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This starts out very strong with the promise of weird alligators and the return of the creepy rabbits, and even answering some intrigue about the biologist(s). [edit: This was almost entirely a masterpiece for me, I just can't really get by what even happened in the second half as everything begins to breakdown including sanity, perception of reality, even the very words on the page. It creates this sense of decay very fitting to the series arc, but took a little away from my enjoyment.] I can see how VanderMeer appeals to a wide audience beyond just sci fi, but also into realms from poets to scientists. Here's some highlights that to me encapsulate the essence of the series. These passages are within the first 20% of the book, to give you an idea of the pacing.

"It felt irrationally as if the wildlife had rejected us--had rejected our methodologies, and refused any longer to be sampled or catalogued, or subjected to even the least intrusive experiments. It felt as if the entire reason for the expedition had abandoned us and thus we had no rudder, no anchor, no reason to be. That we did not belong here."

"They shifted from collection and cataloging to analysis and sporadic forays into experimentation. A kind of gaze turned inward, bringing with it some other quality, hard to define. 'The red-tinged eye of the lighthouse shining out distant at dusk seems both comforting and utterly unfamiliar.'"

"Over time the biologists came to feel that something was not quite right with their expedition. Even Team Leader 1's obsession with "inefficiencies" and "better ways of being productive" felt like a tell. That there was influence or coercion , invisible both to the naked eye and to their instruments. The recording of their experiments in notebooks were driven into the paper with a sharpness that sometimes left holes from the pencil lead.
It was the natural order of things, Old Jim knew, that the biologists may have had suspicions left unvoiced long before this point. Because once voiced they might take the form of accusations or irrational fearfulness."