A review by ninaprime
Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson

3.0

Having recently read Kaliane Bradley's 'The Ministry of Time', featuring a fictionalized Captain Gore of the Franklin expedition, I reversed her writing journey by watching AMC's 'The Terror', falling down a rabbit hole of YouTube and Reddit theorization, and reading Watson's book. This latter was dense with facts across 3 narrative threads - the first of Franklin's preparations and journey, the second on the various quests to find him and his ships, and the third on the modern hunt for clues ending with the abrupt discovery of the Erebus and Terror at the bottom of the sea. On a whole, Watson tended to meander in his storytelling and often repeat things he'd mentioned earlier in the text. But I deeply appreciated his inclusion of and respect for Inuit history and culture, which was a topic I didn't know much about. The last section in particular focuses on an Inuk oral historian Louis Kamakook and his contributions to the search while condemning historical injustices, including the British government's racist lies and Canadian government's forceful seizure of children for schooling. I wouldn't not recommend this book if its a topic of interest, as it was informative but dry.