Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer and is the first book of the Southern Reach Series. The novel follows a team of four women who are sent into a government-managed, uninhabited location called Area X to study and survey the land and ecosystem. They are the twelfth expedition, with previous expeditions having fallen apart due to disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma.

Annihilation won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. A film loosely based on the novel was released by Paramount Pictures in 2018.