Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

9 reviews

charlieeee's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Murder, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cursing, Body horror, Cancer, Blood, Gun violence, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

theirgracegrace's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

Annihilation starts off with a series of questions, but its ending does not answer them to incredible effect. The plot centres around an expedition of four scientists who are the twelfth expedition to a place called Area X, where a strange historical event has led to the complete removal of human civilization. What this "human civilization" is replaced with, and what the four uncover about each other, tells a harrowing tale about what it means to be human. 

I was recommended this by a friend who was into biology, and I can definitely say it was a worthy recommendation! I read it all in a handful of sittings over the course of twenty-four hours and this was because I could not put it down. Each revelation is followed by something even more tense and terrifying, and the ending leaves so much unanswered...leading nicely into a second and third book. An amazing read, all in all!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Alcoholism, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Death, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Suicide and Cursing

One of the characters uses hypnosis on the others, including a (ineffectual) command to kill themselves.

bexi's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

🤔🤔🤔

I knew I was in for a weird time because I saw the movie adaptation in theaters before I knew it was a book. The book is just as weird and perplexing, if not more. I'm not interested enough to continue with the series, but I might try some other books by the author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Gun violence, and Suicide

Minor: Cursing and Cancer

ravensandlace's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Title: Annihilation

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre: Science Fiction

Format: ebook from Libby

Series: Southern Reach (#1)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: intimate partner violence recounted, suicide & attempted suicide discussed, alcohol consumption, blood & gore depiction, including physical injuries, dead bodies, terminal cancer recounted, hospital mentioned, death of a husband recounted, murder, gun violence, mind control & loss of autonomy (theme), animal attack

Note: When I read this book, I was in the process of moving. I lost the little notebook that contained my trigger warnings so I used the trigger warnings provided by the trigger warning database (https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/). Be sure to go check them out as they do an amazing job making sure trigger warnings are accounted for. They have hundreds of books on there. 

Ever since I saw the movie, I have been dying to read this book. I was curious as to how different it would be from the movie. I hadn’t heard a lot of buzz about the books so I was curious.  Because the movie is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s right up there with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Sinister. That bear scene though, if you know you know. And don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. I haven’t heard anything better since I played Destiny.

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read. It was truly a unique experience. First off, no one in the book had a name at all. Absolutely no one. It was strange and took some time to get used to. The main character was a biologist, hence her name was biologist. There was also an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist. But surprisingly, it was not hard to keep up with who was who. I really thought it added another layer to this novel, it made it stand out. It didn’t let me get too close to the characters, which was actually nice. 

One of the downfalls of this book was there was science. I mean, a lot of science. There were a lot of scientific terms. The biologist is very passionate about being a biologist so there were times when she would just talk about the biology of something and use so many scientific terms. I am not a science person. I’m more of a history gal. There was one part of the book where the team comes across something (I won't say what because of spoilers) but it suddenly becomes all about the biology of said thing. It took me out of the story a bit because I had no idea what they were talking about. I ended up skimming that part, which was detrimental to me because that thing ended up being pretty important later on.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be but it ended up being a welcome surprise. I will most certainly be continuing with this series and I’ve even found an absolutely gorgeous set of books I will purchase (or I can add them to my Amazon wishlist in case anyone likes me enough! Kidding!). Also, be on the lookout for a movie/book comparison post, as soon as I get around to watching the movie again. Because while there were similarities, there was also some pretty big differences too. Overall, though, I highly recommend both this book and the movie. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, and Alcohol

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Violence, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Sexual content, Cancer, and Terminal illness

msradiosilence's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Self harm, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Suicide, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Suicide attempt, Violence, Cursing, Death, and Sexual content

devirtualized's review

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Sexual content

sunn_bleach's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

Great example of a book like PKD’s where the concept is more interesting than the prose or execution. I’m fascinated by this world - less fascinated by Vandermeer’s fear the reader won’t pick up on the right questions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Cursing

nicoleh3's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Violence

Minor: Cursing and Sexual content