The White North Has Thy Bones by Dorian Ravenscroft - Gothic Book Review

This was an eerie and disturbing but well thought-out tale of human experience on an Arctic expedition – dark and disturbing.

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In the aftermath of the HMS Melpomene disaster, an Arctic expedition that went terribly wrong, one of the few survivors is hanged for the murder of his wife and brother. Told through the lens of Harry, a journalist investigating the case under his own passions from it, we hear the often conflicting tales of two other survivors, Blakely and Taylor, men who are now running seances after receiving some sort of mysterious “gifts” after the trials they went through in the north.

The book is told through 3 perspectives – the naive Harry, who desperately wants to get to the bottom of the mystery, and two survivors from the ship telling their stories through Harry. The angles of the story make it all the more interesting, and I loved the historical perspective of it.

I saw absolutely glowing reviews for this book. And it’s not that I didn’t like it – I just didn’t love it. I think it’s more a me-problem than the book itself.

For more background, I LOVE books set in isolated landscapes – space, post-apocalyptic worlds, the desert or rainforest. The frozen wilds and doomed expeditions are among my favourites; I have a whole list of ones in this very niche sub-genre that I could recommend. These parts of the book absolutely enthralled me, as always. The lengths to which humans will go to survive and how they did so.

This book had a pretty big list of content warnings, some of which were spoilers, but I think it’s safe to say this one crops up early enough that it won’t spoil anything: cannibalism. I have this kind of mental block against this topic. While I can manage most things in fiction, this is one that really hits hard for me. In passing mention, fine. But as a wider topic, not so great. Sadly this took away some of the enjoyment from the book for me as I was constantly waiting for more of it and not wanting to get to it!

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As I said, I absolutely adored the setting: the bleak polar wildness, and the story back at home with seances and ghosts following them back was fascinating and eerie. There was a lot to love, and I know that others will adore it. It just wasn’t wholly a favourite for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for an ARC of this book.