Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Annihilation

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

10 reviews

ravensandlace's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Title: Annihilation

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre: Science Fiction

Format: ebook from Libby

Series: Southern Reach (#1)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: intimate partner violence recounted, suicide & attempted suicide discussed, alcohol consumption, blood & gore depiction, including physical injuries, dead bodies, terminal cancer recounted, hospital mentioned, death of a husband recounted, murder, gun violence, mind control & loss of autonomy (theme), animal attack

Note: When I read this book, I was in the process of moving. I lost the little notebook that contained my trigger warnings so I used the trigger warnings provided by the trigger warning database (https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/). Be sure to go check them out as they do an amazing job making sure trigger warnings are accounted for. They have hundreds of books on there.

Ever since I saw the movie, I have been dying to read this book. I was curious as to how different it would be from the movie. I hadn’t heard a lot of buzz about the books so I was curious. Because the movie is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s right up there with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Sinister. That bear scene though, if you know you know. And don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. I haven’t heard anything better since I played Destiny.

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read. It was truly a unique experience. First off, no one in the book had a name at all. Absolutely no one. It was strange and took some time to get used to. The main character was a biologist, hence her name was biologist. There was also an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist. But surprisingly, it was not hard to keep up with who was who. I really thought it added another layer to this novel, it made it stand out. It didn’t let me get too close to the characters, which was actually nice.

One of the downfalls of this book was there was science. I mean, a lot of science. There were a lot of scientific terms. The biologist is very passionate about being a biologist so there were times when she would just talk about the biology of something and use so many scientific terms. I am not a science person. I’m more of a history gal. There was one part of the book where the team comes across something (I won't say what because of spoilers) but it suddenly becomes all about the biology of said thing. It took me out of the story a bit because I had no idea what they were talking about. I ended up skimming that part, which was detrimental to me because that thing ended up being pretty important later on.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be but it ended up being a welcome surprise. I will most certainly be continuing with this series and I’ve even found an absolutely gorgeous set of books I will purchase (or I can add them to my Amazon wishlist in case anyone likes me enough! Kidding!). Also, be on the lookout for a movie/book comparison post, as soon as I get around to watching the movie again. Because while there were similarities, there was also some pretty big differences too. Overall, though, I highly recommend both this book and the movie.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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owlribbon's review

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mysterious

3.75

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rickvsthebooksagenda's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

5.0

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shieldbearer's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An incredibly dense read, but in a good way- it is concise and every sentence has a reason for being where it is. Very layered and very human. The Biologist is a well-crafted, realistic character. Definitely worth a reread.

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Area X is a mysterious and apparently dangerous region that has been explored by eleven previous expeditions, with varying success. The members of the eleventh expedition returned under mysterious circumstances, with missing memories, and all died of cancer within a few months. We follow the twelfth expedition as they enter Area X and almost immediately encounter strange and inexplicable phenomena for which they are not prepared. The story is part science fiction, part psychological horror, and answers your questions only to leave you with many more.

A friend recommended this book, and I usually don’t like science fiction, but I recently read (and loved) Dune, so I thought I’d give it a try. Unfortunately, my favorite thing about Dune—the worldbuilding— was almost nonexistent in Annihilation. I can appreciate the lack of description and backstory as a device to increase the suspense (and establish our narrator as unreliable), but it’s just not my cup of tea. I also didn’t like a single one of the characters;

especially as the narrator became increasingly unreliable and suspicious. I felt like I was trapped in her head, willing her to do one thing…and then she would promptly do the opposite. The final straw was her murder of the surveyor.

I really enjoy stories where the setting becomes another character (a la Dune, Piranesi, or Wind, Sand and Stars, just to name a few of my recent reads), especially if that setting is really just nature itself. Annihilation did this to an extent, but the confusion of the story and disorientation of the narrator and the situation prevented Area X from becoming truly alive. This may be a personal problem though; I was talking to a friend about books recently and she pointed out that I like to understand, and she’s right—it’s the reason I love really strong, intricate worldbuilding and am disappointed by endings that don’t tie everything nicely together.

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the general vibe of the ending):

definitely not happy by my standards, but it’s the first book in a trilogy so of course it has to leave room for the next story. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish the series, but it did leave me with unanswered questions…

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