Seeking Meaning in VanderMeer’s Annihilation
August 19, 2026
By Derek F. DiMatteo
You might recall the 2018 film directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac, which is solidly in the genre of science fiction and body horror; well, Annihilation the novel by Jeff VanderMeer is almost completely different and thankfully much better because it plays within the psychological realm rather than in horror (although some claim the movie is better). I’m not going to compare the two here (that’s already been done)—my focus is on what makes VanderMeer’s novel interesting to me from an environmental literature perspective.
If you are unfamiliar with the novel, the premise is that sometime in a post-Event future, a phenomenon is occurring in a place called Area X somewhere in a region of the USA named the Southern Reach, which reminds me of coastal Maine, although some readers suggest it is more likely set along the coast of the mid-Atlantic states. The phenomenon cannot be explained and is being kept a secret from the general population, and the government has been sending expeditions into Area X to conduct research on the exact nature of the phenomenon, a task that takes on increasing urgency as its boundary expands slowly yet inexorably outward. The expeditions take measurements, make maps, and write journals, but most of the expeditions result in high numbers of casualties. The novel is narrated by a biologist who was on one of these expeditions, and the novel approximates what she might have been writing in her journal during the expedition, which like so many before hers ends in failure. None of the characters are named; we know them only by their professions or roles within the expedition.
Within Area X are two landmarks: the lighthouse and the tower. The lighthouse stands by the seashore and serves as the repository of the journals left behind by the members of the expeditions. The biologist’s visit to the lighthouse also reveals it as the site of several battles, including between expedition members and unknown assailants as well as among expedition members. The lighthouse’s symbolic opposite is the tower, so called by the biologist, with the caveat that instead of thrusting into the sky, the tower spirals downward underground. The tower contains mysterious sentences on its walls, written by some sort of supernatural being that the biologist encounters while descending the tower’s staircase.
The words written on the tower walls captivate the expedition members, and they transcribe them into their journals and attempt to decipher their meaning. These attempts are generally unsuccessful, and the words themselves appear to have been written and rewritten in palimpsests over decades. Fungi grow from the lettering, and the biologist inhales some spores, which causes her to undergo a change or transformation at the cellular level, beginning with her ability to resist hypnosis.
The change/transformation happening to the biologist’s body alters her ability to perceive the world around her, particularly her perceptions of time, space, and life energy. She encounters other creatures within Area X, creatures who appear to have once been human but have since changed into semi-familiar wild animals including boars and dolphins. Other times, the biologist encounters doppelgangers of expedition members—some from the current expedition (such as the anthropologist) and some from past expeditions (such as the doppelganger of her husband). These uncanny creatures are perhaps instances of mimicry, a common strategy in nature as seen in various organisms such as the chameleon, octopus, certain insects, and plants. The purpose of mimicry is survival.
When read as a work of eco-fiction, Annihilation offers readers food for thought regarding nature’s uncanny ability to restore itself after being disrupted by human activity such as war and industrial pollution. Within the bounds of Area X, nature has returned to a state of near perfection since the Event. Area X, or rather the phenomenon that governs that space, rejects digital technology (according to the experiences of earlier expeditions). We never learn why. The novel is constructed around the ambiguity of all aspects of Area X, and no firm answers or explanations are provided to readers—only implied causality and hints at potential meanings. This ambiguity and uncertainty are echoed by the biologist, whose interaction with Area X leads her to conclude that she knows nothing at all about ecosystems or life (p. 175). She comes to this realization while recalling a memory from decades ago when she was still a graduate student, during a summer research trip when she encountered a particular type of starfish nicknamed “destroyer of worlds.” To me, this is a callback to the novel’s title and to the supernatural creature the biologist encounters in the tower. It suggests that humanity hasn’t behaved well as a member of Earth’s ecosystem, and that Area X may represent nature’s cleansing of the human-built environment.
Annihilation is the first novel in what was initially a trilogy but which has become a 5-book series—Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, Absolution, and Abdication—with the final installment due for release in 2027. Having only read the first book, I cannot speak about the entire series, but I enjoyed Annihilation enough to want to continue reading. However, Annihilation is strong enough to stand on its own, and although it offers no answers, the questions it poses are worth pondering. This is one I highly recommend.
References and Resources
VanderMeer, Jeff. Annihilation: 10th anniversary edition. Picador. [2014] 2024.