After loving Annihilation (Book 1 in the Southern Reach trilogy), and not really loving, but not hating Authority (Book 2), I was excited for Acceptance, which is book 3, and the final book in the trilogy.
Acceptance starts pretty much right after Authority. Control and Ghost Bird (the new name for the biologist) are back in Area X, and further explore its mysteries. The stories of the psychologist (from Annihilation), Ghost Bird, Control, and the former lighthouse keeper are told during different time points throughout the book.
Acceptance was the hardest to read of the trilogy (for me), because I already had so many questions, and I’m the type of person who likes her questions answered! That’s probably why I never watched the TV show Lost when it was on.
Another hard part to accept (hah!) about Acceptance was the unreliability of the narrators. Some of that I liked, but you eventually get the feeling that you can’t trust anyone. Also, this book was a much slower read for me. It didn’t have the creeping dread or the impending sense of doom I felt with the first book.
Some questions are answered, but a lot aren’t. You learn that there were way more that twelve expeditions, and the journals from those expeditions are absolutely creepy. I think my biggest issue with this book is that the magic isn’t there for me. Area X felt so real and fleshed out in the first and some of the second book. The third book just didn’t do it for me.
