A review by elaichipod
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I had watched the movie back when it came out and completely forgot it existed. I only remembered the scene in which a few of the characters are looking at the infected (?) person with organism's strands stretching along the wall. I recently found out the movie was based on the book and I really enjoyed the adventure. At times, I was pretty creeped out and got chills, especially during the descriptions of everyone's demise. The writing was so artistic and polarizing. When the organic writing on the walls was actually applied to the explorers, the central organism's function became a bit clear. I am still a bit confused on what exactly the Crawler is and how to imagine it in my brain. The scene in which the Crawler invades her was gruesome but done so well.

A raging waterfall crashed down on my mind, but the water was comprised of fingers, a hundred fingers, probing and pressing down into the skin of my neck, and then punching up through the bone of the back of my skull and into my brain and then the pressure eased even though the impression of unlimited force did not let up and for a time, still drowning, an icy calm came over me, and through the calm bled a kind of monumental blue-green light. I smelled a burning inside my own head and there came a moment when I screamed, my skull crushed to dust and reassembled, mote by mote.

The description of this book included the term "Kafkaesque," and I think that word really does encapsulate the happenings of Area X. Towards the end when the biologist states that it seems like she has switched sides and she goes on about knowing/not knowing something when one is going to die at some point, I felt even more intrigued. Also, learning more about the psychologist's role and her note about mass suicide was shocking. Once I got to the end, I could hypothesize why the biologist was immune to hypnosis after getting infected with the fungal spores. After that moment, her body wasn't solely hers and she became yet another host and was "sharing" her own body. The host had not and cannot be hypnotized, allowing her to be resistant to further directions from the psychologist.

She must have been intensely afraid of forgetting which words gave her control over us, to have written them down... The word "Annihilation" was followed by "help induce immediate suicide." We had all been given self-destruct buttons, but the only one who could push them was dead.

Just today in my neurophysiology class, my professor talked about how we have no idea where a fungus begins or ends; it is almost endless and ubiquitous. I feel like that quality of fungus resonates with the organisms in Annihilation, in which the living beings can appear in multiple locations and forms despite a physically present "host."  Overall, I think the story and plot are incredibly unique. The ending is sort of a cliffhanger, so I'm definitely interested in seeing what happens to the biologist or the 13th expedition.

That which dies shall still know life in death for all that decays is not forgotten and reanimated shall walk the world in a bliss of not-knowing...

Edit: Two days later and I'm still thinking about this book. This is essentially a story of the development of tumor growth in nature. The proliferative, replicative, and invasive qualities of the organism are very similar to the key hallmarks of cancer. The excessive growth on the walls in the Tower feels like cathartic angiogenesis. Also, I know a lot of people didn't like the ambiguity but I loved it. After the biologist inhaled the mold spores, you really did not know if you could fully trust everything she was saying. Her descriptions were so odd during the flashbacks and it really did feel like she was "switching sides." I think I want to reread the book before I tackle on the two others.