Annihilation

Once upon a time, despite loving one of the layers of the shit-cake, I threw House of Leaves across the room, put it on my bookshelf and many months later ended a date with a boy who, upon seeing it on my bookshelf, only commented on how much he loved it.

Annihilation felt like that one layer of House of Leaves that I loved, the layer that kept me reading long after I was done with the book. It is hypnotizing and creepy and wonderful. It taps into the dark parts of the human brain all the while maintaining a detachment that makes complete sense in context, allowing the tension to stay steady from the first to the last page.

If the rest of the trilogy doesn't turn out to be as good I will happily divorce this book from it and recommend it as a stand-alone.