Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (2014)
Part Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" and part creepy music from Lost, the first volume of Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy is an intriguing bit of science fiction along with some strange relationship counseling. I read much of it under a night light, with my wife in the bed next to me already asleep. Perhaps this was the only way to read it, for much of Area X's alluring mystery is that it forces individuals into moments of simultaneous intimacy and suspense; of seeing a particular object as a tunnel or a tower; a time to read the inscriptions of others or to be seen as a guiding light. The juxtapositions within Vandermeer's text are uniquely archetypal and personal. They appear familiar and strange. You keep reading because there is something recognizable in the Crawler, and for anyone who does read, the light of the stuff--these letters--is both profound and indescribable. This is the affect of Vandermeer's strange tale. And the story therefore is both external and internal.