A group of scientists explore a piece of untouched land that 11 exploration teams had previously attempted to explore. All previous teams died, disappeared, or came back and then died shortly after of aggressive cancers. What was happening to everyone who entered Area X? 
 One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is that none of the characters were ever given names. The team of four scientists, all women, were only ever refereed to by their jobs: biologist, psychologist, anthropologist, and surveyor. The book is told in first person by the biologist and it is told in such a way that by the end of the book you can't tell if the storyteller had lost her mind or the world around her really is becoming a supernatural death trap. 
 I absolutely loved the tone the book set as each new discovery was made on this strange piece of land. Some of the things that the biologist saw were so strange sounding, so grotesque, and so fascinating all at once, that I could not stop reading until I found out what was happening at the end. I really enjoyed the book and I look forward to the rest of this series.