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A review by tasmanian_bibliophile
Out of the Ice by Ann Turner
4.0
‘There was no normal in Antarctica.’
Laura Alvarado is an environmental scientist working in Antarctica. She is sent to an outpost on a remote Antarctic island to report on an abandoned Norwegian whaling station, as part of an environmental impact assessment. But nothing is as it seems in this place. From the beginning,
Laura finds she is treated as an outsider. And when she travels to the whaling station, the wildlife behaves strangely. There are signs of recent human interference around the whaling station, yet no one is supposed to have been there. What is going on?
Laura and a colleague become separated while on a diving expedition. Laura enters an ice cave, and is sure that she sees a boy, crying for help. Reunited with her colleague, they can find no sign of any other human. But Laura doesn’t give up easily.
‘Someone’s tampered with my property. In a zone where no one’s meant to be, in a place where I’m not allowed.’
Laura’s search for information takes her from Antarctica to Nantucket, and then to Europe. The abandoned whaling station has its own history. Finding out about that history will enable Laura to face some issues of her own as well as to find out just what is going on.
I enjoyed this novel, as I enjoyed Ms Turner’s first novel. Her descriptions of Antarctica and of the abandoned whaling station had me hooked early. The history of the whaling station kept me reading. Like Laura, I was keen to find answers. But, and without introducing spoilers, there were a couple of aspects of the story that didn’t really work well for me. By this stage, though, the story had so much momentum that I couldn’t have put it down. I love Ms Turner’s writing, the way in which she creates the atmosphere, the space in which to tell a story.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Laura Alvarado is an environmental scientist working in Antarctica. She is sent to an outpost on a remote Antarctic island to report on an abandoned Norwegian whaling station, as part of an environmental impact assessment. But nothing is as it seems in this place. From the beginning,
Laura finds she is treated as an outsider. And when she travels to the whaling station, the wildlife behaves strangely. There are signs of recent human interference around the whaling station, yet no one is supposed to have been there. What is going on?
Laura and a colleague become separated while on a diving expedition. Laura enters an ice cave, and is sure that she sees a boy, crying for help. Reunited with her colleague, they can find no sign of any other human. But Laura doesn’t give up easily.
‘Someone’s tampered with my property. In a zone where no one’s meant to be, in a place where I’m not allowed.’
Laura’s search for information takes her from Antarctica to Nantucket, and then to Europe. The abandoned whaling station has its own history. Finding out about that history will enable Laura to face some issues of her own as well as to find out just what is going on.
I enjoyed this novel, as I enjoyed Ms Turner’s first novel. Her descriptions of Antarctica and of the abandoned whaling station had me hooked early. The history of the whaling station kept me reading. Like Laura, I was keen to find answers. But, and without introducing spoilers, there were a couple of aspects of the story that didn’t really work well for me. By this stage, though, the story had so much momentum that I couldn’t have put it down. I love Ms Turner’s writing, the way in which she creates the atmosphere, the space in which to tell a story.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith