Reviews

Cold Earth by Sarah Moss

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alisonburnis's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Six researchers, five archeologists and a literature PhD, go to Greenland for a dig. They plan to spend six weeks in a remote site, and then they will go back to their respective homes. As they’re all preparing to head to the site, news of a new virus starts to surface. Cut off from the world, they don’t know how bad it’s getting until their computer stops connecting to the internet and their satellite phone doesn’t have a connection.

Not only that, but Nina, the literature PhD, has been acting very strange for most of their time out there. A friend of Yianni’s, the leader of the dig, it’s not totally related to her work but she thought it would be fun. And it’s fine - until she starts to hear things and see things. Catriona, a Scottish researcher believes her, but Ruth, Ben and Jim, the others, are skeptical.

Moss is the queen of creating dread, and in this, her debut novel, it’s on display. The pandemic is distant, which made me wonder about anyone who was cut off from the world at the beginning of COVID-19. The book takes the form of letters that each person writes to a person in their lives, a goodbye letter, in case they never end going home. I didn’t plan to read this in one evening, but I did - it was that riveting.

skepticalri's review against another edition

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3.0

I liked the premise of the book a great deal, but the novel itself was a bit of a let-down. Perhaps too many questions were left unanswered, perhaps the six characters were all such assholes that I hoped they'd die sooner, whether from mysterious rock-throwing figures or the Greenland winter.

mareike's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I hate the ending.
I don't know, it's the second book by Sarah Moss I've read and both endings were extremely annoying and not satisfying at all.

There could have been so much more, but no, we have to read Nina's unimportant cooking stories again.

Then Moss includes a kind of virus, but it has no importance throughout the book whatsoever. Why?

lindabeth's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition

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2.0

Cold Earth is a debut novel by Sarah Moss. It is set in Greenland with a team of six archaeologists and researchers from the United States, England and Scotland spending a few weeks at the beginning of the Arctic summer searching for traces of a lost Viking settlement. While they are on the expedition, there is an epidemic of some sort going on and they gradually lose contact with family at home and the outside world in general. In response, they each write what may be their last letter home.

Added to their increasing distress at what might be happening to the world around them is the unease created by Nina. Nina isn't really an archaeologist--she's an English major trying to tie Vikings into her research...and a friend of the team leader, Yianni. Nina begins seeing and hearing things and believes that the ancient Vikings are not pleased to have their resting place disturbed. With their connection to the outside world lost, food running out, and the possibility that no one will come back to get them, the possibility of a haunted burial site may be the last straw.

Described on the back of the book as an "exceptional and haunting debut novel" and a "heart-pounding thriller," it does sound like there's a lot of cool things going on. Doesn't it? Well....there's a lot of really cool ways that this story could have played out. And it doesn't use any of them. The ending is incredibly disappointing. After creating all this tension regarding the "epidemic" back home, we don't really ever find out how this epidemic affected them. Or affected anyone, really. After building up this atmosphere of a haunted archaeological site, we never find out if it's really haunted or if Nina is just one disturbed academic. There's the suggestion that it might all be in her head or that she's even behind the odd things that happen (somewhat reminiscent of The Haunting of Hill House), but it's even vaguer than Shirley Jackson's novel on that point.

This was a fairly decent read. It kept me going to the end. But I was thoroughly dissatisfied when I finished. I had very little sympathy with any of the characters--and two of them--Yianni, the team leader, and Ben--get very short shrift indeed. Nina gives us 103 pages for her letter, Ruth--79...and the letters get shorter and shorter. While both Yianni and Ben (the last of the writers) give us a mere four pages apiece. The team leader has only four pages to relate about one of the most important digs of his career?

So...this is represented as an apocalyptic, end of the world tale with dash of ghost story for added flavor. It comes off as rather bland and certainly not "thrilling" in any sense of the word. I didn't hate it--but I can't say that I'll be recommending it.

First posted on my blog