A review by clumsypenguin
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer

2.0

I have... incredibly mixed thoughts on this series. Overall, I didn't enjoy it, but I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been on my mind since I finished it. The thing is, I somewhat enjoyed the almost fever dream-like nature of the book's prose... initially that is. The way the book is told does a stellar job at disorienting the reader and furthering the idea that Area X is this formidable place that nobody can hope to survive in. The thing is, the book doesn't really go further than that and it just left me unsatisfied and disappointed. Between the 3 books in the series, I enjoyed Authority the most (if I were to assign star values to each book it'd go: Annihilation - 2 stars, Authority - 3 stars, Acceptance - 2 stars), mostly since it has a much more compelling overarching narrative. As a whole though, I cannot say I enjoyed this series; for me, the experience of reading this series was as if I was constantly being led on with the promise of answers, only to gain virtually nothing by the end. I understand the overall themes at play here, what with accepting one's own death (a theme I love to see!), light environmentalism, and humanity's capacity for self-destruction in the pursuit of knowledge. All that I can get behind in concept, but as it's used in this book, I'm left wanting more answers than I got. I *understand* that the point of Area X is that it's impossible to fully understand Area X, but at the end of the day I'm left more frustrated from that lack of understanding than anything, and I only feel like I've wasted my time reading something that I've come out the other end of disappointed. HOWEVER, at the same time, as I said at the start of this review, I will still find myself periodically thinking about this book, still frustrating myself by trying to wrap my head around it all. And suddenly I'm stuck there realizing that just like the characters in the book itself, I'm driving myself towards my own self-destruction by endlessly trying to understand the book series myself. And then I'm just left frustrated because I can't completely hate the series as a whole if it managed to do that. But I still disliked this series. I guess this just wasn't for me.

Also, I kinda felt let down by the "horror" that goes on in here. Maybe it's just something else in this book that isn't for me, but I didn't really find any of it all that disturbing or unsettling.