Weekly “what are you reading” Thread

I've read Annihilation this week and to be completely honest I don't know how I should feel about it. The premise of an expedition to a remote area (namely Area X) where things aren't as they seem and the world is not quite right after some unexplainable intervention from outside forces sounds intriguing so I thought I'm in for a good time but I ended up with characters that are not only puppets but also deliberately obfuscated and completely and entirely unreliable. I'm not sure if this characterization fits into the dream-like logic of the book where you cannot anchor yourself to any given event or character or basically anything else and at least to me things ended up being frustratingly gray. Given how the book feels like a biologist having an especially savage dream you coast along with all happenings thinking there will be some sort of explanation, but even then you quickly realize there will be absolutely nothing redeemable at the end, and mysteries are either left unexplained or if they are 'explained' (not necessarily in the literal definition of the word) the explanation is intentionally discombobulated and annoyingly opaque. I do realize that there are many different ways of interpreting the novel with the most common stupid one being 'it's a literal dream' but then again dreams are at least fun, and a novel, that makes you feel like you are under a cloud of boring and gray and unremarkable fungal spores during the process of reading, is absolutely not fun and downright a chore. Now, the only real mystery about this book (and its sequels) is the question of why exactly it is so popular and highly praised.