Jensen Stell’s Reviews > Authority > Status Update

Chorry :(

So Area X has figured out how to contaminate/extend its border via the humans it spits out…Aside from the biologist for some reason. I think the earlier expeditions maybe it hadn’t figured out “how” to yet and that’s why everyone was just fucked up and cancer-ridden upon their return. They weren’t a true host yet.

Wait…He lowkey ate a little bit with that twist…I was wondering why Control had bugged his own office!! This also explains why everything felt so fucking disjointed and why Control like…Wasn’t remembering shit right lowkey

I’m almost wondering if VanderMeer wrote this book with such wordy jargon so as to be…intentionally confusing and somewhat disconnected? Similar to how Area X is supposed to confuse the human mind in a way?

Plot twist…The girl in the photo of the lighthouse keeper was part of one of the expeditions (the biologist?)

Love the idea that once you become too involved with the Southern Reach that you lose sight of what Area X is. I think that really encompasses the idea that it’s somehow everything yet nothing at all.

How weird to just casually drop that sometimes the soldiers will shoot and eat the Border Special rabbits????

Given Control's background in terrorism and surveillance, could we believe that he was brought in as director of the Southern Reach because they ultimately perceive Area X as a kind of intelligent, foreign terrorist? Granted, Control is kind of a nepo baby so maybe I'm *reaching* LOL. His background has to be at least part of the reason he's here, right?

No trace of the rabbits, despite them being an invasive species that should've, theoretically, wrecked the ecosystem...So what about the literal humans who enter the border? Do they ultimately cease to exist whilst in Area X, and that re-entering the world is what fucks them up? They come back to a world where they ultimately don't exist anymore? Is Area X a different dimension?

I'm picturing this in a Mr. Robot kind of way. Similar color-grading and shots - I think it would lend itself to the atmosphere. I also picture the Southern Reach building as a very brutalist 80's building. And the biologist is definitely the girl who plays Jesse's girlfriend in Breaking Bad but anyway LOL. Liking it so far!