Winner of the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel
A BuzzFeed Books Pick of Favorite Books of the Decade
A Salon Best Audiobook of the Year for 2014
One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2014
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If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a novel … it might be this awesome.
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
This is the twelfth expedition.
Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist—the de facto leader—and a biologist, who is our narrator. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life-forms that surpass understanding—but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Cover artwork ┬® Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Editorial Reviews
“Carolyn McCormick narrates increasingly disturbing events with an unwavering calm that makes the listening experience all the more chilling…McCormick gives a haughty, deep voice to the psychologist, the leader of the group whose intentions may not be what they seem. Her arrogant tone contrasts nicely with the gritty and increasingly anxious tones of the surveyor as the group uncovers deadly secrets better left alone.” —AudioFile
“A little Kubrick, a lot Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and a claustrophobic dread that linger long afterward.” —Lauren Beukes, Sunday Times (London) bestselling author
“A captivating meander…that veers between the beautiful and the terrifying.” —Entertainment Weekly
“[A] deeply imaginative little shocker…full of metaphysical-graffiti imagery and tightly executed reveals that stay with you long afterward.” —Wired
“[A] wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction…Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Brilliant…Evocative descriptions…masterful psychological insight, and intellectual observations both profound and disturbing.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)