As we follow the small expedition into Area X, Vandermeer builds tension and a sense of dislocation. The story feels tight and claustrophobic - a handful of characters across a few locations, the intimate first-person narrative, the lack of character names, and the slow reveal all paint a vivid picture of an eerie distorted reality.
Our protagonist carries her own personal despair as we come to understand that there’s really no expectation of return. In flashbacks, we see her repeatedly losing herself in a deep, intimate connection with landscapes and ecosystems, so as she explores Area X, her welcoming curiosity for the ecosystem perfectly balances our fear as we ride along first person. We’re forced to see the ecosystem from her biologist’s perspective and fall in love with the body horror.
The team is expendable, experts thrown blindly at the problem with little hope of doing more than taking an incremental step forward in understanding (reading Blindsight so recently, I can’t help but see many parallels). The puzzle of Area X is slowly uncovered but never fully revealed - it’s cosmic horror, beyond human understanding, but still satisfyingly enough resolved for us to get a sense of what’s happened and is happening. I walk away, not needing to know more, without compulsion to pick up the rest of the series; this isn’t a book about answers.
A recommended short read - beautifully written with a compelling protagonist, a vividly realised landscape, and a satisfying ending.
