Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

Because life falls out the way it falls out sometimes, I ended up putting this book down about a hundred pages from the end, and picking it back up a week or two later. Most of the time, this is not a problem, and I can find the thread fairly easily. This time, though, I was left with a wistful regret that I'd pushed on and kept reading, because I was more lost than I thought I would be when I came back.

I think that's because of what this book is and what it is not. It is an intensely and enjoyably atmospheric experience, where you sink into the prose, and shudder at the turns of phrase, and get the tactile sense of what this very screwed-up (by human standards) place Area X is. It is not a driving plot book. It is sort of a character book. It is not, above all, interested in filling in all the blanks or answering all the questions.

From some authors, the lack would drive me crazy, because I would feel that without answers, there's not enough there. They'd be selling me short by not giving a solution when they're not giving me enough else, either. That is not the case here, and it's hard to put my finger on exactly why. I think the biggest thing is that to read this book for the prose and the characters alone is enough. The plot is a lovely cherry on top, but this is the type of story and manner of storytelling where leaving ellipses and questions fits the feel so well that it enhances rather than detracts from the story.

Unlike the two previous entries in this trilogy, Acceptance is not a single story. Annihilation was the story of the biologist, who went into Area X and came out somewhat changed, and Authority is about Control, the man sent to head up the Southern Reach after the previous director left her job. (It's hard to find the right word for what the previous director did without spoiling things, but we'll go with that.)

Here, though, we have the story of the previous director, both in the past and in the same timeframe, roughly, as Annihilation, as well as the story of Ghost Bird (the biologist-as-emerged-from-Area-X), and more from the perspective of Control. The new character introduced as a viewpoint character is Saul, the lighthouse keeper who was referred to in both of the previous books. His time period takes place, for the most part, before the event that caused Area X to emerge, and during the start of the change. He was a preacher who left his flock and came to this remote area of Florida.

There is faith mixed up in this in a lot of subtle ways. The words written on the wall of the tower, for one, which we now get the origin of, if not the meaning. Saul as a character. Control and whatever he has been and whatever he is becoming, and his crisis of faith as to both. It's not religion that is the theme, it feels more broadly the idea of faith or trust in a world tilted on its axis, and out of alignment with the time.

I know I'm not making a whole lot ore sense. It's hard to summarize this book, particularly that even  starting at the beginning would mean giving away things about the two previous books. You do get some answers about what Area X is, what caused it, and some of what it's trying to do, and whether or not it'll be successful. But if you're thinking of picking this series up, be aware that you won't ever be told exactly what happened and why in precise terms that also lay out all the implications. It is the journey that is the pleasure, and the creepiness, and the questions about faith and identity.