Scan barcode
judassilver's review
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Blood, and Vomit
ezwolf's review against another edition
Okay so I didn’t realize this was by the same author that did All the White Spaces but I think I can convulsively say that this author just isn’t for me.
I had no idea what was going on, even listening to the audiobook. I think we were going back and forth between past and present? But I couldn’t say.
The audiobook was also weird. I could hear the different cuts when the sound quality would vastly change for a sentence or one word which didn’t help with my confusion.
I had no idea what was going on, even listening to the audiobook. I think we were going back and forth between past and present? But I couldn’t say.
The audiobook was also weird. I could hear the different cuts when the sound quality would vastly change for a sentence or one word which didn’t help with my confusion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Cannibalism
elizabeth_lepore's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Cannibalism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Murder
chuckstafer's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I so wanted this novel to be a blockbuster but, unfortunately, it fell short for me. The concept sounded like a doozy: crew resorting to cannibalism when they are shipwrecked in the Arctic with only a few survivors. The captain being called back to rescue his friend who has gone missing in those same ill-fated waters as before, and ice ghosts trying to stop them. Spooky stuff indeed.
But this novel just felt really convoluted. I commend the author for her writing style and really doing a great job of writing this novel from the point of view of a late 19th-century guy, but that made the story hard to follow in parts due to the strange verbiage and the over-explanation of things.
There were for sure parts of the novel that were intriguing and captivating, but a large part of the novel felt very slow and uneventful, and the conclusion to the story was very unsatisfying.
This novel felt less like a horror novel and more like a grief and guilt-stricken man being haunted by his past and trying to overcome his personal demons en route to saving his friend. Just not what I was hoping for.
But this novel just felt really convoluted. I commend the author for her writing style and really doing a great job of writing this novel from the point of view of a late 19th-century guy, but that made the story hard to follow in parts due to the strange verbiage and the over-explanation of things.
There were for sure parts of the novel that were intriguing and captivating, but a large part of the novel felt very slow and uneventful, and the conclusion to the story was very unsatisfying.
This novel felt less like a horror novel and more like a grief and guilt-stricken man being haunted by his past and trying to overcome his personal demons en route to saving his friend. Just not what I was hoping for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
jan_coco_day's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I usually get frustrated when secondary characters seem to "vanish" or stop existing when they are not in the scene/on the page. But Wilkes uses this effectively to lay bare Day's obsession with his own loneliness. The one character who isn't present haunts Day so much that he is "realer" than any of the other characters on the voyage with Day. Much of his isolation is self-imposed.
The story falls apart a little bit at the end at the reveal that there is no larger supernatural horror, but just one psychopath Stevens and his psychopath friends. And they were all pretty easily defeated.
The story falls apart a little bit at the end at the reveal that there is no larger supernatural horror, but just one psychopath Stevens and his psychopath friends. And they were all pretty easily defeated.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Classism
nadiajohnsonbooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Ally has done it again. If, like me, you enjoy 1) the history of polar exploration and 2) gothic horror, this book is an excellent choice.
Wilkes always does a great job with her research and depicts the true diversity the early 19th century Arctic that is often erased from our collective understanding of history. It's clear that she is intimately familiar with real maritime tragedies (e.g. those of the Jeannette, the Belgica, the Essex, the Terror and Erebus) and draws from the genuine horrors that those imperiled sailors faced, weaving around them an element of the supernatural, shimmering at the periphery of her characters' consciousness.
Where the Dead Wait centers on William Day, a disgraced officer who was among the few haggard survivors of an Arctic expedition that succumbed to cannibalism and madness in their efforts to survive. He is offered a possible chance at redemption. He can assume command of a new ship and embark on a mission to save his former second-in-command, Captain Jesse Stevens, whose current polar expedition has disappeared.
Day agrees, finding himself increasingly haunted by the dark deeds of his past and the lingering effects of his youthful infatuation with Stevens.
The book grows increasingly grisly as Day follows Stevens' trail and the reader learns what really happened on their first doomed expedition.
I knew that I would love this book when it was first announced, and it did not disappoint. I will happily read anything that Wilkes puts out in the future.
Wilkes always does a great job with her research and depicts the true diversity the early 19th century Arctic that is often erased from our collective understanding of history. It's clear that she is intimately familiar with real maritime tragedies (e.g. those of the Jeannette, the Belgica, the Essex, the Terror and Erebus) and draws from the genuine horrors that those imperiled sailors faced, weaving around them an element of the supernatural, shimmering at the periphery of her characters' consciousness.
Where the Dead Wait centers on William Day, a disgraced officer who was among the few haggard survivors of an Arctic expedition that succumbed to cannibalism and madness in their efforts to survive. He is offered a possible chance at redemption. He can assume command of a new ship and embark on a mission to save his former second-in-command, Captain Jesse Stevens, whose current polar expedition has disappeared.
Day agrees, finding himself increasingly haunted by the dark deeds of his past and the lingering effects of his youthful infatuation with Stevens.
The book grows increasingly grisly as Day follows Stevens' trail and the reader learns what really happened on their first doomed expedition.
I knew that I would love this book when it was first announced, and it did not disappoint. I will happily read anything that Wilkes puts out in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Racism
whatkatreads88's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism and Murder
blacksphinx's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is a tour de force of helpless dread, gore, death, and cannibalism (but if you're here just for the eating people part, after the first chapter we don't really see it in depth until the ~50% mark). Something spine chilling seemed to happen every couple of pages in a way that made the book hard to put down. Even when it frustrated me, the imagery it painted lived behind my eyes when I'd try to sleep at night!
But it misses the mark in a two main ways that stop me from giving it the full five stars. I felt like the book flip flopped onif something supernatural was happening in a way that was disappointing to me. Our PoV character is not a reliable narrator, and sometimes when ambiguous "things" are happening, it's all so jumbled up it became more confusing than scary. And in a book where so many characters die, some of the ones who lived felt too unbelievable. It doesn't help that one of those characters is someone I just never understood what on earth their motivation was or why they acted the way they did.
I think I'm going to reread this book at some point in the future, maybe next winter when the winds really being to howl, and reassess how I feel about it.
But it misses the mark in a two main ways that stop me from giving it the full five stars. I felt like the book flip flopped on
I think I'm going to reread this book at some point in the future, maybe next winter when the winds really being to howl, and reassess how I feel about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, and Torture
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Gun violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
apairofducks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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? No
5.0
This book is absolutely fantastic. I had high hopes after All the White Spaces, and Ally Wilkes more than delivered. The characters were fantastic, the conflicts ached, and the Arctic setting chilled me to the bone despite reading this book in a sweltering July.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Slavery and Medical content
Minor: Animal death
More...