I was excited to be finishing this trilogy. To discover what other secrets Area X and the Southern Reach held. But… I didn’t find it as compelling as the first two books in the Southern Reach series. Annihilation and Authority followed single characters navigating new and increasingly bizarre situations. This books followed several characters and was less about the strangeness around them, and more about them as individuals. Each chapter felt like a character-driven vignette loosely strung together with the .

This wasn’t a bad thing, necessarily. But it wasn’t what I had expected. I enjoyed meeting characters we had only really heard about and barely met, and seeing more of their motivations and feelings. Saul, the lighthouse keeper, was most definitely my favourite, and his chapters were always a delight. They were also bittersweet, as we already know where his story ends. Seeing him get there was heart-wrenching. The Director was, in some ways, the most interesting. Her story bridges the gap between the first two books in a lot of ways.

There are so many links and chains and circles in this trilogy, and I think this book brings many of them to light in a fascinating way. Parts of the narrative starting as others end, people’s stories ending only also to begin. Themes and motifs running through and so many questions begged with so precious few answers given.

A longer review can be read on my book blog: Marvel at Words.