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anarmandameg's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism
ezwolf's review against another edition
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Vomit, and Dysphoria
Minor: Alcohol and War
samferree's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and War
ofbooksandechos's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
Minor: Homophobia, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and War
billie_budd's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
There’s about 50-75 pages in the middle where everything felt disjointed (in what I can only read as an unintentional way); quotidian things were happening but I could barely tell what they were, or if they were important, because they were interspersed so heavily with flashbacks and memories. Past that part there’s less of this muddled feeling, but it was a struggle to get past the middle of the book.
I also really missed relationships in this book, especially because there’s so much down-time plot-wise, on the ship, on the ice. But I didn’t feel that really any relationships between any characters were developed in any real way, even though they all spent so much time in exceedingly close quarters and enduring events that could have changed or strengthened their relationships in really significant ways, and several of them knew each other pre-plot. (An exception to this is the Randall/Clarke dynamic, which I felt was complex and genuine and changed compellingly over time.) I was frustrated by how much of the time I really wanted to be reading a conversation and instead was just watching someone hammer in some nail, lost in thought.
Some of the horror elements were genuinely spooky but I did feel that they could have been carried off better if the tension in the book as a whole had been carried better instead of feeling as flat as it did, and weighed down by various chores and memories—if the protagonist had ever felt present enough in his surroundings to show that tension.
All that said, I found the narrative of the protagonist’s transness and struggles with family transphobia very well done, and very well integrated with the plot’s main conflicts. This was a great read just to get to hang out with him (and in high-adventure places and scenarios typically considered all-cis-male-only, no less), even if by the end I wished I had been given a view of him and his expedition comrades that was somehow more personal.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
cmaples's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Death, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, Abandonment, and Dysphoria
Minor: Confinement
blklagoon's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Deadnaming, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria