Acceptance
Ratings122
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings122
Average rating3.5
It is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it--the Southern Reach--has collapsed on itself in confusion. Now one last, desperate team crosses the border, determined to reach a remote island that may hold the answers they've been seeking. If they fail, the outer world is in peril. Meanwhile, Acceptance tunnels ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding the creation of Area X--what initiated this unnatural upheaval? Among the many who have tried, who has gotten close to understanding Area X--and who may have been corrupted by it? In this last installment of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may be solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound--or terrifying.
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3 primary booksSouthern Reach is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by Jeff VanderMeer.
Reviews with the most likes.
I really enjoyed all the different viewpoints/times throughout the book, however some were better than others. Overall I really enjoyed the series.
This didn't quite bring it home for me, but it gave the story a decent closing. Note I didn't use the term “resolution.” There sure as hell isn't a tidy bow on the end of this story, which is pretty much to be expected. But I wish the hints at explanation had more follow-through. It's like he gives enough breadcrumbs to make you think there's going to be an “aha!” but then there hardly ever is. We do pretty much get an explanation of how Area X started - but of course, it's wrapped in a lot of “human cognition and perception cannot conceive of this” baggage as well as poetic nature descriptions and first-person hallucinating and navel-gazing, so it can be hard to unpack.
If you're willing to tolerate the ambiguity, I still recommend the series! It brings the weird in a way that's both unique, and also echoes everything from The Color Out of Space to Rebecca to Lilith's Brood.
Wow. This is a good, weird ending to good, weird trilogy. I'm not sure how to process it just yet. I think I'm satisfied.
The third in the trilogy manages to expand on the ideas and characters without trying to tie everything together with a nice little bow, which would be inappropriate for a series that thrives on curiosity and ambiguity. While I couldn't recommend this series to everybody, it's a well-done journey into so-called “weird” territory.
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1,973 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...
