** spoiler alert ** 
 Its hard to discuss the plot of one of the Southern Reach trilogy, mainly because each volume is a list of surprising events that builds to an often terrifying crescendo. Let me see if I can describe it tonally. 
 In book one, we were treated to the story of an expedition into a mysterious, overgrown area known as Area X. I described it as Kafka, Lovecraft, and Algernon Blackwood going camping. 
 Now, we're returned to the camping trip. Taking Kafka by the hand, we see the hideously dysfunctional organization that organized the expedition from the perspective of its new director. Kafka smiles at the bureaucratic inefficiency, the dark paranoia, and the bizarre revelations about the previous book. 
 Things seem to be building to a head when the door of the office door is kicked open. In walks a sunglasses-bearing Lovecraft followed by Algernon Blackwood bearing a boombox. 
 Lovecraft looks at the bloody omnishambles of the Kafka story. "Yo, 'member us?" 
 Kafka meekly nods. 
 Blackwood carefully places the boombox on a desk before cranking it to maximum volume. "It is on," he whispers. 
 On one had, the ambiguity of the first novel's ending works fine. If you want to stop at annihilation, you can. On the other hand, you'd be missing the intricate word of tottering blocks that VanderMeer has created. 
 In my opinion? Hit "Play" on the apocalypse jams.