Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsLeft Me Wanting More
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2015
Although I did enjoy parts of this book, and certain elements of the storytelling, overall it left me feeling frustrated and very disappointed. I'd heard a lot about this trilogy, and since it was conveniently presented in this one 600 page volume, I figured I'd read them all at once. If you're interested in this series, I would definitely recommend reading it this way. I know I would have felt completely unsatisfied only reading Annihilation. That being said, Annihilation was BY FAR the best of the three books, and in my opinion, the storytelling went downhill from there.
I loved the idea of four women exploring this strange, uninhabited area of the world that an agency, called the Southern Reach has been sending expeditions into for years, only for them to die, never come back, or come back completely changed. I thought it was a nice choice by the author to have each woman stripped of her name, only being referred to by their functions: the biologist, the anthropologist, the psychologist, and the surveyor. When the women discover a topographical anomaly not on their maps, the descend into it, this tunnel like tower that they soon realize is a living thing. Chaos soon ensues amongst the women. This first book is told from the point of view of the biologist, who is a main character throughout all three novels.
Authority takes us back to the Southern Reach organization and we follow a man known as Control. This was the most boring part of the book for me, even though we did learn a lot more about the twelfth expedition (the expedition the four women were on in the first book.) I was glad that the biologist (or some version of her) played a part in this second novel.
Finally, we have Acceptance, which is told from the perspectives of The LightHouse Keeper, whom I was pleasantly surprised to find had a gay male lover, which I wasn't expecting since he was described as a previous preacher, (his role is integral to the series but I don't want to spoil it), the biologist/ghost bird, control, and the psychologist/director. Honestly, I felt like nothing was tied up, none of the mysteries were solved, and everything is left open ended. The letter from the director to the lighthouse keeper was the only redeeming part, so I'm glad it fell at the very end.
The whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking of the TV show Lost. I'm a big Lost fan, and I feel like this book is similar in the fact that it offers a lot of mysteries, strange occurrences, unexplainable happenings, and then...explains nothing, solves no mysteries, and sheds no light on what the real purpose of the story is. Whereas Lost had a defining conclusion that focused on its characters and gave viewers a nice ending, this series, Area X, does neither, not really offering solace to any of the characters we've been following, and not really even answering one of the mysteries we've been reading about for 600 pages.
Some of you might like the ambiguity, but I found it annoying. I wanted some answers. I applaud VanderMeer for his creativity, world building, and complex characters, but I wish he would have gone further. I feel like Annihilation was his main goal, and the final two books were incapable of following after its originality and greatness. If I would have just read Annihilation on it's own, I would have given the book four stars, but as a trilogy, I feel I can't give it more than three. Also, I feel like the word terroir was used way too much. End rant.
