Another very frustrating experience. It’s a bit better than the second one, but still an irritating drop from the first book. I think I’ve identified one of the problems I have: all the characters are antagonistic toward each other. Every action or word is layered in concealment and antipathy. It really makes it hard to read. Plus, in general, Vandermeer seems either reluctant or unable to offer anything approaching clarity or answers for anything, and after three books, this feels like a problem. 

Nothing really happens, it’s mostly just people wandering around bewildered- though the lighthouse keeper story offers promise- and that doesn’t give me much to cling to as a reader. Now, it’s very possible that I’m just a dumb person, but it’s hard to feel like reading the last two books has been anything other than a waste of time, given Vandermeer’s obliqueness and his characters lacking anything resembling humanity. Nothing is resolved, nothing is clarified. I’m still going to finish out the series, in what feels like an increasingly vain hope for resolution. 

Man, I hope it doesn’t end up all being some stupid Lovecraftian nonsense, as has been hinted at.