Annihilation
by Jeff Vandermeer
Rating : 4/5
Genres : Fantasy, Science Fiction, 2022-read, novel plot, Mystery
I was torn between giving this a 4 vs a little higher rating but finally settled on round 4. What a crazy story this is. It has formed the very definition of a "novel concept" in my mind. I guess this is one of those stories where we can interpret the concept in any of the many number of ways. It is terrifying and very addictive till the mystery is unveiled at the very end.
The narrator is a biologist who has had an obsession with wildlife animals festering in abandoned water bodies since her childhood. She has learnt to rely on immersing herself in watching the mysteries and dynamics of such wild creatures as a coping/escape mechanism from her reckless and self centered parents. She is highly introverted and has problems opening up in her relationship with her husband.
There is an area X near a military outpost which is cut off from human population. Scientists who volunteer are sent on expeditions to the site to do some research on the area and a mysterious tunnel which keeps going endlessly into the ground. Expedition after expedition, scientists who go there don't make it alive out or even those that do, don't live long. Veiling the motives behind deception and hypnotic suggestions, the government sends these expeditions to the area X. On one such eleventh expedition, the narrator's husband visits the site and returns back as a catatonic and amnesiac man. To find out what has happened, she signs up for the next expedition. On site, she goes into the tunnel and gets a curious life like spern into her body. She remains the sole survivor of her team and unveils the mystery behind the site. Findings suggest that the tunnel is actually an embodiment of an organism..that does what to the people actually? My interpretation of whats happening at the site is- this area has formed as a result of military experiments and the souls of all the people who stepped into the area are trapped in different forms of wild life creatures and the border to the area is expanded till the whole world is consumed by the mysterious area X region.
This is a very small book under 200 pages and fast paced enough to just flip through. The whole experience of the narrator with the tunnel organism has a visceral quality to it which is hard to shake.
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