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ashedpotato 's review for:
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
the first half I was partially vibing. there were weird things happening and it was funky and I was confused in a good way. I was entertained.
but the problem came when I got past the halfway point and I was no less confused than I had been the entire book, more confused in fact than I was in the beginning
this, to me, was because there weren't any minor reveals along the way. no answers to any of my questions. and any time one question was "answered", it was an answer that raised even more questions !!! (I counted how many questions I had right after reading, off the top of my head. it was 26.)
I was hoping the reveal at the end would make it worth it (because even though I know it's a trilogy, each individual book in a trilogy has to be able to stand somewhat on its own, which usually means some of your questions are answered, at the very least). but it ... did not. not at all.one of the overarching questions was technically answered, but the answer we did get was "oh don't worry about it, the Tower just does that, that's why transformations are happening and why this place looks weird ! but then that raises the question of 'ok, why is the Tower doing this? how is the Tower doing this? how are the transformations actually happening?
and I'd be a bit more lenient about the vague answers if it weren't for the overall tone, and the existence of the biologist. she was studying so many things while she was in Area X, and the way the book read almost felt like I was reading a scientific journal, so I was expecting a more deep answer to the mysteries of Area X.
I definitely enjoyed parts of the book. I think the characters themselves were interesting, I enjoyed the way they interacted with one another. but again, the characters fell short for me for one main reason: we never knew their names ! it's hard to get attached to a character you don't know the actual name of, which is why so many of the things that happened to them didn't really have any impact on me. and there's a small throwaway explanation, but we still don't know why they aren't allowed to share their names !! and even so, why can't we then know the biologist's husband's name, when it's written from her perspective ?
I feel like I wouldn't feel so cheated for the reveals, too, if I were able to make my own theories the entire way. but what the characters were discovering and when made it really difficult to make any of my own predictions. for most of the way, I didn't have a foundation of the world to build off of, and when reading books like this with a mystery to unravel, I like to make my own theories and see if I'm correct. of course, I was still trying, but with the eventual vague final answer, what I came up with was far more elaborate and I ended up being unsatisfied.
but the problem came when I got past the halfway point and I was no less confused than I had been the entire book, more confused in fact than I was in the beginning
this, to me, was because there weren't any minor reveals along the way. no answers to any of my questions. and any time one question was "answered", it was an answer that raised even more questions !!! (I counted how many questions I had right after reading, off the top of my head. it was 26.)
I was hoping the reveal at the end would make it worth it (because even though I know it's a trilogy, each individual book in a trilogy has to be able to stand somewhat on its own, which usually means some of your questions are answered, at the very least). but it ... did not. not at all.
and I'd be a bit more lenient about the vague answers if it weren't for the overall tone, and the existence of the biologist. she was studying so many things while she was in Area X, and the way the book read almost felt like I was reading a scientific journal, so I was expecting a more deep answer to the mysteries of Area X.
I definitely enjoyed parts of the book. I think the characters themselves were interesting, I enjoyed the way they interacted with one another. but again, the characters fell short for me for one main reason: we never knew their names ! it's hard to get attached to a character you don't know the actual name of, which is why so many of the things that happened to them didn't really have any impact on me. and there's a small throwaway explanation, but we still don't know why they aren't allowed to share their names !! and even so, why can't we then know the biologist's husband's name, when it's written from her perspective ?
I feel like I wouldn't feel so cheated for the reveals, too, if I were able to make my own theories the entire way. but what the characters were discovering and when made it really difficult to make any of my own predictions. for most of the way, I didn't have a foundation of the world to build off of, and when reading books like this with a mystery to unravel, I like to make my own theories and see if I'm correct. of course, I was still trying, but with the eventual vague final answer, what I came up with was far more elaborate and I ended up being unsatisfied.