Annihilation by: Jeff Vandermeer

This review perhaps will be one that is shorter in length than my usual fare and perhaps even one without a score.  Today’s subject is Jeff Vandermeer’s 2014 science fiction novel Annihilation, the first installment in his Southern Reach trilogy.  Annihilation is a novel where the writing style is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the plot itself.  The novel is presented in first person limited narration from the perspective of a female biologist who is part of the twelfth research team into Area X, an area closed to the public for over thirty years, whose exploration is overseen by the Southern Reach.  Every previous expedition has never come back or died soon after returning.  Vandermeer excels at writing a modern-day cosmic horror story, drawing heavily from the story structure of H.P. Lovecraft.  The narrator throughout the novel speaks in the past tense and indicates subtly that there is something not quite right about her experiences in Area X and that she may not quite be the same person who entered the area.  Vandermeer is a master at creating this real sense of paranoia and uncertainty that the biologist is not a reliable narrator or that the other characters are who they say they are.



There are only four characters who appear in the novel, all women, all scientists, and all nameless.  The biologist, the surveyor, the anthropologist, and the psychologist are the novel’s four players and over the short 200 pages of the book the audience will see how Area X effects them.  From the outset there is a sense of mistrust, as the psychologist has already put the members of the team under hypnotic suggestion.  The Area’s flora and fauna are incredibly dangerous and one major theme of Annihilation is the spiral into madness that all four characters experience in their own way.  In the works of H.P. Lovecraft, entering the domain of a cosmic scale such as entering the incomprehensible Area X, breaks them, leaving them insane and babbling.  The writing style reflects this aspect with an undercurrent of uncertainty and complete mistrust.  The background of the biologist is expanded upon as within hours of her husband’s return from Area X, their relationship breaks down and within half a year he has died from cancer.  The only thing certain about Area X is that something is there, creatures that we can’t comprehend, and an effect that leaves everyone broken.



Vandermeer asking so many questions really make Annihilation a novel that is up to interpretation as to just what the events mean in the greater context.  It can be read as a woman losing her mind or gaining enlightenment as interpersonal relationships break down, which is the reading I am most inclined to, or as something completely different.  There is so much that is uncertain that there’s even a possible reading of someone slowly descending into hell.  The tower/tunnel conflict is fascinating and the manipulation almost makes the government it’s own higher cosmic power.  Overall, Annihilation should be a must read, but one that you take slowly to understand just what it means, or what it can mean.  With a book like this where there isn’t much that is where I leave you, no score.