Reviews tagging 'Death'

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

126 reviews

lordofdisorder's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Alcoholism

owlribbon's review

mysterious

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Murder, and Suicide

charlotteih's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

BRILLIANT. brilliant brilliant. aside from just the kickass narative itself, the poeticism of the mc’s reflections are beautiful and terrible, vandermeer spits straight fire honestly. he reflects the characters’ shifts in attitude/perspective (+ relative sanity) immersively. as the characters became more absorbed in their desires, so do you into the story itself. i couldn’t have been more satisfied with this book, and if you want to dabble in sci-fi or cosmic horror, this book is perfect, and honestly just a great read. i can’t recommend it enough and i will be reading the rest of the trilogy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Minor: Cancer

emmalouisereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This is an easy to read, mysterious and strange little book.

I enjoyed the weird biological aspects of the story. 

I would have liked more of the story - perhaps I’ll get that by reading the whole trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Violence

lumorise's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Gore, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Gaslighting

msradiosilence's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Self harm, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Suicide, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Suicide attempt, Violence, Cursing, Death, and Sexual content

chrissy_booknook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I thought this was a very strange book., but not in an interesting way, just in how it was presented to the reader. I know that most of the book is supposed to be confusing, because the main character of herself is confused because it’s going to area x, and discovering “the brightness” - but for the most part her confusion never really clears and I was left unsatisfied with what she experienced. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Death

Minor: Cancer

krytykesa's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.0

I am not a big fan of science fiction, but I understand the genre enough to enjoy how this book was written. But not enough to read the remaining parts of the series. 

Because I saw the movie and didn't like it, I was subconsciously preparing myself for a similar experience. Fortunately, the adaptation was not identical to the original, even in the atmosphere. And I completely understand why the changes were made in the film - it seems complicated to show the events of the book on the screen normally.

The weakest part of the book for me was the characters. The biologist, on whose behalf the events are narrated, received the tag "unreliable narrator" from me from the first pages. The anthropologist did not exist in the book. On the other hand, the surveyor and the psychologist seemed so interesting that it was very insulting not to be able to look deeper into their thoughts. This is a case where I would like to read PoV chapters more. 

But I liked how the main character's relationship with her husband was gradually revealed to us. Somehow, through this series of flashbacks and reflections, I quickly realized what their relationship was like - realistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

devirtualized's review

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Sexual content