreliable narrator (which itself is ok) who was on drugs most of the time. (This would be ok in some situations). But also, very weird things were happening in the world. So when you have an unreliable, high narrator talking about *very weird things* it's very hard to understand what is happening. There's a lot of description of things that seemed not relevant, yet it was impossible to skim because the way it was written. The book drifted into the area of "Dead Astronauts" level of obscureness in writing, IMO.
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed and was thoroughly baffled by this book. Loved Old Jim and hate-loved Lowry whose drug-addled, narcissistic(?), just fucked up pov was one of the most challenging things I’ve read in a while. Of all the Southern Reach books, I think this one was much more about the characters than the place.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed some select parts of Absolution, but as a fan of the original trilogy, I have to ask: what does it add? I've been tossing that question around in my head for days now and I haven't come up with a single thing, so I have to conclude that this book is a failure as an addition to the Southern Reach series. Sure, we learn more about Henry and the S&SB(sort of); we learn more about the Forgotten Coast pre-Area-X (though much of the information is such that we could already intuit it); we learn more about Lowry (I guess); but crucially, we do not need to. No further questions are answered, and the elaborations are at times a huge tonal shift away from the original trilogy and feel like someone is hitting you over the head with a mallet telling you how spooky and weird and ominous it all is such that it becomes outright absurd (what's with the guy stuffing people in barrels that dissolve them? The psychic's submarine missions? The...generator from Central that gaslights people? ).
I also think it was a huge miss thatThe Rogue is revealed to be Whitby and not Control . What was the point of Control stepping through the golden door then? That single detail could have made it so the book at least cohered with respect to the original. But no.
Obviously the scenes with Old Jim and Cass are standouts, and I enjoyed parts of Lowry's trip (haha), but the strange wonderful painful desolation of the first three books is nowhere to be found. 2/5.
I also think it was a huge miss that
Obviously the scenes with Old Jim and Cass are standouts, and I enjoyed parts of Lowry's trip (haha), but the strange wonderful painful desolation of the first three books is nowhere to be found. 2/5.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The author assumes the reader remembers details from the initial trilogy (published 2014), but a summary here would have been extremely helpful. Maybe that's on me as a reader, but helping your audience find their footing seems like an important aspect to me. So, as a result, I felt very lost for most of the novel. However there were some fantastic descriptions of creepy and unsettling things, very much like what we saw in the previous books. This was the saving grace in my reading experience.
Absolution seems to answer some questions asked in the initial trilogy about the beginnings of the Southern Reach, and ask new questions. If you pick this up, do yourself a favor, and re-read the Southern Reach Trilogy or watch a recap on YouTube.
Absolution seems to answer some questions asked in the initial trilogy about the beginnings of the Southern Reach, and ask new questions. If you pick this up, do yourself a favor, and re-read the Southern Reach Trilogy or watch a recap on YouTube.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes