
It is revealed that the biologist's husband was part of the preceding 11th expedition, from which he had returned unexpectedly, showing up in their kitchen without any recollection of how he got there. The story is told through the biologist's field journal, written near the end of the expedition. The group comprises the 12th expedition into Area X and consists of a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor, none of whom are ever identified by name. Plot summary Ī team of four women (a fifth having abandoned the team before entering) crosses the border into an uninhabited area known as "Area X," an unspecified coastal location that has been closed to the public for three decades. Marks Lighthouse that inspired one of the settings in Annihilation. In March 2014, as part of a piece on VanderMeer and Annihilation, VanderMeer visited the St. He has said that someday he hopes to do a "Weird Nature" anthology as well.


Many of the animals and vegetation that VanderMeer has seen on this hike over the past 17 years appear in the novel. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Florida. The inspiration for Annihilation and the Southern Reach Trilogy was a 14-mile (23 km) hike through St. Ī film based on the novel, starring Natalie Portman, was released by Paramount Pictures on February 23, 2018. The novel won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. They are the 12th expedition the previous expeditions have been fraught with disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma. The area is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization. The book describes a team of four women (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor) who set out into an area known as Area X. It is the first in a series of three books called the Southern Reach Trilogy.

Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer.
