Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Annihilation

This book was quite a challenge, from the genre to fully immersing myself in the writing style. It is a mysterious and captivating reading.
The author's writing gives us an amazing approach to the plot and the world building is fascinating. I had never read anything like it before, we really don't know what's going on, what exists outside, and yet we are invaded by that feeling of restlessness and tension throughout the whole story. It has a good pace and as I turned the pages (e-book) my interest grew more and more. All this doesn't prevent the story to be somewhat strange.
I really enjoyed the way in which we get to know the surroundings of Area X through a biologist lens, all the details create an unimaginable atmosphere and each description of the environment transports you to the sensations of the character.
What didn't fascinate me: Overall it was an immersive narrative, confusing but unsettling. However, there are certain aspects or situations where the story didn't captivated me and required me to stop reading or reread a paragraph or two.
Would like to continue with the trilogy, but I am not in a hurry to do so.

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pclairx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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rebecca713's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No

2.0

I don't think this book was necessarily bad, just not for me.

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thesawyerbean's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.75

This was such an immersive, haunting and intriguing read - so many questions, revelations and terrifying moments, I couldn’t put it down. I am now so interested in reading the next books in the trilogy.

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jenthefictioner's review

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challenging mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

Let me start off by saying that I'm having a difficult time formulating a decent review for this book; I can't decide if I want to start with the negatives or the positives first. Perhaps it doesn't matter?

Let's start with the cons:

This book was lacking. There didn't seem to be any explanation about where Area X originated, or why it was there, or what its purpose was. There were a few implied situations where the expeditions were concerned, but there were a whole lot of questions I had that were left unanswered. I don't know if maybe I should have read the Ambergris trilogy first, but that's a question I'll answer when I get that book.
There isn't a ton of dialog. To be perfectly honest, I don't think this is necessarily a con for me, but for many others, it can be. The narrator prefers solitude over working with others, and it really shows in her recount of the events.
Sentences are sometimes formed strangely. There were several instances where I stumbled through sentences because of the way they were written. Sometimes I would have to reread them twice before I finally got what it was trying to tell me.
The characters, though not two-dimensional, were sort of lack-luster. While I don't find it necessarily takes away from a story if I don't or can't connect to the characters, some will see that as a problem. Some people rely on that. They aren't described in any significant way; you can tell them apart by the way they hold themselves and interact with each other, and the way they speak. You get impressions for them and can tell the difference that way. However, I tended to get the anthropologist and surveyor confused more often than not.
The moaning creature, when finally confronted, wasn't that scary. Up until that encounter, it was only ever heard throughout the entire time they were there. When the biologist, the narrator, finally encountered it, there was no physical description. It was more of an impression, and it wasn't a tense situation that had me gripped the edge of my seat. It was an aspect of the book that was trying to be a horror element, but fell short.

Onto the pros:

The narrator is unreliable. Although some might be bothered by this, this aspect in storytelling is one of my favorites, and I haven’t read many books like this. Most books these days usually rely on third person omniscient, so it’s a real treat when I find something where you can’t trust the narrator to tell you everything.
There isn’t a ton of dialog. Like I said under the cons, this didn’t bother me. It shows that the narrator, as a person, prefers solitude over company.
The narrator’s backstory was insightful, but also not the real reason she was there. The entire time we’re reading this recount of events, we are led to believe that the narrator’s background in biology and interest in the subject since childhood, was the reason that she was there in the first place. However, this is not really the case, but it was still incredibly insightful. It may not have been the real reason she volunteered, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

So the cons outweigh the pros in this, and that might seem like a bad thing, especially for the first book in a trilogy. Don’t get me wrong, though, I loved this book and while very few of my questions were actually answered, I didn’t once think I should stop. Because, like the narrator, I was driven by a need to know something about Area X. I’m hoping, by reading the next in the trilogy, some of my questions will be answered. It has made me wonder, though, if the Ambergris trilogy should have been read before the Southern Reach. If that’s the case, then that could be a problem where the writing is concerned.

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hoiyan's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.25

this is definitely something i wouldn't usually gravitate towards for books, but i'm glad i picked this up. it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea based on mixed reviews i read prior to reading this.

i liked it! it was creepy, mysterious, very atmospheric, and the descriptions of Area X freaked me out. a lot.

i found the writing style to be difficult to read, but i got a bit more comfortable as i kept reading. it was unsettling how uncomfortable the writing made me, maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn't. but it did add to the overall fear factor on top of the tense atmosphere.

this isn't one of those books that resolve every single question you might have while progressing, and it does leave you to think on things even after finishing. i personally liked the mystery and unanswered questions, but that may be frustrating to others to sit in confusion.

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darbo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was eerie, haunting, yet also creepy and fascinating in a weird but good way. It follows the 12th expedition into what is known as Area X, the internal struggles between the expedition members, as well as traces and glimpses into past lives of not only our main character, the biologist, but also of what Area X might’ve once been before, and what remains of that. In this ever changing landscape, we follow our character(s) through what can only be described as a “mindf**k”, and we, as the reader, begin to loose track of what’s real and what isn’t. I’m truly stunned and impressed by this book, the writing beautiful and vivid in a manner that resembles that of a classic, yet comprehensible, making it easy to understand for everyone. In my books, this is a modern classic. My compliments to the chef.

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

2.5

Area X is a mysterious and apparently dangerous region that has been explored by eleven previous expeditions, with varying success. The members of the eleventh expedition returned under mysterious circumstances, with missing memories, and all died of cancer within a few months. We follow the twelfth expedition as they enter Area X and almost immediately encounter strange and inexplicable phenomena for which they are not prepared. The story is part science fiction, part psychological horror, and answers your questions only to leave you with many more.

A friend recommended this book, and I usually don’t like science fiction, but I recently read (and loved) Dune, so I thought I’d give it a try. Unfortunately, my favorite thing about Dune—the worldbuilding— was almost nonexistent in Annihilation. I can appreciate the lack of description and backstory as a device to increase the suspense (and establish our narrator as unreliable), but it’s just not my cup of tea. I also didn’t like a single one of the characters;

especially as the narrator became increasingly unreliable and suspicious. I felt like I was trapped in her head, willing her to do one thing…and then she would promptly do the opposite. The final straw was her murder of the surveyor.

I really enjoy stories where the setting becomes another character (a la Dune, Piranesi, or Wind, Sand and Stars, just to name a few of my recent reads), especially if that setting is really just nature itself. Annihilation did this to an extent, but the confusion of the story and disorientation of the narrator and the situation prevented Area X from becoming truly alive. This may be a personal problem though; I was talking to a friend about books recently and she pointed out that I like to understand, and she’s right—it’s the reason I love really strong, intricate worldbuilding and am disappointed by endings that don’t tie everything nicely together.

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the general vibe of the ending):

definitely not happy by my standards, but it’s the first book in a trilogy so of course it has to leave room for the next story. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish the series, but it did leave me with unanswered questions…

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