In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men.
– GoodReads
My Review
Jonathan Morgan is a trans teenager who had to stay behind and watch his brothers go off to WWI. After the war has ended, he decides it’s time to live out the dream he and his brothers had; go to Antartica under the famous (or infamous) Australis Randall. He leaves behind his home and the last shreds of who his family wanted him to be to become the man he wants to be; someone courageous and out for adventure.
I loved the premise, I was ready to be scared.
The pacing though almost killed this book for me.
Hear me out though, if you take away the expectation of it being a horror book, I think that will quell the pacing issues for the most part. I kept waiting to be scared, there was no doubt that something eerie was going to happen but it took so long to draw out that I was underwhelmed by the end from that horror aspect of it.
Wilkes certainly gave readers an atmospheric read, I loved the glimpses of Antartica and the conditions.
The hardest part to read was probably the dogs, I know they were ‘tools’ for the expedition but it made me so sad to see how the eerie atmosphere affected them.
I didn’t connect much with Jonathan until the last quarter of the book but I was really happy with how he found himself in that last quarter; the rest I was not really able to appreciate the MC.
The other characters are there to serve a purpose for the story but they don’t get much if any development and that didn’t bother me too much considering the focus of the book. Again it came down to pacing.
However, nice writing style with atmospheric descriptions and a unique story!
3/5 Cups of coffee from me, thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC to review, All the White Spaces publishes on 3/29/2022.
The Caffeinated Reader 