Dark Matter: the gripping ghost story from the author of WAKENHYRST

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Also, for a horror novel, it's just not that scary. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer's nonfiction account of the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster -- which contains zero ghosts -- is much spookier and more unsettling than this book. Hmm. I have no doubt at all that Michelle Paver is a talented author, she certainly writes about the cold and snow very well, but... well I wasn’t at all scared. Not once. I felt the same way about 'Dark Matter,' I couldn’t see what everyone else was talking about, I still don’t. The two novels are very similar and sadly I was underwhelmed by both of them. Granted, such stories about climbing mountains in the 30's have a long tradition. And of course, so do ghost stories. But regardless, this mash-up was first and foremost WELL WRITTEN. Modern style, of course.

Michelle Paver - Wikipedia Michelle Paver - Wikipedia

Once we get further into the story, and higher up the mountain, the creepiness begins. At the start, there are just small occurrences of unease, a shadow at the edge of Stephen’s vision or the dark shape of a man further up the mountain. But as we read on, weirder things begin to happen. I loved the atmosphere Paver created in this novel, you can really lose yourself in scenario’s and feel the plummeting sense of fear and dread that plagues Stephen. A spooky and atmospheric ghost story, the Perfect reading material for dark October/November long dark nights. I am always on the look out for a good chilling style story at this time of year. I am not a fan of Horror and or guts and gore just a good old fashioned Ghost Story is what floats my boat.In 1935 Dr. Stephen Pearce and his brother Kits are part of a five-man mission to climb the most dangerous mountain in the Himalayas, Kangchenjunga. Thirty years before, Sir Edmund Lyell led an ill-fated expedition up the same mountain: more than one man did not return, and the rest lost limbs to frostbite. “I don’t want to know what happened to them. It’s in the past. It has nothing to do with us,” Dr. Pearce tells himself, but from the start it feels like a bad omen that they, like Lyell’s party, are attempting the southwest approach; even the native porters are nervous. And as they climb, they fall prey to various medical and mental crises; hallucinations of ghostly figures on the crags are just as much of a danger as snow blindness. It’s a hypothesis, and it makes me feel slightly better. I’ve put a frame around the wrongness. I’ve contained it.” Thin Air is an interesting book about a group that decides to climb Kangchenjunga in India. I was quite fascinated with the books premise. Horror stories that take place in isolated places are great and I was quite looking forward to being swept off my feet. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. I liked the story, but I didn't love it. There were interesting moments, but I just felt that I never really connected with either Stephen Pearce or his fellow travelers. I liked the idea that one of the men from the previous expedition was left behind and that Stephen Pearce felt haunted. But, it just never got really interesting.

Dark Matter, Clowns at Midnight, Damage Time and Version 43 Dark Matter, Clowns at Midnight, Damage Time and Version 43

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. A tightly wrought tale that keeps the reader wondering to the end whether the terror is merely psychological, or if there is in fact something dark haunting the slopes of Kangchenjunga.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 is a tense, atmospheric novel set in India in the 1930s. An expedition set on the way to a mountain that claimed many before. The story is told from the viewpoint of Stephen, who is a doctor and the younger brother of the group leader Kits. The novel starts in a soul very likely to Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 days but as Stephen meets with an ex-mountaineer that had climbed the killer in the past, we immediately get the picture- this is no happy adventure...Something terrible awaits on the mountain. Thin Air: A Ghost Story fitted the bill perfectly for me, this is more the the sort of story that is eerie and chilling and unsettling as opposed to scary.