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A review by isabellarobinson7
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
5.0
Second read: 06/08/24 - 06/08/24
Rating: (still) 5 stars
So back in April, the the 10th anniversary additions of the Southern Reach trilogy were announced... and I pre-ordered them so fast it's probably an Olympic record. I have been wanting to get my hands on physical copies of this series for ages now - even stood in the bookstore with them in my hands - but I'm not really a fan of the US or UK covers for the series, so I never ended up doing it. I haven't even got around to reading the second or third books, because only book one's audiobook is available in my region's Audible. But since I first read Annihilation, Spotify Australia/New Zealand has gotten audiobooks, and I got hold of them right at the time I pre-ordered these editions. In other words, I am rearing to go through the series with both my eyeballs and ear holes, i.e. the best way to read a book.
But first, I got an excuse to reread book one, and it was just as amazing as the first time. I also read it in one sitting (again). I am still dumbfounded how well Jeff VanderMeer writes female characters. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that he writes them as good characters first and females second, kind of like Ripley from Ridley Scott's Alien.
I don't really have much more to say in this section, because I already said it all in my original review from two years ago (which is down below). I cannot wait to get to Authority and Acceptance, and even the secret fourth book, Absolution, that VanderMeer is releasing later this year.
First read: 05/08/22 - 05/08/22
Rating: 5 stars
Ok so I lied. It isn’t completely graphic novels this month. I read this one too. And it was so good! (I made a lot of disconnected notes on it so be prepared for this to jump all over the place.)
So I picked Annihilation up in the first place because I had a night free and I wanted to watch the Natalie Portman movie (which is exactly what they wanted me to do! Ahhhh! I hate falling prey to all their consumeristic tactics!) (I'll comment on the movie later on.) So I got both the e- and audio-books and sat down to read.
My first couple of reactions were not on the positive side. It started out with... well I am hesitant to call it a "red flag" because that seems too strong of a term, but something that I am not usually inclined to enjoy: long chapters. My short attention span could never! So just as I had settled in for the long haul, I checked my progress and I didn’t realise how far I was through! Time seemed to go quick! The long chapters never bogged me down at all.
The second was as the book unfolded, it seemed the cast was going to be in vast majority female. A bold choice by a male author. But guess what... it’s not terrible! Woah! It’s a man writing heaps of women! And it really is not terrible! Yes, there was a couple of “not like other girls” sentences about the MC, but otherwise it was pretty good. (This is my opinion anyway.)
I really liked the relationship between the main character and her husband. Even though it is told all in past tense, I felt like the relationship was well realised. And it was clear that although they were at a rough period in their marriage, they were working through it because they still loved each other. They were sticking to each other. Maybe I'm consuming the wrong kind of media, but it has seemed lately that marriage is just a relationship that lasts a bit longer than dating, plus you get to dress up nice for a day. But this book treated marriage like the long term commitment it is supposed to be, where two people work together to make the relationship work.
It’s not really horror per se. Sometimes I feel like people label things “horror” because they want to, I don’t know, be edgy or something, but it’s not. Yeah, it’s not for kids or anything, there’s some yucky stuff, but it’s not scary or meant to scare you. Well, it never felt like the goal of it was to be scary. Anything remotely shocking felt like a byproduct of the main purpose of the novel… which was exploration? Or something? (It kind of feels like there wasn’t enough pages for me to realistically determine what its goal really was.) And this is not me being macho and tough like “pfft! This puny book doesn’t scare me! I am above this nonsense! I need something more to scare me!” I just don’t think it was intended to be scary. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Ahhhh... or maybe it was horror. I don’t know. I don’t read much horror. Maybe I have been reading it without realising. Plus I am hesitant to make claims about the author’s intent because they are really the only ones who can definitively say what something was meant to portray.
The ending is a bit mind-bendy. Now I get when I first looked up “annihilation” on google one of the top results was “…ending explained” My first reaction upon finishing it was: "Whaaaaat ending confusing" and I think that sums it up pretty well.
Ok lets talk about the Natalie Portman movie! (Oh! It's on Netflix if anyone is interested.) The visuals in the movie were great. It captures that beautiful terror that the book describes. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea watching the movie less than 12 hours after finishing the book because now I have the smooshed together in my mind... They are two very different stories. It's like reading a prequel and then book one. Or if two authors were given the same first-ish paragraph and went off in their separate directions from there. And from interviews I have watched it seems this is what author Jeff VanderMeer wanted. But something I know he would not have wanted was all the names. They kept giving names to things in the movie. All the people had names! How dare they!! This movie sucks! Zero stars! Zero out of ten! (this is a joke, chill)
Ok! I think I blended those notes together pretty well! In conclusion, Annihilation was amazing. I am having to hold off reading the rest of the series because I have to make the most of Kindle Unlimited while I have it. It's weird because I always feel like Annihilation is a classic and yet in is only 8 years old. Time will tell, but I feel like it has already earned that status, long before it has gotten remotely close to the age required to be declared one.
P.S. You want to know an annoying thing? I jumped through all these hoops to get my hands on the ebook, and then on a whim the other day I checked if the library had it, and there it was. The whole trilogy. Right under my nose. MOTHERF-
Rating: (still) 5 stars
So back in April, the the 10th anniversary additions of the Southern Reach trilogy were announced... and I pre-ordered them so fast it's probably an Olympic record. I have been wanting to get my hands on physical copies of this series for ages now - even stood in the bookstore with them in my hands - but I'm not really a fan of the US or UK covers for the series, so I never ended up doing it. I haven't even got around to reading the second or third books, because only book one's audiobook is available in my region's Audible. But since I first read Annihilation, Spotify Australia/New Zealand has gotten audiobooks, and I got hold of them right at the time I pre-ordered these editions. In other words, I am rearing to go through the series with both my eyeballs and ear holes, i.e. the best way to read a book.
But first, I got an excuse to reread book one, and it was just as amazing as the first time. I also read it in one sitting (again). I am still dumbfounded how well Jeff VanderMeer writes female characters. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that he writes them as good characters first and females second, kind of like Ripley from Ridley Scott's Alien.
I don't really have much more to say in this section, because I already said it all in my original review from two years ago (which is down below). I cannot wait to get to Authority and Acceptance, and even the secret fourth book, Absolution, that VanderMeer is releasing later this year.
First read: 05/08/22 - 05/08/22
Rating: 5 stars
Ok so I lied. It isn’t completely graphic novels this month. I read this one too. And it was so good! (I made a lot of disconnected notes on it so be prepared for this to jump all over the place.)
So I picked Annihilation up in the first place because I had a night free and I wanted to watch the Natalie Portman movie (which is exactly what they wanted me to do! Ahhhh! I hate falling prey to all their consumeristic tactics!) (I'll comment on the movie later on.) So I got both the e- and audio-books and sat down to read.
My first couple of reactions were not on the positive side. It started out with... well I am hesitant to call it a "red flag" because that seems too strong of a term, but something that I am not usually inclined to enjoy: long chapters. My short attention span could never! So just as I had settled in for the long haul, I checked my progress and I didn’t realise how far I was through! Time seemed to go quick! The long chapters never bogged me down at all.
The second was as the book unfolded, it seemed the cast was going to be in vast majority female. A bold choice by a male author. But guess what... it’s not terrible! Woah! It’s a man writing heaps of women! And it really is not terrible! Yes, there was a couple of “not like other girls” sentences about the MC, but otherwise it was pretty good. (This is my opinion anyway.)
I really liked the relationship between the main character and her husband. Even though it is told all in past tense, I felt like the relationship was well realised. And it was clear that although they were at a rough period in their marriage, they were working through it because they still loved each other. They were sticking to each other. Maybe I'm consuming the wrong kind of media, but it has seemed lately that marriage is just a relationship that lasts a bit longer than dating, plus you get to dress up nice for a day. But this book treated marriage like the long term commitment it is supposed to be, where two people work together to make the relationship work.
It’s not really horror per se. Sometimes I feel like people label things “horror” because they want to, I don’t know, be edgy or something, but it’s not. Yeah, it’s not for kids or anything, there’s some yucky stuff, but it’s not scary or meant to scare you. Well, it never felt like the goal of it was to be scary. Anything remotely shocking felt like a byproduct of the main purpose of the novel… which was exploration? Or something? (It kind of feels like there wasn’t enough pages for me to realistically determine what its goal really was.) And this is not me being macho and tough like “pfft! This puny book doesn’t scare me! I am above this nonsense! I need something more to scare me!” I just don’t think it was intended to be scary. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Ahhhh... or maybe it was horror. I don’t know. I don’t read much horror. Maybe I have been reading it without realising. Plus I am hesitant to make claims about the author’s intent because they are really the only ones who can definitively say what something was meant to portray.
The ending is a bit mind-bendy. Now I get when I first looked up “annihilation” on google one of the top results was “…ending explained” My first reaction upon finishing it was: "Whaaaaat ending confusing" and I think that sums it up pretty well.
Ok lets talk about the Natalie Portman movie! (Oh! It's on Netflix if anyone is interested.) The visuals in the movie were great. It captures that beautiful terror that the book describes. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea watching the movie less than 12 hours after finishing the book because now I have the smooshed together in my mind... They are two very different stories. It's like reading a prequel and then book one. Or if two authors were given the same first-ish paragraph and went off in their separate directions from there. And from interviews I have watched it seems this is what author Jeff VanderMeer wanted. But something I know he would not have wanted was all the names. They kept giving names to things in the movie. All the people had names! How dare they!! This movie sucks! Zero stars! Zero out of ten! (this is a joke, chill)
Ok! I think I blended those notes together pretty well! In conclusion, Annihilation was amazing. I am having to hold off reading the rest of the series because I have to make the most of Kindle Unlimited while I have it. It's weird because I always feel like Annihilation is a classic and yet in is only 8 years old. Time will tell, but I feel like it has already earned that status, long before it has gotten remotely close to the age required to be declared one.
P.S. You want to know an annoying thing? I jumped through all these hoops to get my hands on the ebook, and then on a whim the other day I checked if the library had it, and there it was. The whole trilogy. Right under my nose. MOTHERF-