Retro Review: Annihilation (Southern Reach #1)
/When I started this blog, I had been posting reviews on Goodreads for about 6 months. In the interest of having all of my book writing in one place, I will post one of these old reviews every Friday. They weren't written with a blog in mind, so please forgive the lack of summary and off-the-cuff tone.
4 stars. Absolutely brilliant. The instant this started I didn’t want it to end. It’s so beautiful in its simplicity, in the subtle characterizations and casual unfurling of the plot. It really appealed to the part of my brain that craves a scientific way of thinking. It was also super entertaining, like an episode of The X-Files or Black Mirror or something. I loved the distance you feel from the action, which mirrors the narrator’s. I loved the way things started to feel a little … off. Yes, it’s a little slow, maybe, but I really enjoyed it.
Looking at this through a blatantly subjective lens, I think I also really appreciated Annihilation because of the narrator’s personality. At the risk of getting really personal: like this book’s protagonist, I am incredibly, severely introverted. Not only do I actively avoid interaction with others, I often … do not even see the point. I despise small talk especially - I despise any interaction without a specific purpose or direction. It stresses me out, it’s exhausting to act “in the moment” all the time, and I feel better when I can take a methodical approach to things. Like the biologist, I prefer solitude and I prefer to keep personal details to myself (except on rambling Goodreads reviews, apparently). I’m also baffled by anything overly sentimental; there’s a line in this where the narrator states that she hates the word “love.” Same, same.
Seriously. I’m lucky, I have a partner who understands and accommodates my need for independence and “separate time,” but the struggles exhibited by the main character and her husband were … extremely familiar to me.
So, as I said, from a personal perspective, the writing resonated and I was almost grateful to read about someone so like me, no matter how off-putting or unlikeable she is. Because in the end, she wins.
Yes - she learns, she accepts, she adapts. She is confronted with the impossible and almost appreciates it. It’s admirable and refreshing and her cold-blooded nature felt right. I'm not saying we should all be like her, but she is on top of her shit and maybe we could all learn from her.
This book is so creepy and interesting and different; a truly penetrating form of horror. There's a lot to be said about the other messages - the political, the environmental, the scientific, etc. I'll leave those observations to to others. The movie is sure to be very different and I look forward to the interpretation, but I can tell this book is always going to be something intimately special, to me.