A review by jenthefictioner
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

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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