[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”0374104093″ locale=”us” height=”500″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515Q0Ciqm8L.jpg” width=”333″][simpleazon-link asin=”0374104093″ locale=”us”]Annihilation: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy)[/simpleazon-link] by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Area X has my undivided attention. An amazing genre-bending start to what is sure to be a surreal trip through three books. The writing style is clear and linguistically appealing creating vivid mind-blowing pictures that mix myth with an unsettling and horrifying “reality.” The atmospheric distortion is tense, creepy and brilliant. I was completely engrossed and terrified. The unreliable narrator adds to the fear and uncertainty of the characters and the reader. A bizarre blend of sci-fi, horror, mystery, and suspense that is riveting. Highly recommended for any adventurous reader! Don’t expect to find familiar ground here, but expect to be sucked in.

Quotes:

“…when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you” (p. 6).

“There are certain kinds of deaths that one should not be expected to relive, certain kinds of connections so deep that when they are broken you feel the snap of the link inside you” (p. 46).

“When you are too close to the center of a mystery there is no way to pull back and see the shape of it entire” (p. 130).

“…some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough” (p. 168).

Favorite word:

reliquary – a container that is used to hold holy objects