Chapter 1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 3<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 5<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now. On to the other<\/em> reason I’m excited it’s October: there’s a Lazy & Entitled reading on Wednesday! We got Lauren Bolger, author of the new book The Barre Incidents<\/a><\/em>, and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., author of the new book The El<\/em> <\/a>and co-editor of the anthology Never Whistle At Night<\/em>.<\/a> Come out to Rivers & Roads Caf\u00e9 and let’s have a spooky time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now. On to the other other<\/em> reason I’m excited for October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What I’ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A book that got really hyped for me, then had a puncture right as I started it. It worked out\u2014the excitement spell was off, I was immune to hypnosis<\/em>, and I still ended up loving it. A book that I was told would make me hate its movie adaptation. Sort of\u2014I still love the movie, but let it be known that it\u2019s flat-out not an adaptation of the book. A book that begins the fourth series we\u2019ve read in a calendar year on the Shipwrecked Sailor blog (Indian Lake Trilogy<\/em> in October 24, five-book Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide Trilogy<\/em> in January, Broken Earth Trilogy<\/em> in February). That\u2019s right, October is Southern Reach Trilogy<\/em> month. As a companion piece to Annihilation<\/em> by Jeff VanderMeer, I re-read one of my favorite books of poetry, the closest book I can think of to describe as \u201csci-fi horror,\u201d The Book Of Joshua<\/em> by Zachary Schomburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Annihilation<\/em> by Jeff VanderMeer:<\/strong> what a fascinating object. I\u2019m reading the luminously-covered 10th anniversary edition, which seemingly every Big Deal Writer has fallen all over themselves to praise. This series is wildly influential, the novel got a Big Deal Hollywood adaptation right after publication. Yet the first book is pretty slim, very strange, and unsettling to the point where I actually warned my wife one day that I was feeling off and uneasy and please forgive any weirdness. An expedition of four women named only by their professions\u2014 biologist, anthropologist, linguist, and psychologist\u2014venture into a strange bit of land known as Area X. The movie makes pretty explicit that Area X is the result of alien invasion; the novel is ambiguous. Point is, no one from any of the expeditions into Area X has ever come back alive. The seaside community that used to be there before Whatever Happened To Create Area X is gone. It is a \u201cpristine wilderness,\u201d yet something is seriously off. There\u2019s a tunnel that our narrator, the biologist, insists on referring to as \u201cthe Tower.\u201d There\u2019s a lighthouse hiding a horrifying secret. There are animals that seem, for some inexplicable but undeniable reason, to have been human before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What happens to each character is very different from the movie, but rest assured that ain\u2019t none of it good. Now: do we care about these nameless characters? A criticism I heard is that the prose is deeply alienating, and I don\u2019t disagree. The third person narrator would be Natalie Portman\u2019s character in the movie, and Portman nailed the brusque unsentimentality of the biologist. This is not just someone who\u2019s bad at parties, this is someone who needs to be left alone near a pond or forest, for the well-being of her and everyone else. Still\u2014and maybe this is the nature poet in me, or maybe it\u2019s because I had been warned about the coldness of the prose\u2014I ended up loving this novel. If it were any longer, I might feel differently. Then again, I was left wanting more. The biologist deliberately leaves things unsaid, which is both for the reader\u2019s supposed benefit and a great trick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a good way to pivot into the cosmic horror of it all. There are the obvious images: animals that maybe used to be people, the strange and hyper-natural landscape, people who clearly aren\u2019t themselves, microbes writing words on walls. The implication of horror, though, is what really sticks with you. When the biologist uncovers a secret, contemplates what she\u2019s gazing at, and then demands the reader (this is presented as her journal to the Southern Reach) also contemplate? Whew, it sticks. Something about that extra step\u2014coupled with the image\u2014is really affecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Book Of Joshua<\/em> by Zachary Schomburg:<\/strong> I won\u2019t call Zach a cosmic horror poet, but the guy does \u201clooming sense of dread\u201d better than almost anyone. I’ve read this book twice before, and each time, it makes me want to write. This time around, my wild inspiration thought was “what if I wrote a Book Of Joshua<\/em> for all of my narrators?” It’s that kind of book. There’s a trip to Mars, a river of blood, and a son getting pregnant with\/giving birth to his own father. Zach’s no stranger to surrealism, but his books usually make me think of James Tate (complimentary). This one makes me think of Aase Berg (complimentary). It’s a perfect companion to Annihilation<\/em>, for anyone out there making syllabuses. I think I’ll read a Zach book every October for the rest of my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something to listen to while you browse? Let’s not be complicated. I love this video from my second-favorite band, and the vibes are right for spooky season (two scary minor key songs bookending a major key second song, reminding us how October is now just an extension of summer. I’m still grilling dinners). <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"flyer](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Oct8square-1024x1024.jpg\")
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