This is my CBR White Whale for two reasons. One: I don’t remember when I bought this book, but I’m certain I wasn’t pregnant and the kid is one and a half, so it’s been a minute; two: this beast is nearly 1000 pages. I’m a sucker for cheap books and this was dozens of short stories about time travel – my favorite sci-fi variation – for 2.50 at a local bookstore. I had to buy it, especially because the authors included in this short […]
Annihilation: Consistently CREEPY
While I missed Annihilation in theatres, I was very pleased to see it show up on Netflix. I know there were some mixed reviews, but it certainly got people talking and I was thrilled to see a cast made up almost entirely of women (TESSA THOMPSON) in a real science fiction movie to boot. I had not read the book prior to seeing the movie and had tried to avoid reviews with spoilers. I found the movie deeply unsettling – moody and dark with interesting […]
“The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you.”
I’m a sucker for a book that promises to be a mind-bender and has a bunch of people talking about how weird it is. Enter Annihilation, the first book of the Southern Reach trilogy. The series is about Area X, a strip of coastline that’s been reclaimed by nature and is being shielded from the general public as a military-protected “ecological disaster site.” In the decades since Area X was formed, various expedition teams have gone through the border with the mission of documenting just […]
A satisfying conclusion to the Southern Reach Trilogy
Okay, so reviewing this book is going to be kind of tough. It picks up directly after the events of Authority, and it is full of spoilers, so I don’t want to do any of that. What I might do instead is make a list of why I liked this book, in as vague terminology as possible: The writing. I’ve mentioned Jeff VanderMeer’s craft before, but it bears repeating. The man can put an exciting and terrifying story together. He is patient in setting up […]