Weird and wonderful, like all of Vandermeer’s work. Each book in the series is a different character’s perspective at different points along the timeline of the the emergence of Area X. Vandermeer’s love for the swampy coastlines and, more broadly, the natural world, is the beating heart of these books. An alien presence arrives in and alters the marshes in ways the existing ecosystems absorb and adapt and change utterly, just as humans once did. Those humans and their systems and bureaucracies and secret orchestrations are mutated and spun out in weird, inexplicable ways, too. It’s all a delightful mess guided by Vandermeer’s expert hand.