What the heck did I just read? When I was about three quarters through this book, I turned to my husband and said “I’m not quite sure what’s happening in this book”, and having got to the end, I’m still not quite sure!

But even though I’m completely confused, I really want to read the second book to see if it answers some of the many many questions that I have. And since it has left me wanting more and it kept me so interested, I’ve given it 4 out of 5. But if the second book doesn’t make more sense, I can’t see myself giving it as many…

Four women, going on the twelfth expedition into the mysterious Area X to observe and collect samples. None of the previous expeditions have been successful (far from it), and from the start, it seems like we’re waiting for this one to go wrong too.

I definitely found the book thrilling and enthralling and it was really well paced to make me keep turning the pages, but I really hope the next book in the trilogy explains more about what is actually going on in Area-X, as I still don’t think I’d be able to explain it to anyone who asked me…

The imagery in the book was beautiful, I was completely drawn into the world that the biologist was describing in almost a stream of consciousness. It was definitely a book to be read slowly and savoured to really appreciate.

But having said that, I still can’t figure out if this is a real world, or some sort of induced state of reality (are the people part of some weird experiment in the real world and not actually leaving – is it all chemical)?

The thing that creeped me out the most is that none of the characters are ever named – just referred to by their job title. And we only ever hear from the perspective of the biologist, who seems to be going slowly more and more crazy and delusional. It was just very hard to know whether to trust anything she was saying.

Onwards to the second book and fingers crossed it makes more sense!