Reviews with content warning for Medical content - All the White Spaces

Set in the 1920s, an Antartic expedition adventure quickly becomes deadly and frightening, when the crew become stranded and begin to see spectral apparitions.

I went into this thinking it was going to be horror from the start and was turned off when that wasn't the case and felt very heavy on the historical fiction, but I'm so glad I carried on, because I quickly ate this up whenever I picked it up.

It felt like like I was there with the expedition, feeling bone cold with the men and dogs out on the great expanse of ice and snow. I began to agree with their paranoia, thinking one or more of the crew had intentionally sabotaged the expedition, but to what ends and I grew insistently more anxious as to what supernatural forces were at play; why were the dogs going mad? Where was the German expedition? How longer would Jonathan be able to keep his privacy and will Harry, in a fit of rage, out him? How would they make it back home? ... If they ever would...

I adored this for the trans rep. I wasn't expecting it and to be in the head space of Jonathan, trying to navigate how he's always felt, whilst hiding on a ship he shouldn't be on, and trying to keep his body a secret when discovered was such a different experience. A perspective I thought was well explored (coming from a cis female).

This was such a great story. It felt pretty slow burn and psychological but when others confirmed sightings of ... <i> something </i>... it made me spiral as to how corporal these phantoms were and what they could do to the living.

A well written, well researched tale of isolation, desperation, identity and hope.

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arlingtonchamberofgay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

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likeanecho's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

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bibrarian_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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abbeyhuffine94's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I'm obsessed with Antarctica so I snatched a spooky book set there right up! This was extremely eerie and unsettling due to the completely desolate atmosphere. I found the sheer isolation and desperation of the setting even eerier than the supernatural elements of the novel. The supernatural aspect was done so well because it was left so ambiguous that, as a non-believer, I could read it as the psychological affects of the environment on the characters.
WWI is a constant in the background of the novel. While I typically don't find war interesting, I think it was such a genius time setting for our protagonist. He is a trans man and the time period meant he couldn't live as himself without severe persecution. He had to deal with the trauma of his older brothers going off to be war heroes while he was left behind. He was able to live as himself among the exploration crew and carry out a dream of his and his brothers that he was previously excluded from - exploration of Antarctica. I think the time period was very interesting for the protagonist and furthered his development - why was traveling to remote, unknown, deadly Antarctica so important to him? The war, the time, his identity and family dynamics, make it so important for him.
Also I thought the characters were full of depth and nuance and very real people in all their challenges, imperfections, and impossible situations.
4.5 out of 5

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cmaples's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.25

This was the very first time I've ever browsed the horror section and picked up a book about a character who's like me--a trans man. And a horror book at that! What a perfect combination.

There's so much to like about how Wilkes handles the trans narrative here. It's historical fiction so it doesn't use any modern language to describe Jonathan; the word "trans" is never mentioned. But he is undoubtedly a trans character; he makes that very clear.

So many things he mentions resonated with me, too. Little details like hating being called a "late bloomer," people using your full name against you because they know you hate it, and the demand to behave ladylike. The joy at seeing yourself in the mirror for the first time.

And so there I was, 1/3 of the way through the novel when I realized I loved Jonathan because he's a great reader-insert for trans people. And that's both a strength and a flaw. The problem is, for so much of this book I really had no idea how Jonathan felt or who he was. He'd get irritated easily; sometimes I could tell why, and sometimes he seemed really uncharitable to other characters and I couldn't figure it out. He just doesn't seem to have transparent internal struggles, and despite narrating the book in first person, he doesn't let us in on what he really thinks about a lot of the other characters and events. There are times where if feels like he's just going with the flow, along for the ride, without much of an opinion about where that ride is going.

All that being said, I really enjoyed this book and I value the representation a lot.

If that's not what you're here for, it's also got a lot of other things going for it! The arctic setting is really terrifying. It's hard to *not* think about the Thing when you read it, but thankfully it stops short of being derivative. It just has that same, deserted in the deadly white Arctic with something very dangerous, sort of feel to it. Though the horror takes a while to ramp up, it goes from eerie to full blown terrifying. I loved a lot of the other characters and some of them got good development and had interesting secrets of their own. If you like historical fiction & horror, I recommend you check this out.

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