Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first entry in VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy and follows a team of four women (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor) who set out into an area known as Area X, which is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization; they believe they are the 12th expedition, with all previous expeditions falling 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.