Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)

by Jeff VanderMeer

There are certain kinds of deaths that one should not be expected to relive, certain kinds of connections so deep that when they are broken you feel the snap of the link inside you. As we descended into the tower, I felt again, for the first time in a long time, the flush of discovery I had experienced as a child. But I also kept waiting for the snap.

The psychologist lied to us,

could see it all in my head. In the middle of the night, the psychologist had woken the anthropologist,

Already making up a story to blame psych

We became so comfortable with that map, with the dimensions of it, and the thought of what it contained that it stopped us from asking why or even what.

Theyre not even really sure what looking for

In the moment, I did something that I regret now. I said, “There’s no reward in the risk of

our superiors had forbidden high-tech being brought into Area X, because they knew it could be used in unknown and powerful ways by whatever occupied this place.

When Area X first appeared, there was vagueness and confusion, and it is still true that out in the world not many people know that it exists.

stemming from experimental military research.

To acknowledge it, to try to name it, might be a way of letting it in.

countless lies told by the Southern Reach.

some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.