Annihilation is a Psychological Thriller novel that dabbles in xenophobia (The fear of the unknown) and a feeling of loneliness. It is the first of three novels written by Jeff Vandermeer. The whole series was released in 2014.
The book starts off with The Biologist (Our protagonist) setting out for Area X (a natural disaster zone of unknown origin) under the supervision of the Southern Reach, a government-run organization that is overseeing all interactions with Area X. The Biologist is a member of the 12th expedition group (which is entirely made up of women) which set out to explore the disaster zone. The other expeditions ended in different ways, but all were catastrophes. One ended in mass suicide while another in genocide while the eleventh (Which we learned included The Biologist’s husband) ended in a cancer epidemic. The book starts off with The Biologist giving us some background knowledge on how they came to cross Area X’s border, which entails that the group consisted of The Psychologist (Who leads the expedition), The Anthropologist, The Biologist, The Surveyor (The soldier), and The Linguist (who quit before the group crossed the border). The Southern Reach forced the members to go through two hard months of basic training, before having The Psychologist put the group in a hypnotic state to keep them calm as they cross the border. (The Southern Reach ordered the group not to become personal with each other henceforth there not being any names in the book besides their profession, which they refer to each other by)
When the group reaches Area X they start making for their base camp which takes four days of long hiking to get to. On their way to camp, they notice a bizarre structure that the Biologist refers to as “The Tower” while the others firmly disagree insisting that it is a tunnel. At base camp, the group prepares to explore and document the anomalies around them in this hostile
When the group reaches the tower they debate over who goes down and who stays up. after a while of bickering, it was decided that The Anthropologist, The Surveyor, and The Biologist will go down, while the Psychologist would stay to stand guard. When the group enters the tower the first thing The Biologist notices is writing on the wall made out of a strange moss-like substance, it was alive and yet kept a consistent cursive message.
“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…”
The Biologist inspects this anomaly and in the process gets infected with spores that come off of the plant. Deciding it would be a bad idea to tell the rest of the crew, she keeps it secret. Back at base camp that night, as the crew is eating dinner The Psychologist sends all but The Biologist into a hypnotic state. (The Biologist believed that because of the spore that is now occupying her body, she is no longer prone to become hypnotized.) The Psychologist says, “You will continue to see a structure that is made of coquina and stone. You will trust your colleagues completely and feel a continued sense of fellowship with them. When you emerge from the structure, any time you see a bird in flight it will trigger a strong feeling that you are doing the right thing, that you are in the right place. When I snap my fingers, you will have no memory of this conversation but will follow my directives. You will feel very tired and you will want to retire to your tents to get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s activities. You will not dream. You will not have nightmares.” After that, the crew all retired one by one.
When the crew wakes, they find that The Anthropologist is missing, while The Psychologist (Who was looking shocked and dirty) merely says “We had a discussion last night and she decided that she wanted to go home” after a short pause, The Biologist decides that she and The Surveyor should head back down into the tower, The Psychologist agrees but on the condition that she stays to “stand guard” at the entrance to the tower.
After an hour of walking down into the depths, The Surveyor suddenly spooks due to her seeing something slumped up against the corner. We learn here that the figure was The Anthropologist burned alive, and there was evidence of another person being there, who The Biologist assumes to be The Psychologist, she makes an assumption that The Anthropologist must have seen whatever was writing on the wall (The Crawler), and went to collect samples and in the process got killed.
Genuinely spooked, the pair head back up to the surface to discover that The Psychologist is nowhere to be found. After three hours of searching the duo head back to base camp and take turns standing guard. In the middle of the night, The Biologist notices that the lighthouse in the distance has mysteriously lit up. In the morning The Biologist argues with The Surveyer over whether or not they should explore the lighthouse. After a while, it was decided that The Biologist would go and The Surveyor would head back to the border for exfil.
Halfway to the lighthouse, The Biologist finds herself in a village filled with explosions of moss in the shape of people. After hiking through the village she finds herself facing the western ocean, and sees a dolphin with human eyes leap out of the water.
When The Biologist reaches the lighthouse, the first few things she notices are some barricades surrounding the lighthouse (Which we learn was set up by a previous expedition) and a pile of bones in what she assumes to be a substitute graveyard.
When The Biologist enters she is appalled by the left-over gore from a previous massacre that occurred there. After reaching the top she notices a photo of “The Lighthouse keeper” with his face circled with a red substance. In the main room of the lighthouse, she notices a trapdoor that leads into a compartment filled with journals of past expeditions. One of these journals (The Biologist’s Husband’s) entails the story of how the expedition ended in insanity, and even with them discovering that a person’s intestines were moving like snakes inside his stomach (or so it is said). It also told us that Caine (The husband – That’s the name from the movie adaption, in the book we don’t get an actual name until book 3, so because it’s easier we will refer to him as Caine) and his friend were marching back to base camp when they saw Doppelgängers of themselves marching into the tower.
We also learn that the border is expanding and will eventually take over the whole world if it is not stopped. The Biologist heads back to base camp where she encounters an insane Surveyer trying to shoot her. After a long bloody fight, The Biologist comes out victorious but wounded. Back at camp, she finds the place has been ransacked. After a while of testing the moss anomaly, she discovers a note from The Surveyer saying: “The Anthropologist came back… I took care of her.” After a while, The Biologist can no longer resist the urge to travel back down to the tower. After about a week (It doesn’t say specifically) of walking down the tower, The Biologist encounters the crawler, which almost kills her but then for some reason stops and lets her go by. The Biologist no longer has the will to continue on so she looks back at the crawler and sees the man in the photo in the lighthouse inside of it.
The book ends with the Biologist mentioning that she will travel off the coast to try and find Caine. Her last words in the journal were.
“I am not coming back”
You can listen to Annihilation here. You can buy Annihilation here (It is also free with kindle unlimited). You can watch Annihilation here. (The movie does not follow the book in any sense and is rated R due to Explicit content, Extreme Violence, and Strong language. You have been warned.)
Mathias Ginders Blog 