Name: Annihilation
ISBN: 9780374104092

Jeff VanderMeer

Describes the 12th expedition to “Area X,” a region cut off from the continent for decades, by a group of intrepid women scientists who try to ignore the high mortality rates of those on the previous 11 missions. Original. 75,000 first printing.

A Novel

Annihilation

Luna 🌙

Grace McCarter

Melanie Harvie

raia – inactive

darby

There are certain kinds of deaths that one should not be expected to relive, certain kinds of connections so deep that when they are broken you feel the snap of the link inside you.

Sven Schmidt

That’s how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality. 

I will follow my husband up the coast, up past the island, even. I don't believe I'lI find him—I don't need to find him—but I want to see what he saw. I want to feel him close, as if he is in the room, And, if I'm honest, I can't shake the sense that he is still here, somewhere, even if utterly transformed—in the eye of a dolphin, in the touch of an uprising of moss, anywhere and everywhere. Perhaps I'll even find a boat abandoned on a deserted beach, if I'm lucky, and some sign of what happened next.

, and the walls when I went to touch them carried the echo of a heartbeat ... and they were not made of stone but of 

 […] I don't know if I can convey the enormity of that moment in words. The tower was a living creature of some sort. 

And I never did look back, for better or worse […] There are certain kinds of deaths that one should not be expected to relive, certain kinds of connec tions so deep that when they are broken you feel the snap of the link inside you.

Even the darkness seemed more alive to me, surrounding me like something physical. I can't even say it was a sinister presence.

You can either waste time worrying about a death that might not come or concentrate on what's left to you.

There were thousands of "dead" spaces like the lot I had observed, thousands of transitional environments that no one saw, that had been rendered invisible because they wete not "of use." Anything could inhabit them for a time without anyone noticing. We had come to think of the border as this monolithic invisible wall, but if members of the eleventh expedition had been able to return without our noticing, couldn't other things have already gotten through?

I was convinced that when I wasn't looking at them, these cells became something else, that the very act of observation changed everything. I knew this was madness and yet still I thought it. 

Seeing all of this, experiencing all of it, even when it's bad, I wish you were here. I wish we had volunteered together. I would have understood you better here, on the trek north. We wouldn't have needed to say anything if you didn't want to. It wouldn't have bothered me. Not at all. And we wouldn't have turned back. We would have kept going until we couldn't go farther.

I wondered if he kept a journal still, or if the dolphin's eye had been familiar for a reason other than that it was so human. But soon enough I banished this nonsense; some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.

I really wanted to lose myself. People my entire life have told me I am too much in control, but that has never been the case, I have never truly been in control, have never wanted control.

Perhaps my only real expertise, my only talent, is to endure beyond the endurable.

Nothing that lived and breathed was truly objective—even in a vacuum, even if all that possessed the brain was a self-immolating desire for the truth.

“kill only if you are under threat of being killed.”

Interesting story just not my cup of tea exactly. 

Maria

Interesting story just not my cup of tea exactly. 

& audiobook-Carolyn McCormick

i really did try to like it. the writing was good? but my problem is that i wasn’t really engaged with the story — not even the characters were interesting to me. the first part of the book was more engaging than the last part but overall it was an underwhelming read. i will not read the sequels because i’m not remotely interested in what’s gonna happen sorry

Very interesting!!! Incredibly different from the movie, and I totally get why. This was darker, not scary but freaky. Definitely made me want to read the rest of the series… because even by the end of this book I had a million questions unanswered! In a fun way. 

Harlee K

Karolina

Mostly vibes, horrifying ones, but damn I was hooked. 

Audie Bennett

Totally wild and deeply thought provoking. Eerie, suspenseful and weird too. Might be 5 stars if the series continues well. Is that a fair way to grade one book in a series? If it was a stand-alone novel, the ending might leave a slight something to be desired. 

Gabe Cortez

I expected to have no clue what was going on throughout this book, did not expect for it to be a love story. 

Hannah Bateman

Great writing, slow burn, interesting and distinguishable characters who felt like real people in this unreal world. Looking forward to the rest of the series to see how it all shakes out.

Margaux Yiu

Reading "Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer is like trying to categorize the uncategorizable. If I had to label it, I'd call it "Magical Science Fiction." At its core, the story explores the intersection of the supernatural and the scientific, blending the unknown with familiar natural concepts. VanderMeer challenges readers to grasp his vision of the mysterious, which is no small feat. Although the narrative occasionally struggles under the weight of its complex ideas, it ultimately succeeds. Despite its seemingly far-fetched premise, VanderMeer's imaginative storytelling kept me captivated and intrigued.

Matt Wilson

Engaging but too many unanswered questions for my liking

Rach Matters

An impressively intriguing set up for Area X and all that's left to discover.

Loved the biologist's backstory, as sparse as it is, and how VanderMeer makes ecosystems thrilling.

c0up

An impressively intriguing set up for Area X and all that's left to discover.

Loved the biologist's backstory, as sparse as it is, and how VanderMeer makes ecosystems thrilling.

The first volume of the extraordinary Southern Reach trilogy. 'Creepy and fascinating' Stephen King. Welcome to Area X. An Edenic wilderness, an environmental disaster zone, a mystery for thirty years.

The Southern Reach Trilogy #1

Definitely portrays the mystery of cosmic horror well but can be a bit slow at points 

Joe Mccaffery 

Really interesting but completely different than the movie. A little bit hard to follow sometimes

Gwenifer

Anna 

na anihilaci jsem se chystala dlouho, v knihovně jsem jí měla dobré dva roky. konečně jsem na ní dostala chuť a musím říct, že jsem se dočkala přesně toho, co jsem chtěla.
příběh vypráví bioložka, která se vydává s dalšími vědkyněmi do záhadné oblasti x, která jednoho dne vznikla na jižním pobřeží a nikdo pořádně neví, co v ní je.
zpočátku bylo těžké se v ději vyznat, autor vás vyhodil do oblasti x a vy jste se informace o ní společně s bioložkou v podstatě dozvídali zároveň. autor má velice specifický styl vyprávění, rád odbíhá od tématu a složitě popisuje, ale já si na to po pár stránkách zvykla nebyla to pro mě moc velká zátěž.
oblast x je zajímavý úsek, který je skvěle popsaný a plný tajemství a vy prostě nemůžete knihu jenom tak odložit, protože nutně potřebujete vědět víc. knížku jsem proto měla přečtenou za 3 dny, ona taky není dlouhá, nemá ani 200 stran.
lehce mě zklamal ten konec, samotné vyvrcholení příběhu bylo strašně rychlé a nesrozumitelné, vůbec jsem se neorientovala a v ději jsem se ztrácela, hlavně při popisu událostí ve věži.
i tak se mi ale anihilace líbila a já jsem ráda, že jsem se k ní konečně dostala.
pokud máte chuť si přečíst 'deníkový zápis' o tajemné oblasti s fantastickými prvky, která je plná běsů a lidé v ní umírají a ztrácí se, rozhodně vám knížku mohu jen a jen doporučit. kdybych jí měla k něčemu přirovnat, tak k videohře The Forest. dělejte ale, že kniha je standalone, protože druhý díl je otočení o 180 stupňů a úplně jiný žánr, než je díl první.
.
4,5*/5*

Alex Reino

Is it sacrilegious to say, on this app, that I liked the movie way more than the book

Patrick Book

VanderMeer uses a moderately formal prose in this that gives the bizarre happenings a greater note of intrigue and mystery.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The twelfth expedition arrives expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers. They discover a massive topographic anomaly and life-forms that surpass understanding. But it's the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

a novel

After this second reading, I can confirm: still a favorite. 

Emiley Jones

Luke Harkness

A book that really makes you think and concentrate. Gives you lots of possible thoughts and definitely makes you want to read the next one!

Lindy

All through this, I was like, aha, the author is slowly subverting and deconstructing tropes of early twentieth century sf and horror; I wonder what ends it's towards! And then I got to the end and there wasn't any payoff. I'm not even sure it was a subversion. 

On the plus side, I admired the author's control in setting the mood and tone of the work. The mastery of these narrative elements is all too rare in SF.

People tend to have strong and divided opinions on Annihilation, and I truly can see both sides here. If you liked it, I would suggest Stanislaw Lem's Solaris and Joanna Russ's We Who Are About To....

I never say this, but I won’t lie…the movie was better. 

Jillian Roberts

(3.75) Creepy! Unsettling! 

I never say this, but I won’t lie…the movie was better. 

Tobias V. Langhoff

A biologist enters the supernatural Area X under the orders of a clandestine government agency to find out what strange events are happening inside, and also perhaps in order to find herself.

At its core, this book tells of a scientific attempt at understanding the unknowable, but intervowen with a tale of humanity and loss. This premise reminded me a lot of Solaris (both the book and the 2002 movie, which Lem famously hated), and it gave me the same somber, uncanny feeling.

The premise of a strange, alien area secluded from civilization also reminded of the movie Stalker by Tarkovsky (who also made the 1972 movie based on Solaris), which is based on Roadside Picnic (which I haven't read yet). And some parts of the exploration of this area reminded me of House of Leaves. Lastly, of course, it also reminded me a little of Lovecraft.

However, the book stands firmly on its own as well (although there are two sequels, which I will read promptly, as well as a film adaption which I'll watch in ten days when it's out on Netflix here). The prose is fantastic; simplistic, vivid, poignant and imaginative. It's almost ethereal and dreamlike, and the dream varies between unsettling and nightmare fever dream. The distanced characters are intriguing, as is the hints of background lore, both of the world outside Area X and the nature of what's happening inside.

Weird. Creepy. Scary. A cross between House Of Leaves, Roadside Picnic and The Crystal World. I like Vandermeer; he does making weirdness normal brilliantly. The ending is full on. All the senses overloaded, just by the clever use of words.

Annihilation A Novel