My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura (Translated by Sam Bett)

Rating: 5/10

The premise of this book intrigued me a lot. As the reader, you’re meant to be implicated in a terrible crime as you assume the identity of the person you’re reading about. The beginning kept me intrigued. It was mysterious, spooky, a bit horrifying, and written in a way that it was hard to put the book down. 

However, at a certain point, I felt like the plotline spiraled all over the place. It became one of those “you think you know what’s going on? Then how about a TWIST?! …. And uh let’s do ANOTHER TWIST!!! …. And maybe seven more TWISTS until you’re about to puke!”. Does that make sense? 

I get what the author was trying to convey – that how we understand the ‘self’ can be deeply fractured and nearly unbelievable under certain circumstances. I just feel like it could have been done in a concise manner with one twist or two that made me gasp and feel like I have been rewarded for this horror rollercoaster I went on. Once the twists kept coming in rapid-fire I felt like I had been betrayed and punished for having read this. 

Also, trigger warnings upon trigger warnings for this book for sexual assault, murder, pedophilia, self-harm, and suicide.