Annihilation

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

4.5 Stars

Annihilation is the best book that I have read this year. Vandermeer has written a work that is very tense, very creepy. The mood is pervasive. It stays with you after you have closed the cover on the final page. The use of profession to identify the characters instead of names only adds to the creepiness.

The imagery is fantastic – the tower that isn't really a tower, the writing on the wall, the trek through the woods, the lighthouse.

The Biologist narrates her view of the latest expedition into Area X, a part of the country that has undergone some sort of cataclysmic event. Previous expeditions have either never come back, or have come back damaged. Her borderline sanity seems to give her a strange sort of calm not experienced by the other members of the expedition and allows her to investigate her surroundings despite the tense atmosphere.

Annihilation is definitely a very good start to The Southern Reach trilogy. I am glad that I don't have to wait long for the other two books.