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A review by nadiajohnsonbooks
Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes
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