Annihilation

For week four, I read the novel Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Throughout the entire novel Vandermeer is toying with the reader's psyche. This place called Area seems to be a type of nature reserve however we learn that this is the 12th expedition into this place because the previous teams couldn't seem to find answers. The deeper into Area X the scientists get, the more unnatural and unpredictable things become. It becomes hard to trust the characters because they continue to do things that don't really make sense like venturing off on their own or disappearing. Area X is a dangerous place with strange creatures and yet these scientists think that they can split up and do things on their own. As the readers, we understand that these women are some of the best in their respective fields so it makes us question their mental stability when these strange occurrences start happening. The characters in this book, especially the biologist, have this need to analyze and find explanations. People in general want to find explanations for things they don't understand. The psychological need to understand it what keeps you hooked until the very end. This book speaks volumes about human nature and what happens when your mental stability falters. I started to not trust the psychologist because I felt like she killed the anthropologist. She had hypnotized all of the other team members with a trigger word which already made me skeptical of her and then the anthropologist goes missing and she tells the others that the anthropologist wanted to leave. It was hard to trust any of the character's besides the biologist but then I also wondered how mentally stable she was because this place seemed to attack your mind. This book was extremely interesting and really made me think about how and why people react to certain situations in the way that they do. I think the theme in this book is the need to understand and it even reaches the reader because you end up turning every page hoping to understand more about Area X. The ending left me completely flabbergasted I never thought that the creatures in this place were remnants of the people who had died there before! The way this book ends sets it up perfectly for there to be a second part to the story. I would love to find out how the biologist survives in this place and continues to search for some form of her husband's body who she believes to still be alive.

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