Acceptance

[sawyl]

And so we reach the end of the Southern Reach Trilogy with Jeff VanderMeer's Acceptance. Set largely inside Area X, with flashbacks to the previous director's time in charge of the Southern Reach agency, it delicately resolves many of the mysteries at the heart of the sequence and concludes the trilogy in excellent style.

Each chapter unfolds from a series of different perspectives, each of which coves a different key period in the evolution of Area X. In the present, we have Ghost Bird and Control — two people who cheerfully shed their names in previous books — as they travel through the mysterious area. Ghost Bird has found a new sense of purpose and strength of character following her return to Area X, while Control feels increasingly directionless and powerless, obsessively pouring over Whitby's Terroir Manuscript, which believes may answer all his questions.

From the perspective of the former director of Southern Reach, the woman Control was brought in to replace, we learn about the early history of the agency and the roots of her obsession with the place. We finally discover the secret of her unauthorised incursion into Area X — one of the few secrets Control managed to tease out during his own time as director — and her constant struggles with Jim Lowry, a returnee from the first mission who has become a paranoid and manipulative fixer within Central.

Finally, via Saul Evans, the lighthouse keeper, we get a chance to see the events which gave rise to Area X. We see Saul as he comes to realise that he has fallen in love with one of the fishermen in the nearby village. We see him as he strikes up a gruff and affectionate friendship with Gloria, the daughter of the local doctor whose talent for seeing to the heart of things grants us a grown-up and largely rational perspective on events. Gloria is certain a good deal more logical than Henry and Susanne, members of the Seance and Science Brigade, a troupe of cranks who seem to be working for the government and whose actions may be intended to catalyse the growing strangenesses of the proto-Area X.

While the book offers answers to many of the questions posed by its predecessors, the answers it gives are rarely simple or explicit, but instead they flow gradually from the various accounts of the individuals involved. The biologist's story comes out through the final entries in her journal and finally frees Ghost Bird to be her own individual. The psychologist's account of the preparations for the twelfth expedition clear up the disappearance of the linguist, who dropped out before the group could even cross the border, explains the mystery of Jim Lowry's involvement in events behind the scenes, and finally ties the entire Severance family — Control's grandfather Jack, his mother Jackie, and Control himself — into the history of Area X.

An extremely satisfying end to an excellent and truly engaging trilogy.