As someone who enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy I was excited to get additional answers regarding Area X. It's been a while since I read the first three books, but even so, I was extremely lost while reading this book. The three stories were disconnected and the last section was so out there with f-bombs and sexual references that I just wanted to be done by that point (I have nothing against that sort of thing, but the quantity was so distracting). I think someone who was absolutely in love with the original trilogy would enjoy this book, but as a casual fan this was definitely not for me.

I can't claim to have fully understood Jeff VanderMeer's Absolution — but if anything, the Southern Reach series is about the fact that you don't have to fully understand something in order to love it. It is a unique gift to love something beyond your comprehension. Which is to say — I loved Absolution very much.

VanderMeer's new entry into the beloved sci-fi series contains three narratives about three expeditions, which blur and overlap like strata, cyclical and circling. I found Absolution to be both a thrilling and deeply rewarding read. As soon as I was finished I wanted to hop back to the start and read it again with the context of its end — and, to me, that's an indicator of a truly great story.

The Southern Reach series has and always will have a very special place in my heart, as some of the books that got me back into reading for fun in the trenches of 2020. It was a joy and a gift to spend more time in VanderMeer's terrifying and magical world.

Many thanks to MCD and NetGalley for providing this e-gally!

A key theme of this series for me is I Have No Idea What is Going On but it is a Vibe. That theme very much continues in this three-part prequel!

There are answers here that give me the sense that I have some tenuous understanding, but this novel still leaves scope for speculation with the introduction of more questions. As with the rest of the series, I don't think it'll suit people who seek clear closure - the beauty and horror of Area X is in its mystery.

This novel is divided into three parts:

Dead Town is focused on a dossier detailing the events of a Central operation on the Forgotten Coast twenty years prior to the appearance of the Area X border. This part is the most similar to the first book in the series, Annihilation.

The False Daughter reintroduces us to Old Jim, first introduced in Acceptance, but only mentioned briefly a couple of times. This part has similarities with Authority, in that it's more of an exploration of the machinations of Central. However I enjoyed it much more than Authority, which was my least favourite of the series. I felt like Central's motivations were a little clearer and the characters and backdrop of the Forgotten Coast were more compelling. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Old Jim and Cass.

The First and The Last is the part I was looking forward to most - an account of the ill-fated first expedition to Area X! It is from the point of view of Lowry, who is an unpleasant person to put it mildly, and unfortunately this made it difficult to get into. I'm not adverse to an unlikable main character - the difficulty came from the fact that pretty much every other word was fuck. It was just painful to read for the first few chapters, but thankfully it calms down after a while and gives way to an account of the first expedition that absolutely lived up to my expectations!

Overall a very satisfying prequel!

This book was a head trip. Centering around the bizarre and surreal landscape that is the ecological rorschach test that is Area X, we get three different points of view on the disturbing yet beautiful world VanderMeer has created. Full of psy-ops and clandestine field agents VanderMeer uses intense stream of consciousness prose to deeply envelop you in a confusing yet compelling journey into Area X

This book raises just as many questions as it does answers and will leave you wanting even more from the world of The Southern Reach. As with all the other books in this series, this one has its own unique voice it sings with and being broken into three distinct parts, sings in the different octaves within the same book.
Now, get in the barrel...

As a recent fan of Jeff VanderMeer's work, this book was very exciting to me. I remember seeing the Annihilation film adaptation in theaters when it first came out and it quickly hooked me, ultimately becoming one of my all time favorites. I was always curious what the book version of it would be like, but never sought out to read it (possibly out of fear it would somehow change my view of the film). Then, this year after reading Jeff VanderMeer’s first novel, Veniss Underground, and absolutely loving it in substance and form; I decided to finally dive into the literary world of the Southern Reach series. I binged the first three books and found Annihilation to be my favorite of the three by far. I loved the unsettling Area X atmosphere created in Annihilation and the characters’ distorted perception of reality. I was a little disappointed by the sequels though, which I felt didn’t reach that same feeling for me and took the focus of the story too far away from the strange atmospheric elements that I loved inside of Area X.

I’ve been highly anticipating Absolution this year since finishing the first three books in hopes that it would bring back the elements I loved so much in Annihilation.

Now after freshly reading this ARC my initial thoughts are that about half of it worked for me and gave me that same feeling as reading Annihilation, but unfortunately some of the other sections (mostly in the second half) lost my interest. I do admire though how VanderMeer’s writing style experiments with perspective so you never really know what you’ll get chapter to chapter.

Despite my mixed feelings, I would still rank this as my second favorite book of the series and would be interested to see what the film adaptations of these sequels would be like.

Overall, I really enjoy Jeff VanderMeer’s work as one of the leading authors of weird fiction. I’m excited to dive into some of his other series and keep up with his future works too!

Do you ever worry that reading a prequel will be dramatically unfulfilling, because you know where the story is headed? Well. Don't worry about that here. Okay, caveat - it's been 8+ years since I read <I>Authority</I> and <I>Acceptance</I>, and I remember nothing of the wider explanation (if any?) of the origins of Area X, so if there are hooks here to the other books of the increasingly-inaccurately-named Southern Reach Trilogy, aside from the presence of a lighthouse, I wouldn't be the one to spot them. But I definitely didn't spot any.

And yet, I can't say the book is standalone, exactly, since it so clearly exists in the context of all that came before it (to steal a phrase from the current zeitgeist) - the overall vibe should be familiar from <I>Annihilation</I>, and at minimum it assumes you know about Area X. I sure hope that people more recently familiar with the other books can understand it in relationship to those. I, personally, never had any idea what was going on beyond the broad strokes of "this is the story of early investigation into what would eventually be called Area X", and the story (especially in the final act) was often deliriously unmoored from anything approaching sense.

<B>And I had a blast</b>.

<I>Annihilation</i> trained me not to particularly expect to understand what was going on, so I felt unconcerned with trying. I just let the weird (or Weird) shit wash over me and enjoy the ride, but I expect many people will not find it so enjoyable. In particular the final third of the book, whose narration is particularly tripping balls and stream of consciousness and vulgar, but the prose struck me with a sort of profane virtuosity that made it impossible to look away.

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads on 10/18/24. Review will be posted to Amazon on release date.

Area X is back and y’all it was wild. The pacing of this novel was really well done. I easily found myself falling back into the world of Southern Reach and Area X as if this book wasn’t being released a decade after the original trilogy. I loved the structure of this novel and getting to see the three of parts of it play out. VanderMeer is an expert of writing scenes that make my skin absolutely crawl. This book had so many scenes just like that that made me put down the book to take a break. It’s haunting and I know that I’ll be carrying a bit of Area X and Southern Reach with me forever.

“𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭,” 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥. “𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱.”

Perhaps all the questions and answers were always at the beginning of life. And the rest of it was problem-solving to make the answers work for the questions. How we ever got to being plagued by the back and forth of knowing and not knowing will be the defined death of my teens and twentysomethings.

Signs. Foreshadowing. Watch the animals. Everything makes sense in the end. A lot is uncovered here, which feels at times fan service, but totally its own. Split into different chapters, it stands as a prequel produced by HBO with hour-long episodes that drag a bit in parts two and three, but is evidently a strong final season as a fourth book and should be read as so.

Vandermeer never fails to create a rich, fascinating world, carnivorous of itself, leaving trails low theory and speculation as everything constantly dies and grows, without end, even trust and the beauty of it all.

Like the original trilogy, each chapter left me with more questions than answers to my already mile long list. I enjoyed immersing myself in the world and liked the three different timelines that allowed a deeper look into the before and after of Area X.
Too little Saul and too much swearing in part three but otherwise an enjoyable addition.
If you’ve made it to the fourth book anyway, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this!

Well, I was absolutely excited to read this book, especially because reading Annihilation all those years ago changed my brain chemistry, and I've looked for books just like it ever since. It also left me with lots of questions and some existential dread, which was part of the experience.

Absolution is comprised of three parts, who are tied together but could also be read separately, and I believe that the enjoyability of the three is tied to how much one liked the three parts of the Southern Reach trilogy.

The first story, Dead Town, is the most reminiscent of Annihilation. Though it takes place twenty years before the border came down, it is just as weird and eerie. It narrates an expedition/research/mission in Dead Town, and it starts regular enough, just scientists doing their thing... but then odd things start happening, they could be explained but they are just odd enough to keep the reader on their toes. What is real? What is a coincidence? What is just a weird allucination?
It is surreal and dream-like, subtly unsettling, there is no sense of time or reality (for the reader and the characters), it leaves you confused and horrified. To me, this was the most fun and most engaging story of the three: it sucked me in and made me question reality, and I could not stop turning the pages, even though I sensed it would end in disaster.

The second story, The False Daugher, takes place 18 months before the border came down and it read like a spy story. The main character is Old Jim who, after having rewieved the files of the first story, is sent on a mission in Dead Town. But he's not alone: Central sends him a present of sorts, his lost daughter. But is she truly his daughter, or is she an impostor? As the story progresses, the plots unravels, though it is mostly detective work and not quite creepy or weird, which reminded me a lot of Authority. In my opinion, the beginning and the ending were strong, while the middle part dragged a bit and felt like a chore to read, perhaps it could have been shorter. However, I truly enjoyed Old Jim as a character and I loved the relationship he built with the false daughter. Also, this story builds the setting for the last one.

The last story, The First and The Last, was the wildest ride of the bunch. The first half was a special kind of torture, because the main character (Lowry) is insufferable and swears so much that it's truly difficult to follow the narrative. Really, I almost decided not to finish the book because I could physically not read just another sentence. However, I pushed through because I wanted to come back to the Area X, and I'm glad I did. And I would urge everyone to be patient: the second part is definitely worth it. This story follows the first human expedition into the Area X, and as soon as they set foot in it, shit gets wild. It's so nonsensical and eerie, yet impossible to put down. Just like the protagonist, the reader feels the pull of the Area X. At least, I felt it. The more it pushed on, the worse it got, the more I enjoyed the experience. Of the three, this is the most gruesome and openly unsettling.


Overall, I think that everyone who loved even one of the books in the series will find something to enjoy in this book. Fair warning: there will not be answers, but that's to be expected from this kind of stories: what truly matters is the journey, and the journey is a wild ride.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment truly mirrored that of the series: it was mixed. But I'm happy that I read Absolution and that I was able to come back to the absolute weirdness and eeriness of the Area X.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down to 3 because of the writing style of the last story, but could possibly be rounded up in the next months as I absorb the story more.

Coming back into this ethereal world after years was a treat. The perfect blend of surreal sci fi with some horrifying elements, Absolution is a great venture back into Area X. If you've read the first three books and enjoyed them, I definitely recommend. Split into three novellas, the stories within provide a little bit more information but as always, the reader will leave with more questions than answers. A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a gifted free copy in exchange for my thoughts!

I absolutely loved this sci-fi horror book! It’s got that wonderfully "deeply weird" vibe that pulled me in and made me feel a little unsettled, in the best way possible.

The story is told through the eyes of Old Jim, who works for a mysterious government organisation called “Central.” He’s been through a lot, especially after the heartbreaking loss of his daughter. Now, he’s on a quest to uncover what happened to a team of biologists who vanished in Area X.

Absolution was everything I hoped for and more! I felt completely immersed in this bizarre nightmare while answering some questions I never even thought to ask. One of the key storylines follows Lowry, the head of Central during "Annihilation" and "Authority/Acceptance," who is also the only survivor of the first expedition into Area X. By the end, I gained some real clarity—not just about the origins of Area X, but about its mysterious effects on the surrounding landscape.

If you're a fan of Jeff VanderMeer like I am, you'll probably find this book incredibly enjoyable; the different storytelling styles kept things feeling fresh. It’s a bit like riding a wave of weirdness—you might feel like you’re just barely keeping your head above water, but that’s part of the journey, right? I know that style isn’t for everyone, though. I'd also recommend it to folk wanting to explore sci-fi, weird lit.

The great news is, you can dive into this book even if you haven’t read any of the Southern Reach series. Absolution is beautifully unsettling, brilliantly bizarre!

Thanks Netgalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the arc.

I enjoyed the three books in the Southern Reach trilogy which were originally what got me into reading science fiction. Unfortunately this book did not hold up and I DNF at 16%. This book was confusing in ways the other three weren’t.

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer is a haunting and mesmerizing return to the enigmatic world of Area X, providing long-awaited answers while unraveling even more mysteries. Structured around three new expeditions, the novel delves deeper into the origins and implications of the surreal and unsettling phenomena introduced in the Southern Reach trilogy. VanderMeer masterfully balances the eerie beauty of his prose with the creeping dread that permeates the narrative, offering readers a satisfying yet unsettling conclusion. Fans of the original trilogy will relish this final installment, as it brings both closure and new, thought-provoking questions about humanity’s role in shaping and understanding the unknown.

Could you lose your mind to an unanswerable question or just your soul?

Jeff VanderMeer's Absolution is a masterful addition to the Southern Reach series, deepening the chilling narrative of Area X while preserving the eerie ambiguity that defines it. The novel unfolds in three interconnected parts, each enhancing the overarching mystery.

The first section, "Dead Town," recounts an expedition of biologists exploring the forgotten coast two decades before the Area X border was established. Here, horror and suspense intertwine as unsettling creatures and strange occurrences create an atmosphere thick with dread.

Next, "The False Daughter" shifts focus to Old Jim, a familiar character from Acceptance. VanderMeer shines in his character development, crafting an emotionally charged and suspenseful narrative that resonates powerfully.

Finally, "The First and The Last" offers Lowry’s firsthand account of his harrowing journey. This standout section is rich with dark humor and disturbing imagery, perfectly balancing the horror and absurdity of the experience.

VanderMeer's prose alternates between lyrical beauty and unsettling horror, exploring the dual cruelties of nature and humanity. His haunting imagery and pervasive sense of déjà vu draw readers deeper into the story.

Absolution answers lingering questions while introducing new ones, fueling the intrigue that has captivated fans of the series. This installment expertly combines dark comedy and unsettling moments, taking readers on a beautifully terrifying journey that leaves them both satisfied and yearning for more. VanderMeer continues to solidify his status as a master of contemporary speculative fiction.

A Haunting Return to Area X

Jeff VanderMeer's Absolution serves as a captivating conclusion to the Southern Reach trilogy, delving deeper into the mysterious Area X and its enigmatic allure. The novel offers a fresh perspective, exploring the origins of the anomaly and the consequences of human intervention.

VanderMeer masterfully weaves a narrative that is both thought-provoking and unsettling. The prose is evocative and atmospheric, painting vivid images of the desolate landscape and the strange creatures that inhabit it. The characters, while few in number, are complex and well-developed, each grappling with their own demons and uncertainties.

One of the strengths of Absolution is its ability to raise profound questions about the nature of existence, consciousness, and the limits of human understanding. The novel challenges our preconceived notions and forces us to confront the unknown with a sense of awe and trepidation.

While some readers may find the pacing to be slower than in the previous books, the deliberate exploration of themes and the rich world-building make the journey worthwhile. Absolution is a satisfying conclusion to a remarkable trilogy that will leave a lasting impression on readers.

My Goodreads, Storygraph, and Fable reviews are all far simpler than what I'm about to say here. But my god. If this is a conclusion to the series, it's a damn good one. I have thoroughly enjoyed each of these books and it is now 1:05am because I couldn't put Absolution down once I hit Lowry's perspective. This feels like a conclusion, but if it is not, I will happily read all future installments. I loved every bit of Old Jim's story, and love how Jeff VanderMeer doesn't seem to waste a single word (even with Lowry's perspective...all the fucks...but I mean, he was high, so it's forgiven). I love how he is easily able to connect threads from the other books in new ones, so that everything feels cohesive even when the style changes slightly to accommodate new perspectives. Thank you, truly, for the opportunity to read this before publication.

Absolution is prototypical VanderMeer, for better or for worse. More similar to his more recent works, this was a fever dream wrapped in a K-hole, complete with body horror, cosmic horror, and the meandering prose that the genre is known for. Fans of Annihilation may not like this, but if you liked Authority and Acceptance, then you will.

Absolution is a set of three stories around the "creation" of Area X. We start with a group of biologists who are tasked with running mysterious experiments in the marshes near the town where Area X begins. This is the story that is most like Annihilation, filled with intrigue, horrific experiences, and hazy mystery as we follow the groups slow departure from sanity. The second story, in many ways occurs in tandem to the first, following Old Jim, the bartender in the nearby town, but in reality an operative from Central. Tasked with finding out the details of what happened to the biologists, he is forced to report to Jackie, the daughter of Jack who is the head of Central, and with Cass, the doppleganger of his vanished daughter. This story is much more similar to Hummingbird Salamander, and Authority/Acceptance, more noir in tone with an unsettling mystery at its center. The last story follows Lowry, the head of Central during Annihilation/Authority/Acceptance, and the know only survivor of the first expedition into Area X, and yes, we do indeed follow this expedition. While it sounds like it might be similar to Annihilation, it was more similar to Dead Astronauts in that the narrative is colored heavily by Lowry's quirks and seemingly declining mental stability. All in all, we get a clearer picture, not necessarily of HOW Area X came to be, but the extent of the mystery for the ways in which Area X affects the landscape.

As I referenced before, devout fans of VanderMeer are going to like this a lot because it's a style consolidation of many of his works, Annihilation, Dead Astronauts, Hummingbird Salamander. But more discerning fans may have a harder time with this. I personally enjoyed it quite a bit. The variety in the styles of the stories kept it interesting and intriguing. Like much Weird literature, there's a feeling of just barely being able to keep you head above water with regard to following the narrative, a feeling I appreciate but many may not. There's a feeling of sterility in the way some of the shocking things happen in this book, as if it's being observed as a part of a case study rather than a narrative. There isn't much weigh, or importance lent to things like cannibalism or brutal dismemberment, adding to the eerie feeling of the book.

In many ways I do miss the accessibility of Annihilation in being able to tell a simultaneously creepy and coherent story, but Acceptance/Authority should be able to prepare a reader for this experience. If you are a fan of the trilogy, then absolutely give this a shot.

When I was 15, my mother brought home a rabbit for my younger sister who was 5 at the time. I grew up in a small town in Australia whose local economy was built on the sugar cane industry. We lived in the centre of the remains of an ancient super volcano caldera with a sea of 12 ft tall sugar cane fields surrounding us on all sides.
The rabbit my mother brought home was a large albino with blood-red eyes. She found him on the side of the road out in the middle of the sugar cane. My sister adored him, I did not.
For reasons known only to him, he never *did* anything but eat the food we gave him, and occasionally pace around his enclosure or the living room when my sister brought him inside.
I remember him sitting with her, facing the TV, but due to the location of his eyes on his head, and the angle of the couches in the living room, it always looked like he was staring at me.
I developed a habit of staying in my room when she had him inside.

6 months later, my mum brings home a new rabbit - she’s worried the albino one is lonely due to his strange behaviour. He is adorable. My sister names him Junior. He is only 4 months old but he is very friendly and inquisitive. He learns how to ask us for food by nudging our hands and his this beautiful brown-eyed grey and white floppy ear.

Months go by, and I notice a small tear in Junior’s left ear. It’s healed, it kind of looks like the one they give cats when they get desexed. I ask my mum about this. She doesn’t know where it came from. A little while later there is now an entire hole in his ear, another appears days later. A week later I’m feeding the rabbits and I notice a pink tinge to the white parts of Junior’s fur. I inspect him and find numerous scratches and cuts on his back and sides. We take him to the vet. There is nothing medically wrong with him. Another week goes by and this time my mum and I catch the albino rabbit in the act. He has pinned junior down and is gnawing on his ears and neck, drawing blood.

We act immediately, removing the albino from the cage. He resists us scratching us both pretty badly, we are both lucky they don’t get infected. We end up getting him into the car, where my mum drives off deep into the sugar cane, releasing him back where he was found. We decide to tell my sister he just escaped. She is sad for a bit but gets over it.

Why am I telling you all of this in a review for Absolution? I had forgotten all about this awful saga - it’s been 13 years and I haven’t thought about it once, until I got part way through the first of three parts in this unhinged book. Why? You’ll have to read it to find out, and I strongly recommend that you do.

I’m here to say that I am terribly disappointed with Absolution.

I loved Annihilation. I read it during a college course in the peak of covid, and, it just vibed. I’m not going to expound more on how much I loved Annihilation, but I really really did. It’s still in my top ten favorite novels, and likely will be for a long time.

With that said, I ended up DNFing Authority at about the 40% mark. When I saw the synopsis for Absolution, it felt so much like Annihilation that I had hoped this newest book would redeem the sequel that just hadn’t clicked with me. I thought that Jeff VanderMeer delving back into Area X, unspooling a tale about the first expedition would unravel a beautiful, mystifying journey like Annihilation had.

Absolution had just about zero beautiful or mystifying elements.

Told in three parts, the novel started off promising. It did detail a first expedition to the Forgotten Coast. The novel kept with its theme of calling expedition members by their tasks (which I actually like?). However, having it told not from the point of view of one of the expedition members but from an overseer’s (Old Jim’s) point of view, taking away all of the suspense. It felt like a crime detective trying to piece together the events of a scene after the fact. Not necessarily a bad tactic; it gave a new perspective, different questions, at the cost of creating an engaging read. The events aren’t happening to our narrator, so there’s wasn’t the same pressure, anticipation for the next reveal as there was for the biologist in Annihilation.

Then, in the second act, VanderMeer pivots us, pushing us back to see our narrator, Old Jim, as he grapples with his estrangement from his daughter, his confrontations with Central, and his attempts to unravel the workings of Central and the first expedition. I made it through about a quarter of this section before I began to skim. If the stakes felt low in the first section, they were at rock bottom by the time I reached this point. I didn’t pick up Absolution for the backstory of another seemingly pointless character, or even to see more of the inner-workings of Central. Absolution lost me for the exact same reasons that Authority did. They focused too much on Central and corporate machinations rather than Area X, the real heart of Southern Reach.
So, yes, I skimmed the second act. It did have its interesting moments that caused me pause, but not enough to really garner my interest.

And then there’s the third act.

Whew.

The third act was definitely not for me. The first couple of pages contained so much repetitive swearing, that I felt like it was all I was reading. It felt so confusingly disconnecting from anything that had come before it, that I don’t even know what the purpose was. It felt nothing like the two earlier parts, and the furthest thing from the nuance in Annihilation. I gave up. I barely read any of it, and honestly, I don’t feel like I missed anything.

Overall, as I’m sure is obvious, this was so far from the book I’d been hoping for, but maybe should have expected after DNFing Authority. The synopsis of the book really pulled the weight for the novel, presenting it as a mystifying return to Area X, everything that I had hoped for in Authority, but the book itself proved to be anything but. If not for being granted this ARC, I would have DNFed Absolution at 30%, but I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, that’s more than I feel this book deserved.