Do you like science fiction and horror stories that make you question reality and your own identity? If so, you might want to read Annihilation, the first novel in writer Jeff VanderMeers Southern Reach trilogy.

Annihilation narrates the expedition of four women (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist and a surveyor) to an area known as Area X, an abandoned coastal area isolated from the rest of civilization. They are the twelfth expedition to enter Area X; the previous ones have ended in disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers and mental trauma. The biologist, who is the narrator of the novel, has a personal interest in Area X, since her husband was part of the eleventh expedition and returned without memory and died of cancer shortly after.

In Area X, the four women discover an underground structure with a spiral staircase leading down to the ground. Inside the structure (which the biologist calls a Tower while the others call it a Tunnel), they find strange writing on the wall made of bioluminescent plant material, as well as slime and footprints on the ground. As the biologist examines the writing, she inhales spores from the plant material. Back at the base camp, the biologist realizes that the psychologist is hypnotizing the group to control them; the biologist can see it now, because her spores have made her immune to hypnosis. Influenced by the psychologist, the group decides to return to the Tower the next day to explore its lower levels.

The next day, the anthropologist has disappeared and the psychologist -who seems visibly upset- explains that the anthropologist was scared by what they found in the Tower and decided to abandon the mission and return to the border. The biologist suspects that the psychologist is lying, but they have no choice but to continue with her story.

What follows is a nightmare of terror and wonder, as the women are confronted with the horrors and mysteries of Area X, while their own personalities and memories fade and transform. Annihilation is a novel that grabs you from the first page and plunges you into a world where nothing is what it seems and where the greatest danger may lie within yourself.