The main character is a biologist who joins the latest expedition to Area X, a zone of the world that is different than what “normal” looks like in the time the book takes place but is never described clearly. One one by one, the expedition members die, either mysteriously or at the hands of a creature they call the Creeper that either kills them straight or infects them and then they die from the infection. At the end, the main character, who is also infected but somehow keeps the infection at bay by causing herself physical pain, leaves the part of Area X where 95% of the book takes place and goes beyond that to try to find out what her husband, who joined a previous expedition and returned to her completely changed, like an empty shell, saw, and perhaps find him.

Elements: mysterious tunnel with words on its walls made of living bacteria, a lighthouse that the characters have been primed to pay attention to before the expedition entered Area X, hypnotism.

The book is heavy on the subjective feelings of the main character, how a “brightness” that she experiences changes her perception of the world, and her view of things.

The story was too subjective for my taste, too directionless, and the ending seemed too metaphorical.

Connections

• Purity: the “brightness” that invades the protagonist.
• Observation, senses, and sensitivity: the main character avoids getting shot because after getting infected, her senses become much more sensitive and she hears the surveyor of the group, who has turned mad, about to shoot at her.
• Infection: of the three main dangers in the book.