Review: Acceptance (Southern Reach #3)
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5 stars. Ack, these are the times I miss being in college, where I was literally trained to read and understand and comprehend better. There’s a deeper meaning knocking its way out of this trilogy but I can’t seem to wrap my head around it. Which is maybe the point? Or at least an acceptable reaction to such a mindfuck of a reading experience? I’m actually dying to dive into it again, maybe via print version. I’m desperate to hear a lecture or two on the narrative themes - and the narrative construction! Wow.
Acceptance picks up where Authority drops off, with the addition of flashbacks from key characters. We are granted answers, for which I’m so grateful (sometimes you can just explain what happened! Seriously!), and we are presented with new questions, which I didn’t mind either. It’s true that the writing sustains a sort of dense tone, requiring intense focus. But it washes over you, or at least it did for me, in a way that was refreshingly immersive and interesting. It’s trippy.
This trilogy is something that, as I mentioned in my review of the first book, has become special to me. I’m quite sure it has and will to others as well. It’s unique but personal and penetrating and mindblowing. I hesitate to call it philosophical, because it’s almost too ... matter-of-fact. But it does connect (like many things these days) with the classic everything-you-think-you-know-is-wrong gut punch. The way this manifests in the character’s varying stories is a little sad and a little joyful at the same time.
I wouldn't know how to classify this even if I tried: horror? Science fiction? Psychological thriller with an eco twist? But that's okay - it's all of these and more. I'm so bummed it's over and I'm so ready to read about it. I read the last few pages on a very rainy day and that felt appropriate.
Last note: I was relieved to hear from my beloved biologist again and to witness the end of her story (or maybe ... the beginning?). I mentioned in my review of the first book that I admired her ability to adjust and adapt and ... well, evolve. Turns out that's a fundamental component of these novels and one that I will absolutely take with me. Nature - sciences - physics - space - math - it all shifted in Area X. And therefore we must too. Even if the shifts are unknowable, unmeasurable, unattainable. Even if there's deeper meaning knocking its way out and you can't wrap your head around it. Even if that means we lose.
"Acceptance moves past denial, and maybe there's defiance in that, too."
AHHHHHHH so good. AHHHHHH.