The White Darkness

This novel is as bleak and beautiful as the continent upon which it is set. Every step of Sym's journey has this sense of disaster about it. As her "Uncle" takes her deeper and deeper into Antarctica in a desperate attempt to reach the entrance to Hollow Earth, there's this brutal sense of foreboding that this all is going to end in such a terrible way, while also this tendril of hope (about to snap any second) that maybe everything will be all right although you can't possibly see how. It's rather interesting, too, that part of what upholds this slender thread of hope is Sym's imaginary love, a mental recreation of Titus Oates, who died in the Antarctic 90 years before her own journey.

While the writing style is gorgeous, the story is show more intense to the point of being uncomfortable. It was a vicious experience, leaving me nearly depressed sometimes, to the point where I felt like the character in that I wasn't sure I would go on. I'm glad I did, that I reached the end, but I'm not sure it's and experience I would want to go through again.

I will certainly be checking out some other of Geraldine McCaughrean's work, though. show less

One of those books that I hated while reading but I can't get it out of my head. So creative, so dark. Really well-written, but I never want to read it again.

"I've been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now - which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead too, and then the age difference won't matter."

Uncle Victor has been preparing Sym for a trip to The Ice all her life. Countless books and videos have made her an expert in Antarctica. A misfit teenager, Sym has developed an imaginary friend inside her head - Titus Oates - a man who was along with Scott during his fatal expedition. This strange connection, obsession, hallucination, might just keep Sym alive when her trip to The Ice goes very, very wrong.

I began reading about Antarctica on a lark when I picked up Byrd's wonderfully lyric book, Alone, back in 2009. show more Last year I finally got around to The Worst Journey in the World and read about Scott. Both of those books were non-fiction but it was enough for the recommendation engine to bring The White Darkness to my attention. It's a clever setup, this girl who is channeling Oates. I've seen him eulogized as a tragic, heroic figure but here the witty repartee helps humanize him. Their relationship is fun, though in my opinion it comes off better in the beginning than towards the end. I'm not sure I would have kept with the story if I had not had the background reading, but one reason I did stick with it was McCaughrean's lovely prose.

"God sketched Antarctica, then erased most of it again, in the hope a better idea would strike Him. At the center is a blank whiteness where the planet isn't finished. It's the address for Nowhere.... That empty, featureless plateau, rising up and up to high-altitude nothingness with no feature fixing its center - it mesmerized me. The idea of it took me in thrall. It was so empty, so blank, so clean, so dead. Surely if I was ever to set down there, even I might finally exist. Surely, in this Continent of Nothingness, anything - anyone - had to be hugely alive by comparison!" show less

On loan from Emily, hurray.

Wow, I loved this. Wow. These are some of the best characters I've read in a while. The characters are so crazy good it would be a great book even if it wasn't in Antarctica. But it is!

The narration and structure are so wonderful. Being in Sym's head is great. Exhorting herself, "marshal your facts". Talking constantly to "Titus," the long-dead explorer Lawrence Oates of the Scott expedition. Reflecting on her isolation.

Her backstory, with her deafness and her father's disturbing illness, is wrenching in every piece. It never really feels like flashbacks, everything we learn about her family and her school life, but since the book is mostly happening on this screwed up trip in Antartica, those things are about show more that too: "My father didn't like me, and now that he's dead, there's nothing I can do to make him like me. I thought I'd gotten over that. But wounds unheal here. It troubles me more and more, not less and less. You have to be pretty useless for even your own father not to like you." Ugh. Ouch. Ow.

And of course the whole situation is just so messed up. How did nothing prevent them from getting there? Uncle Victor flies right off the page with his freak flag immediately in the beginning, so it's clear you can't take him at face value as Sym does. (It was the paranoid cell phone contraption that did it for me. And when the woman in the shop asked Sym concernedly whether this man is her father, or if he's... something else.) He is defining the term "solo mission" here, because he's living a life and working an agenda that makes sense to no one else at all. Totally amazing to read, though.

So when their weird holiday escalates and makes these turns that take them to Antarctica and Sym is surprised by it all, you are too, but it's more like disbelief. And that disbelief hangs in there as stuff goes wronger and wronger once they're there. And it takes a long time before you and Sym catch up with what's really going on. Though honestly, I tend to like the mystery of YA conflicts a bit more than the inevitable telling.

So the story surprised me, the plot built and I really didn't know what was going to happen, and how bad it was going to get, and who was responsible for what disaster, and what would succeed and fail. It's frustrating and suspenseful. Sometimes Sym gets to impress herself and be resourceful and make a plan, but sometimes she just suffers.

You know. Because she is lost in Antarctica. Which would be pretty bad.

"'Unhappy people do the oddest, most terrible things, just trying to keep despair at bay. All you have to do is accept them... go around them... take evasive action.'"

4.5 stars, yay. show less

Poor Sym. She is a “sad weirdo who runs on nerd power.” Obsessed with Antarctica, she has a hard time relating to her peers. So when a family trip that was supposed to take them on a short jaunt through Paris turns into the adventure of a lifetime, Sym jumps at the chance and is off to The Ice. But things aren’t working out like they were supposed to. People are getting sick, and the plane meant to bring them home explodes… somehow. Soon, Sym is seeing more than she ever expected she would of Antarctica, whether or not she wanted to.
So many novels start out this way. With the weirdo kid who doesn’t fit in and then has a trial or adventure that forces them to change their outlook and “come of age.” Still, the rubric for show more this sort of book works and Sym kind of reminds me of Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, seeming to be slightly autistic in that speaking to others is awkward and uncomfortable but in her head, she is quite bright. Her inner monologue with a ghost is interesting and revealing of her personality. I saw a lot of the plot twists coming (the lying uncle, the con men, the “interested” cute boy), but perhaps after reading Dr. Franklin’s Island, maybe I was ruined for all suspense afterwards. show less

My favourite character is Titus, the imaginary boyfriend. Although boyfriend isn't quite the right word. Mocked at school, detested by her now dead father, Sym's only sources of affection are her brilliant but flakey uncle and an Antarctic explorer she imagines to keep her company. And when her uncle takes her to Paris for the weekend, she needs that company more than she ever expected.
Actually, I'm wrong. My favourite character is the Antarctic - she is so wonderfully described that I could see the blues, and feel the sharp hooks in the ice.
Sym is an interesting girl, and her gradual understanding of what's going on, as well as the truth behind her life in the past captured my imagination.
I'd give this books to someone looking for a show more thriller, or interested in the history of Antarctic exploration. show less

This had some beautiful descriptions of the Antarctic wilderness and would appeal to fans of both Gary Paulsen type survivor stories, and ordinary young adult readers. Sym was a delightful, unique protagonist and Titus Oates, her imaginary friend, was a fully developed character in his own right. I will definitely read more by this author.