Book Review
Title: Acceptance (The Southern Reach Book 3) by Jeff VanderMeer
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: 4 Stars
After the dramatic ending to a subpar book in Authority I was excited to get into the final of The Southern Reach trilogy and learn the answers to the mystery of Area X once and for all. I will say Acceptance has to work hard to claw back my full attention after the disappointment of Authority. Acceptance opens with the ending of Annihilation from the director’s perspective as she is confronted by the biologist and both of them are changing although the director is aware of it while the biologist is not. We then switch to the perspective of Saul Evans, the lighthouse keeper, we learn he is in a relationship with Charlie, a local fisherman and he is being harassed by the Séance & Science brigade consisting of Henry and Suzanne. It is interesting note his relationship with Gloria, a local child who has always seemed a little strange to Saul but he writes it off. On this day, Saul seems something glittering on the beach and when he picks it up it seems to enter him which throws him off especially when Henry becomes overly interested in him rather than the lighthouse and here we are seeing the beginning of Area X. We then switch again to the perspective of the biologist and Control, we learnt at the end of Authority that the biologist is a double of the original and she calls herself Ghost Bird and the pair returned to Area X and they are trying to get to the island as that is where Ghost Bird, who has a unique connection to Area X believes the answers are.
We continue to bounce around in time between three periods, the first is following Saul before Area X and the barrier appeared, the director on her forbidden journey into Area X with Whitby which might explain his deranged behaviour in Authority and how he changed and final following Ghost Bird and Control in the present as they work their way through Area X to the island. I really enjoyed Saul’s perspective as we get to see the forgotten coast before Area X appeared and learn about the director as a young girl and the beginnings of the strange things that would inhabit the area. I also enjoyed the director’s perspective on her solo trip as she is torn between learning more about Area X and seeing the place as home because it was for her growing up despite how much it has changed over the course of her life. At present Ghost Bird and Control’s perspective is the weakest as they are just moving through Area X contemplating everything that has happened to them up until this point with no new information really being presented to the reader but I am hoping something happens soon or some new information is giving to us explaining Area X and why it appeared in the first place.
As we continue to follow the Director and Whitby we can see how deep her connection is to the forgotten coast and maybe that is why she was chosen and changed by Area X upon her death and why she wasn’t really afraid of the changes like others have been. Meanwhile, Saul is beginning to change and the director as a child even recognised this making me think she has been different all her life and these changes do scare Saul in a way but not to the extent of others like Whitby. Saul begins to have strange dreams about what the forgotten coast is going to become but he doesn’t recognise these signs yet. We also switch back to Ghost Bird and Control who are finding evidence of Area X once being lived in and that the new expansion has taken place but the equipment and bodies they come across are in an advanced state of decomposition meaning Area X speeds up this process. This makes it impossible to determine how long things have been in Area X and it throws them off, by the time they find an intact boat to get to the island and the sister lighthouse, they know something or someone is watching them. When they arrive at the lighthouse they begin checking it out to make sure nothing surprises them while they rest only to encounter Grace still seemingly human and unchanged as she was at the end of Authority when Area X expanded.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things get even stranger bringing in the idea of the doubles even more. We learn from the director that Whitby encounters his double in the lighthouse and one of them is killed but she can’t be certain which Whitby came back with her, the real one or the double. With Grace, she checks to make sure that Control isn’t a double which he isn’t as far as we know but she recognises that Ghost Bird is and gives them some information. Grace informs them that she has been on the island for three years which seems impossible since we know Grace has never entered Area X as far as we know which means the Grace that Control knew and tried to save might have been a double or time moves very differently in Area X. If the double theory is true, the Grace during the expansion was a double which explains why she didn’t leave the Southern Reach and showed no fear of the changed director or Area X. If the other theory is true the two weeks since the expansion in the real world amount to three years inside Area X. Grace also has the last will and testament of the real biologist which Control and Ghost Bird begin to read. From the biologists perspective we learn that she spent a long time exploring Area X after her encounter with the Crawler and the psychologist, meaning at that moment the double was created as sent back to the real world, this being Ghost Bird while the real biologist continues to survive inside Area X and was determined to uncover its secrets once and for all. They all seem trapped there since Grace is adamant that the door doesn’t exist anymore although Control omits the information about the ocean door they came through, the one Ghost Bird created.
After reading this document and learning that the biologist lived in Area X for three decades before her transformation, Control unlike Grace and Ghost Bird isn’t equipped to handle this information and it begins getting to him. The information about the previous expedition not really returning but being turned into creatures that inhabit Area X if they were infected by the brightness was interesting and the biologist believes she found her husband in an owl who seems to follow her everywhere and even takes care of her leading her to shelter and bringing her food. Due to finding this information, the biologist fights her change in order to learn and she uncovers the fact that the S&SB have been tampering with the forgotten coast since before Area X appeared and Saul’s chapters seem to confirm this. This might have been the catalyst for the appearance of Area X but this is overshadowed by the fact the changed biologist appears in all her monstrous glory. They realise at this point that Area X isn’t on Earth as they first believed but it seems to be portal to another dimension or planet outside of their control and time works differently here which would explain how Grace and the biologist were there so long when so little time had passed on Earth. When they come face to face with the biologist Ghost Bird finally understands her counterpart in ways she didn’t before but the biologist creature touches Control and reveals so many things to him that seem to be driving him mad because he can’t deal with the information he has been given.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things were definitely getting more interesting and while it seems there are answers being given to us they are only presenting more questions and with only just over 100 pages left I wasn’t sure how VanderMeer was going to wrap everything up. Things are progressing to the climax as Ghost Bird determines they need to head to the tower for the purpose of finding the Crawler which might hold the final key. However, Control wants to go to the tower to see the light at the bottom describes by the biologist and the director, he also seems to be infected by the brightness. However, rather than consciously fighting or accepting it he seems to be somewhere in the middle, open to the idea of changing but terrified by it all the same. Through the director we learn about the beginnings of the twelfth expedition only a few months after the last eleventh one. She fights for the biologist to be part of the team as she and Whitby agree that she already has a unique connection to Area X through her husband despite never crossing the border. The director also plans to go on the expedition because she has cancer, not the cancer that the members of the eleventh expedition died from but regular old cancer and she sees one last trip across the border as better than retiring and fading from existence. Meanwhile, through Saul we realise that the end is near as Gloria goes to stay with her father for a few months and we know she will never return. Saul’s sickness is also getting worse but it comes in waves often related to Henry which might be because of the serum found in some documents by the director. He is experiencing visions of world ending disasters while nothing happens around him and Saul comments that it is like witnessing the death of some far off world and not being able to do anything about it but mourn its loss. Now Grace, Control and Ghost Bird have reached the tower and something comes over Control as he takes charge and gives orders for Grace to guard the entrance while he and Ghost Bird descend. He also tells her if they aren’t back in three hours she doesn’t have any responsibility for them. It seems like we are coming full circle ending at the beginning and the entire series might be a time loop told backwards with the first book being the ending and the last book begin the beginning but we will have to see.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I had an idea of how the novel would end but I have no idea what sort of twists VanderMeer might pull out at the final moment. The ending of Acceptance was strange as I was right in a way that the entire trilogy is a circle but there aren’t any concrete answers to be found except in Saul’s story. Saul seems to be the catalyst along with Henry who released Area X in a way but Saul was the one that truly created what we know it to be despite how hard he fights it because he wants a place that Charlie and Gloria can come home to. The entire trilogy is a mind-fuck to read and apart from Saul’s story none of the novel really tie together, they seem to be more standalones with the biologist’s story in Annihilation, Control’s story in Authority and final Ghost Bird’s in Acceptance. I did enjoy reading the series but it wasn’t what I was expecting in both good ways and bad. The only advice I can give to people going into this is abandon the idea of a concrete ending and abandon the traditional way novels are told because The Southern Reach conforms to none of those ideas. Apart from that it was a very enjoyable experience complete with dark and haunting imagery throughout and this sense of the unknowable.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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