Praiseworthy Pages

Reader Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (4/5 stars)

This genuinely might be the weirdest book I’ve ever read. Reason doesn’t really exist within Area X, and it’s this gorgeous, almost ethereal world that the main character gets plunked in the middle of, betrayal and confusion at every turn. From the get-go, it intoxicated me, and I couldn’t stop reading. I’m well aware that this type of novel is not for everyone–it takes a special kind of funky, I think, to appreciate the strangeness that is VanderMeer’s Annihilation–but for me, it scratched a part of my brain that I hadn’t realized was screaming to be itched. I absolutely recommend it, but be warned: you’ll get to the end of it and ask yourself, “What the heck did I just read?”

Language: 7/10 (Occasional swearing, mild swearing).
Sex: 7/10 (Allusions to sex).
Violence and gore: 6/10 (Moderately detailed depictions of violence and gore).

Plot: 9.5/10 (This book is like nothing you’ve ever read before. It’s weird. It’s unnerving and startling and eerie and utterly captivating. I couldn’t put it down because it kept drawing me in, leaving me begging for more. Literally the minute I finished it, I went searching for how I could get my hands on book two).
Characters: 7.5/10 (Fascinating, but a little flat. The main character shines, but the supporting cast is fairly one-dimensional. However, there are only, like, three characters that the main character interacts with, and none of them for very long, so there isn’t a lot of fleshing out an author can do with so little time).
Writing style: 10/10 (Gorgeous. Evocative and ponderous. The words fly off the page and just take off, soaring. It’s lyrical and beautiful while being also haunting and forlorn. Writers can take a page from VanderMeer’s book when it comes to writing well).

Genre: Adult literature, science fiction, speculative fiction, horror
Potential triggers: Murder, loss of loved ones, failing marriage, cancer, lies, drowning, etc.
Is this book part of a series? Yes.
I would recommend this book to readers aged 18+.