Reader’s Reviews > Annihilation > Status Update

I like how this book balances hard world-building and cosmic horror in the way of soft world-building. Everything seems so strange and yet there seems to be an answer that is just too overwhelming to figure out. It seems foreign yet natural. This chapter was a little slow. Similar to the tower, the lighthouse and the journal pile kind of meandered but it did help give a sense of unease and tension.

Really good. I slowed for a little bit as the tunnel scene kind of crawled for a little bit but the reveal of the anthropologist’s death and the implication of the psychologist killing her was a really good payoff. Narrator trying to hypnotize the surveyor unsuccessfully was really good stuff too.

It’s getting easier to read. Though, the details have started to become a little too cumbersome. I really like the separation between what the narrator sees and the rest of the squad though.

Really invested now. Really like the way that the psychologist character is done. She seems to know a lot more than the rest. The fact that we and the narrator get to hear a suggestion that we are not supposed to reveals what the psychologist might be trying to hide. The narrator's inner conflict really speaks to my anxiety. The idea of deciding whether or not to share the contamination is such a stressful prospect.

I’m really liking this whole tunnel sequence. The details of the narrator’s inner thoughts is really cool.

Still really struggling with the sentence structure and prose though.

I really like the world building. The unanswered and ominous details such as the black box measuring devices, the tower/tunnel and the strange instructions from the Southern Reach give a similar vibe to internet horror/mysteries like SCP and Welcome to Nightvale.

I think the prose is good yet a little rough to get through currently.

I don't think I like the insinuation that the book itself is her journal though.