A review by maggies
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

My goodness. For me, this was horror all the way through, even the parts where I lost the thread and had to backtrack and re-read to find my place again. From the beginning, I never shook off the crawling sense of dread on my skin, the back of my neck, the pit of my stomach. For such a short novel it is slow, ruminating and contemplating the past, present, and future. The few action scenes as well were focused on the narrator’s thought process such that it was difficult to tell what action had actually taken place. Considering my current mood, I enjoyed the challenge of this book, but I might not have enjoyed it at another time, and I am not sure that I will continue the series or see the film adaptation. I really had to work hard to build a mental picture of Area X based on the biologist’s descriptions, almost as though I was afflicted with some aphantasia specific to Annihilation, as I don’t recall experiencing that before. Hopefully it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that this is probably not going to be a favorite for people who need reliable, likable narrators or unambiguous endings. On the other hand, I usually gravitate towards stories with those characteristics, and I still found this one thoroughly engrossing. 
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