I don’t think snowy horror gets better than Michelle Paver’s masterful fictional account of a 1937 winter in Svalbard, deep in the Arctic. The real terror of being alone in the dark, cut off by snow and ice, and with a hostile presence lurking, left me breathless. This book is terrifying!” I love reading about the Arctic, about people traveling to the Arctic, about getting lost in the Arctic, about the never-ending nights of winter, the aurora, the weird twilight, the running about by the light of a full moon trying to 'get things done while there's some light.' I love the dogs, the huskies, and the wind blowing and the snow coming down so fast and furious it all but covers your hut/tent/makeshift shelter. It's just so damn creepy.

I’ve been in the mood for a good ghost story for a while, and when another book blogger told me that Michelle Paver’s novel Dark Matter was not only suspenseful and spooky, but also set in a wild remote place, I didn’t need any more persuasion! And I must say that it lived up to all my expectations. Neither (Susan) Hill nor Paver allows any doubt. Their ghosts seem real enough. Paver's is, I think, the more disturbing, her vision of an eternally dark world of snow and fear the more convincing, her pattern of mood and suggestion the more satisfying * GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD *However, the setting on its own would not be enough. Paver creates a small cast, well drawn, but focuses on one man and his difficult realtionship with his conceited older brother. Through this narration, we become immersed not only in the sibling relationship but also the harsh conditions of the expedition. Our group is trying to reach to summit of the yet unconquered third highest peak of the Himalayas, retracing the steps of a previously ill-fated team. This cleverly written suspenseful historical really gives a great sense of the Time period with the fascinating journal entries help drive the narrative. Dark Matter is a successful cross between The Riddle of the Sands and The Call of the Wild, set in Svalbard * BOOKWITCH * Also, for a female writer, she has an embarrassingly solid grasp on what makes these boy's adventures so indulgently fun. Building huts, surviving from rations, using a mix of scientific and practical knowledge to keep yourself alive and comfortable in an inhospitable environment. These are the hidden joys of the majority of male fiction, from Tintin to Mad Max and boy does Paver nail it * THE HERBERT WEST MEMORIAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL * A large manor house, Wake's End, sits on the edge of a bleak Fen, just outside the town of Wakenhyrst. It is the home of Edmund Stearn and his family – a historian, scholar and land-owner, he's an upstanding member of the local community. But all is not well at Wake's End. Edmund dominates his family tyrannically, in particular daughter Maud. When Maud's mother dies in childbirth and she's left alone with her strict, disciplinarian father, Maud's isolation drives her to her father's study, where she happens upon his diary.

I adored Maud. Her forward thinking and feminist ideologies, her stubborn nature, and her ardent longing for the natural world all spoke to my heart and I was to unable to do anything but align with her cause. Her father, however, far less so, just as the story demanded of its readers. This is a great read and I can't wait for Michelle's next book to come out if it is anything like this one * THE FRINGE * Part of the novel is about some slats of wood with painted images, found behind the church. Throughout the story Maud’s father becomes more and more obsessed by them. They are recovered and sent away to be restored and eventually returned to the church. These medieval paintings on wood are known as a doom. Paver definitely seems to be the go to author during the spooky season as this gothic Edwardian mystery is just as compelling as her ghost stories. Her father, on the other hand, hates the landscapes, hates animals and forbids any pets (except the two horses needed for the carriage).After listening to "Dark Matter" by Michelle Paver I wanted to try another of her books. Chose the audio version of Wakenhyrst and think Juanita McMahon did a great job at interpreting and presenting the different characters. Her ability to capture emotions, in Edmund Stearn's case "disdain" toward everyone and especially toward women, and individualize the personalities made it possible to identify a particular point of view or the set of values the different characters had. The story is set between 1906 (Maud is 8-yrs-old) and 1966 and I found the treatment of women and the antiquated beliefs of the Edwardian period fascinating and appalling. Thank goodness women have made it out of that. Paver has written a similar book to this one called Thin Air, cold snowy horror, ghosts & isolation etc, so I was worried this one would feel too samey for me to really appreciate it, but boy was I wrong! ⁠ Paver was in the middle of research for another adult novel – Wakenhyrst, about a lonely child growing up in the middle of the marshes in Edwardian Suffolk – so she had to put the germ of an idea for what would become Viper’s Daughter aside. But she’s no stranger to letting ideas percolate until they find their time: while studying biochemistry at Oxford in the late 70s, she found herself getting increasingly interested in writing and attempted a Mills & Boon. “It was absolute rubbish. I was so arrogant. I had complete contempt for Mills & Boon and thought it must be easy, so wrote it in three weeks and sent it in. Of course it got rejected.”

This is the perfect present to yourself now that we're going into winter and the need arises for darker, scarier reads. Trust me: you won't be sorry * MY FAVOURITE BOOKS * You will I am sure understand why I found it hard to entertain your enquiry with any pleasure. To be blunt, you evoked painful memories which I have tried for ten years to forget. The expedition crippled a friend of mine and killed another. It is not something I care to revisit. I could feel the chilly winds and the cold in this one and the eerie feel of the mountain really comes to life in her vivid writing. Following Lyell’s route are Kits, Stephen, Major Cotterell, McLellan and Garrard – Kit’s best friend. Despite Captain Tennant’s request that they do not follow the same route up the South-West face, the party ignore his plea and continue as planned. Dr Pearce finds the jungle oppressive and dislikes the superstition and fear which surrounds the mountain. However, it is once they begin the climb that his unsettled feelings gradually turn to fear. Is he imagining things, or is there something - or someone - on the mountain, that is watching them?The problems: superficial description with one-note characters and all-too-obvious motivations that are hamfistedly repeated ad nauseam. If it weren't for the occasional adult subject matter (sex/demon possession), one would think this was written for 13-year olds. Dark Matter while easily accessible, is more than a chilling read. It carries a poignancy that lingers, not unlike the frozen island of Gruhuken * MSLEXIA * What do I mean by wrong? Well I don’t mean ghosts. Not in the sense of disembodied spirits, I don’t believe in them. […] But energy, now. Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, so isn’t it at least possible that some kind of energy—perhaps magnetic, or even some force of emotion—may have lingered here for years? And perhaps—perhaps there’s something about me that makes me a sort of physical medium for that energy: like a battery, or a lightning rod?