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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol
“Or gather in the lounge perhaps, where we can all eye each other suspiciously, like Agatha Christie characters transposed to an Antarctic wilderness?”
This quote actually sums this book up pretty accurately, haha. When I heard the synopsis of this I put it on my to-read list immediately. The book takes place in Antarctica in a desolate, freezing wasteland where there are 12 people on a base during the winter, and they don’t expect a plane to visit for 8 months. Our main character is Kate, a doctor who was selected to replace another doctor who had to leave. But once she’s there, Kate finds that she may have gotten more than she bargained for. One of them is found dead, and Kate finds that it’s a suspicious death - a murder. And it’s not the first death to happen suspiciously there. One of the things I liked about the book is it had a very diverse cast of characters, both in race and age and ethnicity. I kept referring back to a paragraph in the beginning where Kate describes the other people she’s staying with at the station, from all over the world, from England to New Zealand to Australia and Antarctica and Russia and Ireland. In my head I was trying to do all the accents and probably failing horribly. But it was fun to try and gave me a variety I needed. As for the mystery itself, I did sort of guess correctly toward the beginning, because he was giving me a lot of red flags. Andrew, going by Drew, the American, had killed on the base to cover his tracks of getting one of them pregnant, and he killed Alex because he was on to him. Also he immediately tried to get into Kate’s pants at the beginning and that just felt slimy. But the book did a good job of making me second-guess myself. I thought even at one point that the captain was responsible, or that we had an unreliable narrator situation because of all the pills Kate was taking and addicted to. Overall, I loved the closed room mystery aspect of this, and the setting added a layer of tension and complexity to it, because there was literally no escape. And it felt to me like the author did a lot of research for the story because living in Antarctica and the operations of the base was very specific and technical. I enjoyed the story.
This quote actually sums this book up pretty accurately, haha. When I heard the synopsis of this I put it on my to-read list immediately. The book takes place in Antarctica in a desolate, freezing wasteland where there are 12 people on a base during the winter, and they don’t expect a plane to visit for 8 months. Our main character is Kate, a doctor who was selected to replace another doctor who had to leave. But once she’s there, Kate finds that she may have gotten more than she bargained for. One of them is found dead, and Kate finds that it’s a suspicious death - a murder. And it’s not the first death to happen suspiciously there. One of the things I liked about the book is it had a very diverse cast of characters, both in race and age and ethnicity. I kept referring back to a paragraph in the beginning where Kate describes the other people she’s staying with at the station, from all over the world, from England to New Zealand to Australia and Antarctica and Russia and Ireland. In my head I was trying to do all the accents and probably failing horribly. But it was fun to try and gave me a variety I needed. As for the mystery itself, I did sort of guess correctly toward the beginning, because he was giving me a lot of red flags. Andrew, going by Drew, the American, had killed on the base to cover his tracks of getting one of them pregnant, and he killed Alex because he was on to him. Also he immediately tried to get into Kate’s pants at the beginning and that just felt slimy. But the book did a good job of making me second-guess myself. I thought even at one point that the captain was responsible, or that we had an unreliable narrator situation because of all the pills Kate was taking and addicted to. Overall, I loved the closed room mystery aspect of this, and the setting added a layer of tension and complexity to it, because there was literally no escape. And it felt to me like the author did a lot of research for the story because living in Antarctica and the operations of the base was very specific and technical. I enjoyed the story.
This had the hallmarks of a great "locked room" style mystery with it being set on an Antarctic research station in the depths of winter, with all trapped there until Spring. It definitely kept me guessing and gripped to find out who the killer was but I feel it was a little let down by the implausibility of some of the characters and their actions/abilities. Also the main protagonist, Kate, was incredibly annoying and pathetic (seems to be a trend in books at the moment). This is why I have deducted one star as although I am happy with authors giving their "dramatic licence" a few little stretches, in this case it was stretched, ripped up and thrown out of the aircraft on the way to Antarctica.
With thanks to the author and The Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read.
With thanks to the author and The Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't have much to say about this book... I didn't really like it, the premise was promising, but the main character was annoying and I couldn't really be interested in whatever happened to her.
Wouldn't recommend, and I didn't enjoy it at all... I can't even say why...
Wouldn't recommend, and I didn't enjoy it at all... I can't even say why...
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes