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

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. 

raia – inactive

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.”

I loved him, but I didn’t need him, and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be.

No matter how long Area X had existed, and how many expeditions had come here, I could tell from these accounts that for years before there had ever been a border, strange things had happened along this coast.

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with this Nebula Award-winning novel that "reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world" (Kim Stanley Robinson). Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive 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: Movie Tie-In Edition

I'm extremely tempted to compare this to the movie, but I will try not to, other than now saying I believe this is a rare case of the movie being better than the book. I somewhat enjoyed this book, but I do see a lot of wasted potential in an interesting setting. 

"Annihilation" intentionally leaves so much of Area X unexplored and I don't see how a reader can see this as anything other than poor storytelling. Surely Jeff VanderMeer knows that a mystery is always more interesting if left unanswered, but with so much of Area X untouched by our narrator, this ends up feeling like a void.

To say the ending is "unresolved" is a massive understatement. Not just the ending, but our entire character and her journey, really. I suppose one can argue that it's a very realistic ending for someone who agreed to enter an anomalous zone: her life isn't fixed, she doesn't find some ultimate purpose; she experiences a bunch of weird shit that she admits she is woefully unprepared to even begin attempting to resolve... before it sort of just ends. Is this a good way to start a series? I don't know, I've never seen a plot quite handled this way.

For the longest time with the book, I had the impression that the author sat down and just started writing whatever came to mind with zero end-goal in mind. Outside of a few moments that clearly required research, arguably the whole book feels this way. That exercise is good for building the writing muscle I'm sure, but a book should feel like a journey, shouldn't it? This felt like reading a decomposition. 

Things got more interesting around the halfway point before the ending kind of dropped it back where it started, except now with mystical cosmic nonsense in front of your eyes. Some nice descriptors are used for this point, and really only for that point. The prose felt... not amateur, but not masterful, either. The obsession with italics really got grating at times.

I like the world and VanderMeer does conjure some interesting questions. The world constructed here is naturally enticing and makes the reader wonder about implications and the attached horror of them. If it even is horror is one, actually. Our narrator asks the same question by the end.

I sort of recommend "Annihilation". It wasn't bad but I am very happy there is a movie to go along with it. I do hope the rest of this series gets better, but it worries me that this book has the highest ratings. We'll see.

Evan

I'm extremely tempted to compare this to the movie, but I will try not to, other than now saying I believe this is a rare case of the movie being better than the book. I somewhat enjoyed this book, but I do see a lot of wasted potential in an interesting setting. 

  

"Annihilation" intentionally leaves so much of Area X unexplored and I don't see how a reader can see this as anything other than poor storytelling. Surely Jeff VanderMeer knows that a mystery is always more interesting if left unanswered, but with so much of Area X untouched by our narrator, this ends up feeling like a void.

To say the ending is "unresolved" is a massive understatement. Not just the ending, but our entire character and her journey, really. I suppose one can argue that it's a very realistic ending for someone who agreed to enter an anomalous zone: her life isn't fixed, she doesn't find some ultimate purpose; she experiences a bunch of weird shit that she admits she is woefully unprepared to even begin attempting to resolve... before it sort of just ends. Is this a good way to start a series? I don't know, I've never seen a plot quite handled this way.

  

For the longest time with the book, I had the impression that the author sat down and just started writing whatever came to mind with zero end-goal in mind. Outside of a few moments that clearly required research, arguably the whole book feels this way. That exercise is good for building the writing muscle I'm sure, but a book should feel like a journey, shouldn't it? This felt like reading a decomposition. 

  

Things got more interesting around the halfway point before the ending kind of dropped it back where it started, except now with mystical cosmic nonsense in front of your eyes. Some nice descriptors are used for this point, and really only for that point. The prose felt... not amateur, but not masterful, either. The obsession with italics really got grating at times.

  

I like the world and VanderMeer does conjure some interesting questions. The world constructed here is naturally enticing and makes the reader wonder about implications and the attached horror of them. If it even is horror is one, actually. Our narrator asks the same question by the end.

  

I sort of recommend "Annihilation". It wasn't bad but I am very happy there is a movie to go along with it. I do hope the rest of this series gets better, but it worries me that this book has the highest ratings. We'll see.

The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with this Nebula Award-winning novel that "reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world" (Kim Stanley Robinson). Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive 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.

i was worried i wouldn’t like this, and was pleasantly surprised. i’ve read books before with heavy focus on environmental and sensory descriptors, and i’ve found many that fall short for me, but this book did such a good job. the landscape felt integral to the story and the environment was vivid and fascinating, without ever giving enough specifics to really know exactly what was going on. annihilation was primarily so interesting because of the lack of answers, the understanding that we weren’t supposed to know or grasp what was happening and why. 

Esther Marie Mann 

i was worried i wouldn’t like this, and was pleasantly surprised. i’ve read books before with heavy focus on environmental and sensory descriptors, and i’ve found many that fall short for me, but this book did such a good job. the landscape felt integral to the story and the environment was vivid and fascinating, without ever giving enough specifics to really know exactly what was going on. annihilation was primarily so interesting because of the lack of answers, the understanding that we weren’t supposed to know or grasp what was happening and why. 

way, way better than the movie 

Stevie Fisher 

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. 

Annihilation A Novel