ACCEPTANCE (SOUTHERN REACH #3) by Jeff VanderMeer ⭐⭐⭐

I finished the book four hours ago, and I can’t remember anything about the ending except how unconnected I felt to it and the series. If I could recommend anything in a succinct and non-Area X way: stop after the first book.

I’m not sure I’m any good at truly conveying my feelings toward the books I read, but the one thought I realized during this one is that a story should draw you in, make you feel immersed, invested, and bonded to the world that’s been built. And if not that, then to the characters at least. Halfway through Acceptance, it finally clicked that I’d been searching, waiting for that feeling to grab me since the first book, hoping the next one would be the answer before it was too late. And by then, it was.

Which is a shame, because there is a root of something mystically fascinating in this series. Annihilation is by far the best, possibly because it teases the right mysteries without too many tangles. But the entire world has so much potential too, the prose playful and experimenting when not a little irritating. There’s just too much I’m not sure I understood, and I find myself defensive of the things I did.

Almost every molecule is turned into something else by the end, even the story’s structure itself. I wanted to know how it ended if anything just to make sure I didn’t miss some grand reveal or simple explanation. Maybe the absence of that is the point, or maybe I blew through the obvious answers only to prove this was above me. I’ll surely have to Google to find out, and that’s never as satisfying.

I’d compare this to the superior Station Eleven, a similar story of change, danger, and wondering what will happen next. Any fan of this should take a crack at that and see what you think.