If you're into atmospheric sci-fi with a side of existential dread, "Annihilation" is your kind of read. There's a richness to the way VanderMeer weaves this tale, mixing a haunting landscape with the unraveling minds of the explorers. The fact that each character, especially the narrator, remains a bit of an enigma only thickens the intrigue. Perfect if you enjoy novels that leave space for interpretation and haunt you long after you've turned the last page.

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• Nebula Award for Best Novel (2014)
• Locus Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel (2015)
• Warwick Prize for Writing Nominee for Longlist (2015)
• Shirley Jackson Award for Novel (2014)
• Tähtivaeltaja Award Nominee (2016)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Science Fiction (2014)
• RUSA CODES Reading List Nominee for Science Fiction (2015)

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one anotioner, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers--they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding--but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

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