REVIEW: Annihilation (#1) - Jeff Vandermeer

Annihilation (#1) - Jeff Vandermeer
Series: Southern reach
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Format: Paperback
Pages: 195 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

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; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died 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 months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their 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 and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to 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

Thoughts

I picked this up as I had heard really good things about it, and there is a movie adaptation coming out soon staring Natalie Portman, that also looked quite good.

The basis of this story is that there has been 11 expeditions into an area called Area X, which is somehow cordoned off.
The 11 expeditions have all failed and a 12th expedition team is made up of 5 women, who will go in to chart the land and take samples.

I liked the premise of this book, and thought it great that none of the characters real names were revealed and it was just their designation that they were known by, but I found that I didn't really connect with any of the characters within the story, the Biologist just seemed so cold and detached, and the Surveyor just seem paranoid, and you just knew the Psychologist was hiding something from the rest of the group.

I found the writing style to be very disjointed it just didn't seem to flow that well to me, and this made it harder for me to connect with the story and the characters.

Will I read the sequel, Yes I will as I am holding out hope that the story gets better and that I can connect with the next bunch of characters that we are introduced to. I think the story idea is fantastic, and still want to push through to see if the series can redeem itself.