This book felt a lot like Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane. Very quietly brooding, the horrors sneak up on your when you’re not looking. There is little dialog and the characters have no names, but that takes nothing away from the simplistic beauty of this story. A female biologist and a group of four other women are sent on an expedition to the strange and uncanny Area X, where their mission is to record data on the un-peopled area and figure out […]
Resistance is futile
Oh dear. What did I just read? Acceptance is the third and final part of the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. So, if you haven’t read the first and second part, and you’re planning on reading them despite my ”proceed with caution” reviews, stop reading now. SPOILERS AHOY Acceptance deals with the events that take place right after Control and Ghost Bird jump into the tidal pool, but also with the past (the light keeper’s life as well as the months preceding the director’s […]
The night will always win
Authority is the second book in the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. After the strange, horrifying events that took place in Area X during the twelfth expedition there, John ”Control” Rodriguez is sent to Southern Reach to get some answers about what really happened. Unfortunately, he finds that people are not so obliging when it comes to providing them, and nothing is as it seems. It is much, much worse. In what feels like a nightmare, he tries to find out the truth about […]
Divided we fall
I’ve owned the Southern Reach trilogy for ages. I don’t even remember how I found out about it, if it was a fellow Cannonballer who recommended it or if I read about it on a friend’s Facebook page or something else entirely. I lent it to my dad before I had read it, and, because he lives in another country, it took about a year before I got it back. So when I finally started reading it, I had forgotten what it was about. I’m […]
I Didn’t Hate It But You Might
Annihilation is the first in a trilogy about the mysterious Area X; cut off from the rest of civilization for decades, nature is taking over the landscape and hiding the area’s many secrets. An expedition of four women is sent to investigate, and they realize very quickly that all is not as they’ve been told. For one thing, there’s a mysterious underground tower that’s not marked on any map and what they find there will quickly divide the group as they try not to be contaminated […]
Starting off the New Year…
Yes, I am aware that this is the last book in VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. And yes, I do see the irony in the fact that my first review of the year is of the final book of a series. That being said, I’m gonna cheat a little bit and use this review as an excuse to discuss all three books, and remember in future years not to start a series at the end of the year. Over the past couple months I’ve made a […]