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

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My second trip on one of Michelle Paver’s icy cold ghost stories, the first being Dark Matter. I loved that one, and this one proved to be just as good. Having really enjoyed, “Dark Matter,” I was keen to read this, new novel, by Michelle Paver. Normally, I dislike comparing an author’s novels, but there is much to compare in, “Thin Air,” to “Dark Matter.” Both deal with remote places and extreme temperatures. Both are, essentially, ghost stories… Dark Matter is terrific. It is a ghost story, but it is also a metaphysical meditation on what lies beneath our little lives.” When the summer is over and darkness sets in, you can truly visualise the derelict trappers hut, the ice, the snow and harsh landscape.

Enter Dark Matter, by the very talented Michelle Paver. Holy haunted bear post, Batman. This book is everything I have been looking for, and then some. In the interim, she “took a bit of a wrong turn”, becoming a biotechnological patents lawyer for 13 years. “I thought, ‘I’m quite good at exams, why don’t I do law for a couple of years and maybe I’ll be published by then?’” After years of trying to write in the evenings and at weekends, and not really wanting to be a lawyer at all, she “had to jump off the treadmill”. She resigned without a book deal. During her six months’ notice period, she landed one. “My earnings fell off a cliff. I went from six figures to earning less than a student teacher. But it was unbelievable how much it felt like the right thing. I didn’t have to dress up in Armani trouser suits, I could just wear jeans.” 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.”Magic by Kate Elliott, 8 (Fantasy) 2. The City in the Lake by Rachel Neumeier, 9 (Fantasy, YA) 3. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver, 9 (Horror) 4. Sisters of the Sword series by Maya Snow, 8 (MG/YA, Historical, […] I had a good time. That's pretty much all. It has brotherly angst, a fight against the elements, tragedy, pettiness, and above all, really great foreshadowing. Most of my enjoyment came from trying to find out what Kind of ghost story it would become, and when I learned, I was mightily pleased. Nuff Said about that. Delphyne – You’re very welcome! Let me know what you think once you’ve had a chance to read this one!

But all that helped to enhance the atmosphere of the tale. It was more psychological than physical terror (except for what had been done to Maude's mother), as is usually the case in such books, and it worked really well. 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. Paver records [the protagonist’s] terror with compassion, convincing the reader that he believes everything he records while leaving open the possibility that his isolation – and the class barrier he feels so acutely – has made him peculiarly susceptible to emotional disturbance. The novel ends in tragedy that is as haunting as anything else in this deeply affecting tale of mental and physical isolation.” This is a book written for the adult market but will be enjoyed just as much by many readers who fall within the so-called Young Adult age range. There is no bad language, no sex, no blood or gore - this is pure ghost story that relies on a mastery of the craft of writing to create a sense of lingering terror in the reader that will not go away easily once the book is finished * BOOKZONE4BOYS * In the summer of 1994, psychologist Daniel Hill buys a rustic farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills of West Virginia.This is pacey, readable historical fiction with a good sense of period and atmosphere. I enjoyed Pearce’s narration, and the one-upmanship type of relationship with his brother adds an interesting dimension to the expedition dynamics. However, I never submitted sufficiently to Paver’s spell to find anything particularly scary. I’ll try again with her other ghost story, Dark Matter, about an Arctic expedition from the same time period.

I am immensely fascinated with the Artic so anytime I find a book set in the area, I snap them up. I also love a good ghost story so if you combine the two I'm in heaven! And that's exactly what you'll find in Dark Matter so I knew going into it, that it just had to be good. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. Stephen's fraught relationship with his brother Kits, was one of the main conflicts of the story. Besides Stephen, and sometimes Major Cotterell, I didn't like any of the white members of the expedition. They were either driven by greed and pride or cowardly in the face of injustice or common sense. It gave me a smug sense of satisfaction when Kits received his just desserts. The ghost in question is a member of the previous expedition Arthur Ward. He was an outsider, not being upper class like the rest of the team. He fell and was left to die on the mountainside. Paver builds the tension well, piece by piece using the surroundings very effectively. The contrast with the Sherpas is telling. They respect and fear the mountain and display a great deal more common sense than their western paymasters. Freud argues that the writer can achieve the uncanny by; To escape the oppressive rules in the household and loveless upbringing, she walks around the Fen. She loves all the animals living there and the silent beauty.Author Michelle Paver was another wonder to me. Her knowledge of life in the Arctic is so extensive I had to find out more about her and read that Michelle traveled to Finland, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Arctic Canada, and the Carpathian Mountains. She has slept on reindeer skins, swum with wild killer whales, and gotten nose to nose with polar bears and wolves to research her books. That explained why her book was so realistic and believable.