Review - Dark Matter By Michelle Paver

"'What is it? What does it want? Why is it angry with me?' January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to be the wireless operator on an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken. But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark." 

Original HB Copy

I had been told that this was rather a scary book, so thought its Halloween - perfect time to read a book to scare me.  Here are my thoughts.

I have the black hardback cover, so shall review that cover.  Very dark obviously.  You can just imagine the coldness and isolation that is featured in the book by looking at the cover.  Quite an eerie feel to it too.

The book is told mostly through a diary, so is all from the perspective of the character Jack.  You get given a brief rundown of his life and how is where he is at the start of the story and the realisation that he wants more and so embarks on this epic adventure.
It was from the start of the expedition  that the story started to make me feel very uncomfortable and not really enjoy the story.

This is a lot my own fault as I was expecting a more war time story I guess, but that hardly gets a mention.  This is all about the trip to the Arctic and the time spent there.  Its somewhere I don't really know a great deal about, but guessed its a very isolated place that's not going to have a supermarket just down the road.  I hadn't accounted for the fact that a fair amount of animal (mainly seal) hunting would happen.  I am the biggest softie when it comes to animals and although I don't like reading of any animal killing I could have coped with a little.  For me there was just too much and it was kind of brutal at times too.

New PB edition

I really enjoyed reading of Jack's personal developments and how he changes the way he thinks.  He builds a beautiful relationship with one character quite unexpectedly.  That I loved!!

The story reaches a thorough conclusion with most ends tied up.  But I have to say I was left feeling a little confused as to what the whole purpose of the story was.  What the author was trying to tell me with the story didn't feel that clear.  I'm sure that is just my airheadedness showing itself again and their is likely to be a very obvious reasoning staring me in the face.

Sadly this book really wasn't my cup of tea, but by no means is a terrible book or anything.  Just maybe I need to investigate my reading material a little more carefully next time

Rating 2 Out Of 5

This Is Published In The UK By Orion

This Can Be Purcashed HERE and at good book retailers