Entering the Inevitable: A Review of Acceptance

Acceptance (2014)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 306 (Paperback)
Series: Book Three in The Southern Reach Trilogy
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Why I Chose It: As the final book in the trilogy, I couldn’t very well say no. Especially now that we’re back in Area X—though everything I’ve peeked at so far alludes to a story that provides no real answers.

Premise

It is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it–the Southern Reach–has collapsed on itself in confusion. Now one last, desperate team crosses the border, determined to reach a remote island that may hold the answers they’ve been seeking. If they fail, the outer world is in peril.

Meanwhile, Acceptance tunnels ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding the creation of Area X–what initiated this unnatural upheaval? Among the many who have tried, who has gotten close to understanding Area X–and who may have been corrupted by it?

In this New York Times bestselling final installment of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may be solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound–or terrifying.

Some spoilers; will include spoilers for previous books

Discussion: You get a lot handed to you in this book. You get the story of the lighthouse tenant before Area X existed. You hang out with Control, Ghost Bird, and Grace as they try to figure out what Area X is and what it’s doing (like literally everyone else before them). You get strange second person point of view sections (in which “you” are the Director) that provide you with the previous Director’s (aka the psychologist from the first book) past and the events leading up to her demise. You even get a first person POV when the original biologist’s journal shows up, letting you know what happened to her after the events of Annihilation came to a close.

You also find out that time moves differently in Area X. Although given what Area X has done to people in the past—and even immediately after the events of Authority—it’s a surprise that Grace has managed to last as long as she has. And while the premise states, “one last, desperate team crosses the border,” there is no team. This isn’t a 13th expedition. Ghost Bird went in of her own volition, Control followed her, and they bumped into Grace, who’d already been stuck there.

There’s a lot of introspection. A lot. People mulling about their past, the people in that past, wondering who they are, wondering about the others around them. Wondering. Speculating. Never truly coming to any conclusions. It got kind of boring after a while. They’re all just as blind as before, and all they know is that Area X is expanding, Control feels he is changing somehow (carrying the same “brightness” that the biologist had in the first book), and Ghost Bird is just as detached as ever. I got bored being with the Director because as driven as she was, she never figures anything out either and just seems to lose herself more and more, leading to the scribbles Control found in her office in the previous book, long moments in a bar at a bowling alley, and more introspection.

While being back in Area X was interesting since it’s just as strange and unusual as it was in the first book (and in some ways a little on the Lovecraftian side this time around), everyone was just hoping that maybe if they did this ONE THING they’d figure something else out. And then they’re wrong. So they decide to try some other THING in the hopes that, for whatever reason, it would do something different. I guess they needed something to focus on, otherwise they’d just give up, but it’s kind of dull not seeing the characters you’ve stuck with for so long make any real progress.

It’s the big questions we all really want answered. What is Area X? Who/what made it? Why is it expanding? Can it be stopped? Yet if you’ve snuck peeks at any of the reviews like I have, then one thing will clearly stick out — all those questions you want answered will pretty much stay that way unanswered. There are vague suggestions at what might have caused it, but that’s all they are. Suggestions. You can guess, and you may be right, but you may be wrong. There’s no real way to tell. And are they able to stop Area X? Maybe? Maybe not? Your guess truly is as good as mine. I have my theories, and that’s what I’ll stick to, but it’s not very satisfying.

In conclusion: It’s a very ho-hum end to the series. You went into the first book intrigued, disturbed, excited, and wondering what fantastical answers might await you at the end. But for all that, you’ll likely be left with just as many questions as you started. While I can appreciate what VanderMeer created and his experiences while writing (many of us have had similar bouts of wild writing), and initially it made me more forgiving toward the trilogy, I returned back to my initial feelings after reading them, which led me back to where you, gentle reader, and I are now.

Ultimately, I went into this trilogy with the movie on my mind. After the first book, I still liked the movie better. Two additional books later and I still like the movie better. It’s peculiar and disturbing, but it also has a solid start, middle, and end, with the vast majority of answers intact. There won’t be any additional installments either, as the director read the first book and refused to read the next two since he didn’t want them to influence him. All three books were released in the same year so people wouldn’t have to wait (and for that I give VanderMeer props). While I am glad to have read the trilogy, I had no problem moving on to different books. If you’re going to give VanderMeer a try at all, I recommend making Borne your first choice instead.