I find it difficult to get my hands on good cosmic horror. You know, like Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. I like a story that has impossible creatures, unexplained phenomena, and a certain creepiness that sends chills up and down my spine. Writing good cosmic horror seems to be a rare talent, but luckily, Jeff VanderMeer hit that sweet spot with his short novel, Annihilation.
The Nebula-award winning novel was a fun, haunting, and fast read (I got through it over a weekend), and it stuck with me for days afterward.
VanderMeer does a fantastic job of getting inside the protagonist and making her real. This is despite the fact that he never reveals her name, or the names of any of the characters. It’s part of the plot. And oddly, I would think this could be a handicap when writing about multiple characters, but he makes them stand out as individuals. 
One of the things that drew me to this novel was that it’s loosely based on a nearby ecosystem, the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a beautiful and harsh environment, pine forest, salt flats, and a meandering spring-fed river. You can find dolphins, manatee, alligators, and bull sharks on any given day, and the sky is usually dotted with turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks. Having spent time in this natural treasure, it was fun to merge the reality of it with VanderMeer’s fictionalized depiction of it in the book, referred to as Area X.
The story is also somewhat of a slow burn. Tension is introduced right at the beginning, but it gradually builds as the story progresses, along with an impending sense of dread. There’s also a wonderful creepiness to Area X, a mingling of the familiar with the strange. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Annihilation is the first of the Southern Reach trilogy, so I’ll have to pick up the next two in the series. If they are anything like the first, I’m going to enjoy them. And for what it’s worth, there is a movie loosely based on the book. As a stand-alone story, it’s good, but if you’ve read the book, avoid it. It’s deviates too far from the source material.
If you enjoy cosmic horror and things that go bump in the night, check out Annihilation.
RB