Article written by Rory Hawkins and Caitlyn Saliba (guest writing for literature).
As any reader will tell you, there’s nothing quite like forcing someone to read a book you love. Wait no, that’s wrong – there’s nothing like knowing a book series and knowing someone who’ll love it. Bringing the two together benefits you both. They enjoy a good read, you enjoy talking their ear off.
Such is the case with Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. Released in 2014 as the first installment of The Southern Reach trilogy, VanderMeer puts to page the weirdest combination of mystery/psychological/horror/sci-fi. This bizarre mix comes from split inspirations: VanderMeer’s nature treks in his home state of Florida, and a dark and lucid dream. Walking down the spiralling staircase of a tower sunken into the earth, words written in moss and fungus light the way. The dream ends with encountering the writer, a being now featured in the novel.
In Annihilation, we are introduced to an expeditionary team of four women – a psychologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor and a biologist – all names omitted. They reach the base camp of “Area X”, an abandoned stretch of coastline presumably in the USA. The reason for their expedition is a vague one: they’re to pick up where the previous expedition laid off and continue the investigation of “Area X”. Oh yes, and the previous expedition team all mysteriously arrived home of their own accord, before all dying of cancer. And they were the first to ever come back…
Caitlyn:
This was my first time reading Annihilation – and it’s a mixed bag of emotions. In the beginning, I found it difficult to follow just from the amount of information the author was trying to get across without using real names. It was just hard to follow who was who. Events – past and present – also seemed to be mish-mashed together to try and create confusion. Deliberate? I guess that added element makes it a little scarier or mysterious for some people.
Rory:
I’ll agree, the plot is deliberately vague to begin with, but I think the prose is easy enough to follow just by being simple description. It’s all from the biologist’s perspective and she doesn’t seem to be fond of flowery language. In reading, you learn as much about who she is in how she thinks as you do from what she recounts of her life. Her character motivations are simple but make sense – she’s level-headed and observant enough to be a good POV of the world, if not a little lacking in personality.
Caitlyn:
The individual insights into characters are exceptional. Those who get more time in “Area X” (because *SPOILER ALERT* of course things don’t go well) are explored in such a depth that goes to show how much thought VanderMeer put into his characters. Though she doesn’t seem much at the start, the biologist isn’t so one-tone. Backing up the introspection over the course of the novel, she slowly becomes more than your look into “Area X”.
Rory:
By having such a small cast of characters, I think VanderMeer does well to highlight the different dynamics between people, and how suspicion and pressure push these relationships to their limits. Not just between the women of “Area X”, but when the biologist recounts life with her husband, the dynamics feel so real. Big or small, there’s always something at stake.
Caitlyn:
At stake, yes, but for me, not horror enough. Scary elements are in there, for sure, but Annihilation is more of a psychological-thriller. Hints and details are dropped of what could be waiting 'round the corner, but it’s more baffling than horrific.
Rory:
Yes, but “horror” doesn’t always need to be blood and guts. Besides, it’s harder to keep the same impact on the page. I think VanderMeer was going for his own spin of Lovecraftian horror: fear of the unknown, the unknowable. Even the name Annihilation points to self-annihilation, losing what it means to be you – characters lose their names, what next?
Throughout the novel, there’s a recurring thought shared by the characters. They all have this compulsion to describe “Area X” as “a pristine wilderness”. How eerie is that? Like the world’s trying to put up this facade of harmlessness. The calm of nature twisted into something else.
Caitlyn:
The sense of unease and deception is a background sense throughout the book. It really keeps you on your seat – as ordinary as it all seems, you feel like something’s out there keeping you on the edge of your seat. But for me, the most entrancing theme of Annihilation BY FAR has to be this one bit of prose. It’s actually what VanderMeer dreamt of, found written in living, glowing plant life:
“… where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dim lit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been…”
It’s probably one of the best passages I’ve ever seen included in a novel. Adding to that, the way it all appears on the walls is amazing, and intriguing. It builds the basis for the addictive nature of “the tower” – another element carried across from VanderMeer’s dream. These words, how, why and where they were written is basically the centrepoint for the whole novel, and I love the suspense of it all.
Rory:
The novel has since been made into a Netflix movie (highly adapted) but I think Annihilation would better work adapted to stage. It’s described as a minimalistic world, there’s interesting physical plot points, and elements are characterised throughout by sounds and lighting. Overall, I think it would work really well.
Caitlyn:
I haven’t seen the movie, but after reading the book I’m pretty keen to see how they managed it. I’d be particularly interested in seeing how they portray the character of the Crawler (the writer of the living words), because it’s not very well-explained in the book. The description is quite complicated, and there’s no explanation to what or why it is.
Rory:
Ah, but that’s because Annihilation’s the first of a trilogy. It doesn’t answer too many questions. Rather, it sets the premise and scene: “Area X” is this ambivalent force which is much more than a geographic space. Over whatever obstacles the biologist personally encounters, it’s the ultimate antagonist. Indirectly or not, humans are not welcome here – and our influence over a once-inhabited space is gone. What it now is, is something wholly to itself – and that’s still to be explored.
Caitlyn:
I really hate you for not telling me it’s part of trilogy. All I need is another book series to sink time into. It’s a small relief each book isn’t that long.
Rory:
And let’s be honest, the new covers are pop-art at its best.
Whether new or returning, we both thoroughly enjoyed Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. Whilst it mightn’t be as fear-inducing as first expected, the novel still manages to get you inside a character’s frame of thought without overwhelming the senses. It’s not a usual read for most people, but absolutely worth it.
Character dynamics are thought out so well that at times you’re unsure of what kind of book VanderMeer set out to write – one about what we think is familiar, or the vast things that affect our lives outside of them. Ideas and fears of a familiar yet unknown world build up “Area X” into a character itself, one that continually challenges the characters within and reader without to what could really happen next.
Whatever kind of fiction genre or subgenre you indulge in, Annihilation is a great opportunity to try something new, and be spurred into thinking of what more reading can do.
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