Annihilation

I recently finished Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. I sought out the book after watching the film adaptation. The film stars Nathalie Portman and Oscar Isaacs. It is very good. It is exactly the sort of unsettling horror mood piece for which I am a cheap date. So, after discovering Vandermeer to be have a highly interesting twitter account, I decided to seek out the book.

The book is very different from the film. I could tell that the book was the source material, but the deviations were extreme. Initially I was curious why the deviations were so extreme. But as I got further into the book I understood. Annihilation makes heavy use of its medium. It is a book. It is a written account, and it is written not as a story that you happen to be reading. It is written as a written account of the story which you are reading, and that difference is integral to the eventual conclusion of the story.

I doubt that the book as written would work as a film. I am not sure the book could be adapted exactly as written. And I find that really interesting. I like how integral the medium is to work.