Seeing as how Annihilation has itself a snazzy new motion picture in the works, I figured it would be a good chance to go back and read a book I picked up several years ago but never managed to find the time to get to, which is funny given that it’s a swift, short read that can be finished in two days easy. “But is it worth my money and those two days?”, you ask? The answer is yes, but with a few caveats, or at least some realities to make peace with going into it.

Annihilation is the story of a four-man (well, four-woman) team that is assembled by a shadow sect of the federal government called the Southern Reach, whereupon they are sent on a mission to investigate a mysterious ecology known as Area X, because as we all know, anything labeled with an “X” is automatically dangerous and cool. (This is also why my first e-mail address as a teenager was spacemonkeyx; no joke. What can I say? I loved Fight Club. But I digress…) The four-woman team is comprised of a psychologist, a biologist, and anthropologist, and a surveyor, and the novel is told in first person from the point of view of the biologist.

One aspect of the novel I will give it credit for is that it wastes no time in getting started right away, pretty much setting the tone for the overall reading experience. This is not a novel that is going to spend time with you letting you get to know the intricacies of the characters. Of the four of them, one really only serves as a plot device, while the other three, including the main character, advance the story. Additionally, each of the set pieces is given a fair justification for existence, but don’t plan on spending too much time in any one place.

Essentially, the four women arrive at base camp and immediately come across a structure in the ground close by that is either a tunnel or a tower, depending on whose point of view your following. The team decides to explore this curiosity, as they have tasked with observing and documenting the area for any environmental peculiarities, of which there are soon many. The inciting incident that sets the plot in motion occurs within the first 30-40 pages, and then it’s pretty much a straight shot to the ending.

Illustration of author Jeff Vandermeer

The entire story takes place in one of essentially four locations within Area X: the base camp, the tunnel/tower, the surrounding marsh and environment, as well as a lighthouse by the coast that extends alongside the site. It doesn’t take long before one of the characters reveal that they are not who they at first seemed to be, and the story does a good job of introducing conflict early on between the women. But as I mentioned previously, this isn’t a whodunit and we’re not here to get to know these characters. What we are here for is atmosphere and plot, which are the two areas where the book excels.

Author Jeff Vandermeer has an effective and economical writing style, able to conjure up mood and atmosphere with effective and concise sentence structure. My favorite parts of the book where the “slow-burn” scenes that ratchet up the tension, in a sort of “what lurks around the corner?” fashion, as well as those moments where the nameless main character finds herself in some pretty intense and dicey situations. Throughout these moments, the author gives us just enough information to entice our brain as to what some of these creatures might be, while not describing his creations in complete detail. While some readers bristle at this sort of approach, I find it to be very effective when done well, and the author has done well here in that regard.

That being said, Annihilation is by no means a perfect reading experience. There are some definite issues that hold this back from being something greater than it is, and most of that has to do with the characters, of which even the biologist, our protagonist, often takes a back seat to the overall mystery of the environment and the specific incidents at play. There really is nothing much given in the way of back story for the four woman, save for the main character, and it so happens that within said back story lies the biggest stumble of the book.

In what I can only assume is due to publishing instructions to beef up the size of the book to an acceptable word count, the author shoehorn’s an aspect of the biologist’s past involving her husband, who was himself previously dispatched to Area X and returned to her a different, broken man. I suppose this is meant to invoke pathos for the protagonist, but the whole nature of their past relationship has absolutely zero bearing on any of the events that take place in Area X. As for the relationship itself, it touches on many of the generic “struggling marriage” hallmarks without getting into any of those potatoes, let alone the meat. You could remove this entire subplot and it would save about an hour and 30 or so pages, and the story wouldn’t miss a beat, and would probably even be better for it.

Still from the upcoming motion-picture adaptation of Annihilation

There’s also a questionable scene between the psychologist and the biologist that takes place on the coast by the lighthouse that really stretches the limits of plausibility. As you have no doubt gathered by now, strange things are afoot at Area X, and while the story does a good job of documenting the ways in which the protagonist is affected, the book went out of its way to communicate information about the psychologist that contradicted her behavior in said scene. Like I said, you don’t come to Annihilation for riveting character development and emotional and logical consistency.

Finally, there was one strange reaction I had throughout my experience that I think is ultimately on the author, which is that throughout this whole novel, I had a really hard time matching the voice of the narration to a female protagonist. Now, take me at my word when I say I’m not an anti-feminist or anything like that, but I had a hard time convincing myself that the protagonist was female, and not because of some archaic nation that women can’t be doctors or scientists or anything like that. After having read many female authors over the years, the voice utilized in this book just didn’t feel authentic and I kept having to remind myself that the biologist was female. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced this in a book before, and would be interested to hear from anyone else that read the book if they had the same issue, or if I’m somehow way off base on this one.

Overall, Annihilation is an interesting, straightforward novel with a good sense of atmosphere and some riveting moments and set pieces. The overall experience, however, can’t help but come up a little shallow, as the characters themselves are given little personality and even less back-story. The attempt to infuse the protagonist with some pathos falls flat, and additionally, the author makes an unsatisfying decision with regards to the conclusion of the biologist’s story and how it relates to the tunnel/tower. There are many questions left unanswered, and it is not entirely clear to me that they will be fully answered in either of the two sequels that are currently on the market. Still, given the interesting atmosphere and general concept, coupled with the brevity of the investment in time, I can say that it’s at least worth checking out once.

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Annihilation

6.8

Overall Rating

6.8/10

Pros

• Compelling, tense atmosphere
• Swift storytelling
• Interesting concept

Cons

• Paper-thin characters
• Logical inconsistencies
• Many questions left unanswered

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