Annihilation (Southern Reach #1) by Jeff VanderMeer → Start Date: March 6, 2017

[Katriann]

Join Trisha and me in reading Annihilation. :)

[Vicki]

I'm in. I should be able to get a copy by March 6. LOL

[Matty]

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

[Vicki]

Thanks, Matty.

[Katriann]

Cool Vicki! Hopefully you'll be able to join. :)

[Katriann]

Do you guys think you'll be able to start this one today?

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Yes! I have meetings most of the day but plan to start tonight!

[Vicki]

I won't be home today until around 8:00 PM...UGH!!! But I plan to at least start. Not saying how many pages I can get done. LOL But I'll start it.

[Katriann]

Ok great. I'll try to start too. I have tons of novels to read for school, but I think I'll be able to read this one too.

[Katriann]

I have now read two chapters.

I can't decide (view spoiler)[ whether I like this book or not. I feel like I can't really connect with the characters. Maybe it's because I don't know their names. I also think there's a lot of biology talk I could do without. I understand that the protagonist is a biologist, but I find the descriptions of the biosphere and stuff a bit boring at times. (hide spoiler)]

I want to (view spoiler)[ know, what is going on in Area X. What is the tunnel/tower all about? What is the psychologist trying to do? Is the whole thing some kind of an experiment and why did all those expeditions end differently? I don't think there are any natural forces or creatures in Area X that would make some people shoot each other and other people die of cancer. I could be wrong, but I think there are humans behind all this. (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

wow, chapters are really long!
I like your update after 2 chapter idea

Linguist (view spoiler)[ I wonder if a Linguist has gone on any of the parties. for as much as they appeared to have researched them, they never seemed curious enough to fing out if each team went with people that matched their abilities. I'm also curious about the girls only team....was her husband on a men only team?
Like her husband. did i miss it? what was his "specialty" that they would have named him? sailor? (hide spoiler)]

Anthropologist(view spoiler)[ what happened to her sounds awful. what a horrible end
but the psychologist definitely seems to know this was here
and knew to hypnotize them away from knowing it was a alive
I don't know how this girl walked down into it for an hour knowing it was vibrating and could hear a heart beat. Wouldn't it feel like walking into a shark's mouth?!?! UGH (hide spoiler)]

Psychologist(view spoiler)[ so she seems to be the ring master.
doesn't it sound like those who came back were just under deep hypnosis? Like, if their psychologist made it back too, they could snap them out of it?? It seems like the psychologist going missing happens every time....but if other teams lasted a year (that's how long she said her husband was gone...) how are they only lasting a few days?! Why are they speeding up the time line for them?The fact that she smirked so often, or smiled at inappropriate times makes me wonder if she is one of the creatures and no longer human. She seemed to get amusement by their confusion and her power (if there are creatures) (hide spoiler)]

Surveyor(view spoiler)[ she has an interesting point. Why is all their crap old? The rifle, the cameras with actual developing for the photos....why nothing new?
and I don't blame her for her distrust. It's all going to crap and she has a this weird girl she's with (hide spoiler)]

Biologist(view spoiler)[ our MC. at least, I thought that was her name...anyway....
I went back through chapter 1, once she'd broken through the hypnosis - and definitely, at first, I was stumbling over the writing and wondering why everyone talked so weird. I mean, they blurted out every thought they had like a confession and they spoke weird - in full sentences and it was just...odd.
and looking back, you can see times she was hypnotized and didn't realize it
but she is a really good observer. I wonder why she's really on this expedition..... she's had an odd childhood but then the information stopped and we jumped straight to her marriage. I wonder what else she's hiding from us or what she doesn't remember. Maybe SHE"S the one who hurt the anthropologist. She is the one with the obsessive push to know more and to be at the "tower". she's also the only one who keeps calling it a tower. I wonder if she is a part of all this.... (hide spoiler)]

The Tower(view spoiler)[ this is just odd and gross, right? I mean, heartbeat, hand creatures, words written in glowing, growing fungus. Ugh. This sounds awful.
but why is she the only one calling it a Tower? And why is she so drawn to it. How is she the one who can read the writing when it doesn't seem like anyone else can. What language is it in?
She's been the driving force for them to search it, test it and go inside it. I'm wondering about it now.... (hide spoiler)]

oooh,I'm liking this one alot :)

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

4 chapters

Anthropologist(view spoiler)[ what on earth does the note mean that the surveyor saw her and took care of her?? Does that mean she really did revive? or just something that looked like her? (hide spoiler)]

Psychologist(view spoiler)[ wow, I can not believe she was screaming Annihilation at her trying to make the biologist kill herself
the psychologist died with so many of her information never revealed (hide spoiler)]

Surveyor(view spoiler)[so does nothing really die here? I'm sad they met to this end but I think it could only end this way. the surveyor was too distrustful (hide spoiler)]

Biologist(view spoiler)[ I knew she was keeping things back but I didn't think it was how sick she was becoming. the island things seem to be protecting her. i wonder why? I wonder what she's "carrying" (hide spoiler)]

The Lighthouse(view spoiler)[ that was so creepy right? all the blood and the journals. that's awful - how many people they have sent there to die (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

and I'm done

wow, I loved this one!!eerie, frightening and so good! lol

Biologist(view spoiler)[ I hate that we never got her name but I think it seems right
I wonder if he let her live only because he saw that she respected him (the inn keeper)
or maybe that she wasn't cruel, she wasn't a "sinner" in that she wasn't killing the environment but cultivating it. I can't tell (hide spoiler)]

[Katriann]

4 chapters

Trisha, (view spoiler)[ I'm not sure what the specialty of the biologist's husband was. I think it was only said he was a doctor and had been in the navy or something. Yeah, and I also find it weird that the biologist is the only one who thinks that the tunnel is a tower. At some point I wondered if maybe she has been in Area X before but has no memory of it. Also, I agree it's weird that all their stuff is old. (hide spoiler)]

I wonder why (view spoiler)[ the psychologist didn't share more information with the biologist before she died. Maybe she just liked knowing more than the others or maybe she thought the others would be better off not knowing everything. (hide spoiler)]

I definitely agree (view spoiler)[ that the lighthouse part was creepy. I wonder how long the expeditions have been going on. I would also like to know, why all the journals are at the lighthouse. Who put them there? Did everyone just leave their journals there or did someone put them there afterwards? (hide spoiler)]

I also wonder (view spoiler)[ what the note about the anthropologist meant. Maybe she did revive and the surveyor killed her again or simply scared her away. There are so many questions I want answered! I wonder if we'll get any answers at the end of the book. (hide spoiler)]

[Katriann]

Finished

Trisha, (view spoiler)[ I don't have any idea why the crawler let the biologist live either. Like you, I thought it had something to do with her respect for the nature and creatures in Area X. (hide spoiler)]

I wonder (view spoiler)[ what happened to the husband? Did he survive or is he one of the animals or other creatures in Area X? I also would have liked to hear more about the past of Area X. How did it become the place it is in the book? How did the lighthouse keeper become the crawler? Stuff like that... (hide spoiler)]

I kind of want to know, (view spoiler)[ what will happen in the next book. Will there be another expedition or will the border of Area X keep advancing? Will the creatures spread outside Area X? I own the whole trilogy, so I guess I'll find out sooner or later. :D (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Oh my gosh! You own the whole trilogy!? I definitely want to keep reading if you do

I think(view spoiler)[ the next one sounds great!

The 2nd book is about the part of the government that started sending these guys in
The person who ran it.....she joined the expedition with the biologist!! I think she was the psychologist (but might be someone else)

Woah right?! so the next one is about the guy who is running it now but I think it does tell us more although I'm not sure we'll ever find out what happened to the husband or the biologist (hide spoiler)]

You up for reading the next one together??

[Vicki]

I am ready because I'm reading this one this weekend. Lol

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Vicki wrote: "I am ready because I'm reading this one this weekend. Lol"

yay! it's a short one. I hope you like it Vicki!

[Vicki]

Thanks, Trisha!

[Katriann]

I'm up for reading the next one together. :) Or it depends on when you would like to read it I guess. did you have any date in mind?

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

I'm pretty open. We can read it this month or next!

[Vicki]

I'm open too.

[Katriann]

April should work for me but this month I'm fully booked with buddy reads and novels I need to read for school. Would you mind waiting until April?

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Don't mind waiting at all. I'm pretty open in April
Is there a day that works best??

[Katriann]

How bout in the beginning of the moth like April 3rd or then a bit later like April 17th?

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

let's go with 17th :)

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

our thread is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Katriann]

Sounds good. :)