Annihilation

They are the twelfth expedition into the mysterious Area X, an expanse of land where the laws of biology and physics no longer seem to apply, where nature has become something inexplicable and previous expeditions have been lost or left forever changed. Four women, stripped of their identities, have just entered Area X in the hopes of learning its secrets. And none of them will ever be the same.

If you’re looking for an unsettling journey into terror and uncertainty, then Annihilation is for you. It offers an intriguing twist on the unreliable narrator, as our guide into Area X can’t be certain of what she’s experiencing or what it all means.

While comparable to Lovecraft’s works, Lovecraft always rooted his world in the mundane and then turned up the weirdness. But Vandermeer offers us no such anchors, heightening the creep factor, confusion, and general sensation of being unmoored in an unrecognizable world.

Annihilation is the first in a trilogy, and I honestly have no idea what the other two installments will look like. This book was a curious amalgamation of atmosphere and perspective, which gave it an almost formless mystique. I can’t recall reading anything quite like it before.