Book 2 - Creepy Plant Madness

Title: Annihilation: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy

Author: Jeff Vandermeer

Genre: Horror Sci-Fi with Plant Friends

Oh. Kay.

I devoured this book. I read it in a day, and after turning the final page (well, I have the ebook so...whatever), I was absolutely REELING. I have never read anything like this before, and it's hard to talk about it without giving away the really cool stuff that makes it such a heart-pounding, skin-crawling, psychedelic EXPERIENCE.

ALL THE CAPS BECAUSE I LOVED IT SO MUCH.

Okay. Words to describe it: Creepy. Insidious. Botanical. Alien, in every sense of the word. I was reminded a bit of Lem's Solaris, in the way that the novel tries to explain the unexplainable while maintaining that we as humans/readers simply don't have the faculties to understand anyways.

Area X, the environment and main setting, is a character itself. One you don't trust, that terrifies you, but that you are dying to understand. The protagonist, a biologist, delivers this story in a clinical yet beautiful way that I have NEVER encountered before (mad props, Mr. Vandermeer, well done) - all while reeking of such a level of doubt and illusion that you can't quite trust her dependability as a narrator, even as you hang on to her every word.

Read it.

Just...please.

Rating: 🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬 /5

Would recommend, will reread, and am currently reading the next one in the series, Authority. BRING IT.