Reviews with content warning for Murder - 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.

Content Warnings

marareading's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was not for me. The beginning was so interesting. This sci-fi just didn't work for me.

In this book Area X had been cut off by a strange border from the world for decades. The government has been sending expeditions of varying types to try to explore, and non are fully successful... and apparently not in the way they think. No one returns the same.

We are following the Biologist's perspective (along with an anthropologist and psychologist) on the recent expedition. This is an all female expedition. One of my issues is the male author writing the perspective of a female and her emotions... it just didn't land for me. I also don't think I got what he was trying to do with Area X. Metaphor maybe? There was too much that just wasn't there for me. Too much was unexplained. I likely won't continue with the trilogy

Content Warnings

kathleentcarroll's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I loved this book at the beginning, but felt like there was no resolution to the fantastic setup.

Content Warnings

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No

3.0

weird and creepy and a lil scary; i rarely read books like this one but annihilation wasnt too bad at all. some parts were pulse-racing but i still cant quite wrap my head around certain things, and the lack--or my lack of comprehension--of a larger idea makes this quite shallow a read for me, but an interesting one nevertheless. will read book 2 still.

Content Warnings

hoiyan's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

dajile's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

darbo's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

Go to review page

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…

Content Warnings

More...