Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1) in 2017 Reading Challenge

May 01, 2014 Miss_Cultura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: finish, mis-libros-favoritos, nota-5

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Jan 21, 2018 Susan Chacko rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

The trailer for this book's movie adaptation was intriguing enough to make me want to read this book. Also, I like to be one of those people who go "I read the book" whenever someone brings up the movie adaptation. :D

About the book, it was pretty creepy. It's about an expedition of scientists that go to explore Area X, an area that has been cut off from the rest of the world for reasons unknown. None of the previous expeditions yielded any answers and not everyone came back from those missions; The trailer for this book's movie adaptation was intriguing enough to make me want to read this book. Also, I like to be one of those people who go "I read the book" whenever someone brings up the movie adaptation. :D

About the book, it was pretty creepy. It's about an expedition of scientists that go to explore Area X, an area that has been cut off from the rest of the world for reasons unknown. None of the previous expeditions yielded any answers and not everyone came back from those missions; some didn't come back at all. The expedition we read about is the twelfth one comprising of four female scientists- a psychologist, a biologist, a surveyor and an anthropologist. We read from the biologist's point of view. They enter Area X and after exploring come upon a tunnel, or tower as the biologist calls it, which they begin investigating.

(view spoiler)[ During the exploration of the tower, the biologist becomes infected by some kind of fungus in the tower. After a day of exploring the tunnel, they return to base camp and record their observations. The next day, they discover that the anthropologist is missing and they aren't convinced by the psychologist's explanation that she returned to the extraction point that would take her out of Area X. When they return to the tower, the psychologist opts to stand watch and sends the surveyor and the biologist down to explore and collect samples where they discover the anthropologist's body and realise that the psychologist put her under hypnosis and made her collect samples. When the tower, as the biologist realized as a result of her infection, which is a living being she names Crawler felt threatened by it, it protected itself by killing the anthropologist. All of this and the biologist's confession that she was immune to the hypnotic suggestions makes the surveyor very distrustful of everyone. When they return to base camp, they find out that the psychologist left taking most of their supplies and weapons. The surveyor becomes very paranoid wants to leave Area X. But the biologist, looking for answers to what happened to her husband who was a medic on the previous expedition, wants to stay and keep investigating. She decides to go to a lighthouse prominently featured in many of the maps but the surveyor decides to stay back at base camp.

The biologist walks to the lighthouse all the while aware of changes in her body caused by the infection. When she reaches her destination and looks around inside, she makes a startling discovery. She finds a crawlspace filled with stacks of journals, all from previous expeditions and she surmises from the number that there had to be more than 11 expeditions and that they were lied to by the Southern Reach, a secret government organization investigating Area X. She also finds the psychologist who was dying from a fall off the lighthouse. The biologist heads back to the base camp but she gets shot at by the surveyor who thinks the biologist killed the psychologist but thanks to her increased reflexes from the infection, she is able to fatally shoot the surveyor. She then heads back into the tower and comes face to face with the Crawler in a near-fatal encounter. When she exits the tower, she decides to stay and keep exploring Area X and heads to an island that her husband went to when he was there hoping to find out what happened to him. (hide spoiler)]

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. It was so creepy and I needed answers just like the biologist. I really liked the biologist's character. She seemed so focused on her field of study and that was her singular passion. The novel was well-written in that aspect; the character development was on point. The plot was also amazing; it was written just right. It was so full of suspense. I could hear my heart beating towards the end of the novel. I couldn't put it down, I needed to get to the next page and the next to find out what was going on.

If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you check it out. Amazing read. :D ...more

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Jun 03, 2017 Catherine Petrini rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-sf, novel, dystopian

Unsettling, atmospheric, and lyrically written, this book reminds me of the television series Lost, with hints of The Hunger Games and McCarthy's The Road. I wanted to love this book, but the characters make it difficult. The narrator, known only as The Biologist, is cold and rather one-dimensional. I never feel that I really get to know her or any of her companions. That said, the mysteries of Area X have piqued my curiosity, and I do want to read the next installment in the trilogy. I was goin ...more

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Aug 06, 2014 Beth Ann rated it liked it

This book is weird - but that is its cache. I expected weird. And , for the most part, I like the story. It's kind of new. But the writing gets tedious in the middle - and then I had to skim read a tiny bit - and then it was a little better... I did manage to make it through. I liked it enough to give the next book a shot. That is mainly due to the interesting world the writer has created - and the mystery he left us with after this book. We will see if I make it through that one though. ...more

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Jan 06, 2016 Jaimie rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016-challenge

All I can say is I'm glad I'm done with that. I read this book as part of a reading challenge. I had to choose a book to read that had a protagonist with the same job that I have, that being a biologist. This book was just not for me. ...more

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