Review: Annihilation

I watched the movie adaptation a couple years ago under particular circumstances; for whatever reason, when there was a loud action sequence (such as the mutant bear or alligator), the volume would go down instead of up, making many of the more aggressive scenes feel muted and distant, almost like the characters are only in passing experiencing them. I think I prefered watching it this way, as it lent itself to the alien and detached atmosphere that Area X invokes.

The novel achieves this without fortuitous audio glitching and unravels pretty much exactly how I hoped it would: detached, inexplicable, with a dusting of SCP-level reality-bending horror akin to There Is No Antimimetics Division. To be honest, I'm not sure I'll read the other books in the series; I kind of like not knowing what exactly is going on and don't want the mystery to be spoiled.

I loved the biologist's musing on how the Area might not be as contained as they might think, and the extension of this idea, that perhaps since childhood she's been rubbing shoulders with it in her childhood pool, the unused lot, and the tidal pools, leading to her pre-Area behavior/personality. That, or she's always been the way she is, and is simply compatible with Area X more than anyone else, and thus able to integrate better. Or something in between, who knows (well, presumably anyone who has read the sequels, if everything is revealed). I also loved how unreliable the narration is; how much of what is written is real, and how differently is everyone else experiencing Area X.

No proper closer here, good short book, will maybe read the sequels, maybe not.