Annihilation Is a Horror Story With No Monsters and It Got Under My Skin Anyway

Went in knowing nothing except that a movie was coming out based on it, which turned out to be the right way to read this one, cold, no expectations. Four women scientists, only referred to by their job titles, the biologist, the surveyor, the anthropologist, the psychologist, cross into a quarantined stretch of wilderness called Area X where the last several expeditions all ended badly in different, unexplained ways. Nobody tells you the rules of this place. VanderMeer never really tells you the rules either, and that’s clearly deliberate rather than sloppy, the confusion the characters feel is the same confusion you’re meant to sit in as a reader.

Somebody described this as new weird, which I hadn’t heard as a genre label before but it fits better than calling it straight horror or straight science fiction, it’s genuinely its own thing. There’s no monster chasing anyone through hallways, no blood and guts, and it still managed to unsettle me more than plenty of books that go for the jugular directly. A lot of that comes down to the biologist’s narration, close first person, quietly detached in a way that makes the strangest details land harder because she reports them so calmly.

Pacing is slow and I get why some readers bounce off it, there’s long stretches where not much happens on the surface while everything underneath is shifting in ways you only half understand. I didn’t mind the slowness, it matched the unease the book was going for, but I can see someone wanting more plot and less atmosphere and coming away disappointed. Ending resolves almost nothing, which tracks given this is book one of three, but it’s a genuine commitment to keep reading if the ambiguity already frustrated you by that point.

Already picked up the second book. Curious whether any of this actually gets explained or if that was never the point.