Annihilation

So this is another book I wouldn't have found without Sword and Laser but boy oh boy am I glad I did.

It's not easy to summarize this book without massive spoilers, but it exists somewhere on the continuum between H.P. Lovecraft and House of Leaves. Even when very little is happening (which is plenty of the time), you are still on the edge of your seat because you known any minute now the silt is going to get real. And then it gets REAL

The narrator in this story is a biologist who studies life without ever truly partaking in it. Her studies of ecosystems, her work, and her marriage are all things she observes without experiencing. Then she volunteer to observe Area X, a twilight zone just barely removed from on our reality. She can't trust her team, her superiors, or herself, and the resulting narrative is brilliantly original. It would be hubris to say I totally understand this book. I don't. It left me very confused and disturbed, and I'm the type of reader who is made happy by that sort of ending.

Also, I am always happy to see a sci-fi book whose away team is composed entirely of female scientists. The other characters don't get a lot of screen time, but hell yes anyway.