Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Annihilation

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

159 reviews

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

5.0

Excellent! I love warped realities and unreliable narrators and oh man was this book full of it. Also if you are an ecology person Vandermeer's descriptions are beautiful and he conveys the excitement biologists feel really well. If you are looking for cut and dry answers to the mystery this won't be for you

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bexi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

🤔🤔🤔

I knew I was in for a weird time because I saw the movie adaptation in theaters before I knew it was a book. The book is just as weird and perplexing, if not more. I'm not interested enough to continue with the series, but I might try some other books by the author.

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judassilver's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

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jess2obsess's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I just thought it was boring. Maybe I didn't understand it, but I really didn't like it. I just wanted to read a book, so I picked this up. It was easy to get through, I finished it in a day, but it was just boring. I just didn't care much about it.

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gianna_lodato's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Maybe if my Intro to Bio class in college was taught with scary monsters like this I wouldn't be failing.

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alica2's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I really liked the vibe and pacing of this book; the way information about Area X and the biologist's backstory was revealed felt very tense and haunting all the way through the end. In the grand scheme of the book I feel like not very much happens - she spends most of the book going back and forth to the tower and describing the scenery and past events - but somehow the author still managed to make it feel intriguing. Ultimately this book feels more like a character study of the biologist (and to some extent the side characters as well) rather than the sci-fi thriller I was expecting.

My main problem is that some of the descriptions and worldbuilding were difficult to follow, although this might have been more due to the fact that Libby only had the audiobook available to borrow from my library, which isn't the way I'm used to processing books. I think I would have felt more absorbed in the world and enjoyed the prose a lot more if I was able to read it rather than having to listen to it.

The ending also felt a little disappointing because I was hoping to understand more about what's happening in Area X, but on the other hand I think it was a fitting wrap up for the main character's story. I also know that there are more books in the series so hopefully those will provide more answers and understanding of all the strange phenomena that occurred.

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kurumipanda's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

Content Warnings

emilywemily6's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

This was weird. And I guess that’s the point of it. It wasn’t as eerie and haunting as I thought it would be, but it definitely had both those tones in a mild way. I have so many questions and I think this book will plague my thoughts for a long time.

Content Warnings

aravenclawlibraryx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Title: Annihilation

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre: Science Fiction

Format: ebook from Libby

Series: Southern Reach (#1)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: intimate partner violence recounted, suicide & attempted suicide discussed, alcohol consumption, blood & gore depiction, including physical injuries, dead bodies, terminal cancer recounted, hospital mentioned, death of a husband recounted, murder, gun violence, mind control & loss of autonomy (theme), animal attack

Note: When I read this book, I was in the process of moving. I lost the little notebook that contained my trigger warnings so I used the trigger warnings provided by the trigger warning database (https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/). Be sure to go check them out as they do an amazing job making sure trigger warnings are accounted for. They have hundreds of books on there.

Ever since I saw the movie, I have been dying to read this book. I was curious as to how different it would be from the movie. I hadn’t heard a lot of buzz about the books so I was curious. Because the movie is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s right up there with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Sinister. That bear scene though, if you know you know. And don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. I haven’t heard anything better since I played Destiny.

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read. It was truly a unique experience. First off, no one in the book had a name at all. Absolutely no one. It was strange and took some time to get used to. The main character was a biologist, hence her name was biologist. There was also an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist. But surprisingly, it was not hard to keep up with who was who. I really thought it added another layer to this novel, it made it stand out. It didn’t let me get too close to the characters, which was actually nice.

One of the downfalls of this book was there was science. I mean, a lot of science. There were a lot of scientific terms. The biologist is very passionate about being a biologist so there were times when she would just talk about the biology of something and use so many scientific terms. I am not a science person. I’m more of a history gal. There was one part of the book where the team comes across something (I won't say what because of spoilers) but it suddenly becomes all about the biology of said thing. It took me out of the story a bit because I had no idea what they were talking about. I ended up skimming that part, which was detrimental to me because that thing ended up being pretty important later on.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be but it ended up being a welcome surprise. I will most certainly be continuing with this series and I’ve even found an absolutely gorgeous set of books I will purchase (or I can add them to my Amazon wishlist in case anyone likes me enough! Kidding!). Also, be on the lookout for a movie/book comparison post, as soon as I get around to watching the movie again. Because while there were similarities, there was also some pretty big differences too. Overall, though, I highly recommend both this book and the movie.

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