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Dark Matter
January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely, and desperate to change his life, so when he's offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year, Gruhuken, but the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice: stay or go. 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. Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark...
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First published October 21, 2010
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About the author
Michelle Paver
56 books2,363 followersMichelle Paver was born in central Africa, but came to England as a child. After gaining a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, she became a partner in a city law firm, but eventually gave that up to write full-time.
The hugely successful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series arose from Michelle's lifelong passion for animals, anthropology and the distant past—as well as an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in southern California. To research the books, Michelle has traveled to Finland, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Arctic Canada and the Carpathian Mountains. She has slept on reindeer skins, swum with wild orca (killer whales), and got nose-to-nose with polar bears—and, of course, wolves.
The hugely successful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series arose from Michelle's lifelong passion for animals, anthropology and the distant past—as well as an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in southern California. To research the books, Michelle has traveled to Finland, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Arctic Canada and the Carpathian Mountains. She has slept on reindeer skins, swum with wild orca (killer whales), and got nose-to-nose with polar bears—and, of course, wolves.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,292 reviews
February 15, 2016
perfectly executed little ghost story set in the Arctic wastes in the late 1930s, featuring the adventures of AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK and I suppose some humans as well.
so Jack - a poor, depressed, dog-hating, lower class and very class conscious 28-year-old - finds the perfect solution to his angst and alienation: he will join a small expedition to the abandoned mining outpost of Gruhuken in the Arctic circle. there he will find meaning to his life, camaraderie and fellowship and an intense crush on one of his fellow adventurers, and an atrocious and deadly ghost. there are some other human characters as well but eh whatever, the most compelling part of the story is that Jack meets AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK! who will teach him that only morons hate dogs.
Paver does an excellent job at conveying the time and the place. she creates her characters quickly yet they retain nuance and realism. Jack is an interestingly almost-unreliable narrator. Paver is particularly skilled at painting a locale that is highly atmospheric, dislocating, and eerie. Dark Matter is essentially a haunted house story that takes place in a fairly original setting, full of wide, dark spaces although centered around a small, lonely cabin. of course the author's greatest accomplishment in this book is AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK. what an enjoyable character. he owns every scene he's in.
so Isaak may not be a particularly brave dog, but he is definitely a good dog. and he's a loyal dog too, which is sorta like saying a cat has claws because all good dogs are loyal dogs, but still it has to be said. Isaak's loyalty is outstanding. he also has beautiful blue eyes like most huskies and loves getting treats and enjoys running around and leaning against Jack. who cares if he hides under the bunk when the ghost comes a-calling, that's human business anyway. Isaak made me like Jack, which is quite an accomplishment because Jack is a self-important, self-absorbed grouch. I am also pleased to say that SPOILER Isaak has a happy ending. yay for AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK!
so Jack - a poor, depressed, dog-hating, lower class and very class conscious 28-year-old - finds the perfect solution to his angst and alienation: he will join a small expedition to the abandoned mining outpost of Gruhuken in the Arctic circle. there he will find meaning to his life, camaraderie and fellowship and an intense crush on one of his fellow adventurers, and an atrocious and deadly ghost. there are some other human characters as well but eh whatever, the most compelling part of the story is that Jack meets AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK! who will teach him that only morons hate dogs.
Paver does an excellent job at conveying the time and the place. she creates her characters quickly yet they retain nuance and realism. Jack is an interestingly almost-unreliable narrator. Paver is particularly skilled at painting a locale that is highly atmospheric, dislocating, and eerie. Dark Matter is essentially a haunted house story that takes place in a fairly original setting, full of wide, dark spaces although centered around a small, lonely cabin. of course the author's greatest accomplishment in this book is AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK. what an enjoyable character. he owns every scene he's in.
so Isaak may not be a particularly brave dog, but he is definitely a good dog. and he's a loyal dog too, which is sorta like saying a cat has claws because all good dogs are loyal dogs, but still it has to be said. Isaak's loyalty is outstanding. he also has beautiful blue eyes like most huskies and loves getting treats and enjoys running around and leaning against Jack. who cares if he hides under the bunk when the ghost comes a-calling, that's human business anyway. Isaak made me like Jack, which is quite an accomplishment because Jack is a self-important, self-absorbed grouch. I am also pleased to say that SPOILER Isaak has a happy ending. yay for AN AWESOME HUSKY NAMED ISAAK!
December 19, 2025
No Moon. No Stars...
DARK MATTER: A Ghost Story
By Michelle Paver
4 stars. Jack Miller and four other men were hired to overwinter on an island in the High Arctic, studying its weather patterns...
Although...
No one would ever know the whole truth of what happened at that outpost. They knew it was something terrible...
Jack kept a journal of the 1937 expedition...
Their assignment was to study the High Arctic biology, geology, and ice dynamics...
And...
They were to do a meteorological survey by transmitting their observations three times a day for a year...
But...
The inexperienced men knew little of the loneliness, desolation, endless nights, or...
Rumors of The One Who Walks...
The Swedes believe that the beginning of the polar night (on Halloween night) is a time for taking particular care because...
The graves open up...
As the sun set for the last time for the next four months...
Jack, standing outside, saw the ghost for the first time crouching among the sea rocks. It had just hauled itself up from the sea...
Before the week was over...
Events transpired that caused Jack to end up alone on the island with the ghost...
The One Who Walks...
What we know of the universe is only a tiny percentage of what actually exists. What is left is dark matter, which can't be seen or detected...
But it's there...
Is death a door into a better place? What if it's not like that at all? No enlightenment, just darkness.
No moon. No stars...
This is a very atmospheric story. It is beautifully written with some passages being the stuff of nightmares (alone during four months of endless nights, looking out dark, foggy windows for a stalking entity... will it look back?)
I removed a star because I didn't like the ending. It was a little too all-over-the-place for me, and that took away from the pent-up chills and thoughts that this story should have left me ruminating on.
I also didn't like the main character, Jack. He was far too whiney and critical, making him cringe-worthy to read about.
Summing up: Beautifully written ghost story with great atmosphere and many spooky moments.
DARK MATTER: A Ghost Story
By Michelle Paver
4 stars. Jack Miller and four other men were hired to overwinter on an island in the High Arctic, studying its weather patterns...
Although...
No one would ever know the whole truth of what happened at that outpost. They knew it was something terrible...
Jack kept a journal of the 1937 expedition...
Their assignment was to study the High Arctic biology, geology, and ice dynamics...
And...
They were to do a meteorological survey by transmitting their observations three times a day for a year...
But...
The inexperienced men knew little of the loneliness, desolation, endless nights, or...
Rumors of The One Who Walks...
The Swedes believe that the beginning of the polar night (on Halloween night) is a time for taking particular care because...
The graves open up...
As the sun set for the last time for the next four months...
Jack, standing outside, saw the ghost for the first time crouching among the sea rocks. It had just hauled itself up from the sea...
Before the week was over...
Events transpired that caused Jack to end up alone on the island with the ghost...
The One Who Walks...
What we know of the universe is only a tiny percentage of what actually exists. What is left is dark matter, which can't be seen or detected...
But it's there...
Is death a door into a better place? What if it's not like that at all? No enlightenment, just darkness.
No moon. No stars...
This is a very atmospheric story. It is beautifully written with some passages being the stuff of nightmares (alone during four months of endless nights, looking out dark, foggy windows for a stalking entity... will it look back?)
I removed a star because I didn't like the ending. It was a little too all-over-the-place for me, and that took away from the pent-up chills and thoughts that this story should have left me ruminating on.
I also didn't like the main character, Jack. He was far too whiney and critical, making him cringe-worthy to read about.
Summing up: Beautifully written ghost story with great atmosphere and many spooky moments.
January 9, 2014
Now I love snow. I long for it with every fibre of my red blooded being. I yearn and strain to hear and see and feel it falling. Where I live in Poole we hardly ever get it and when the rest of the kingdom is cloaked in it we have the normal talcum powder sprinklings which somehow manages to bring all normal progress to a grinding halt or we have absolutely none whatsoever whilst radio and tv bangs on about blizzard conditions and the horror that is the white stuff everywhere else. Yet with all this unrequited or at least unsatisfied love affair with snow on my part Michelle Paver still managed to make even me a little unnerved by the idea of the chill and bleakness and paralysing loneliness of a snowed landscape.
She manages to create a claustrophobic atmosphere in one of the greatest great outdoors there is. And it is not by blood and guts and grossness but by the gradual ratchetting up of tension as the hero, left alone, suddenly discovers that he is neither. He is not a hero, nor is he alone. And it is the uncovering of these horrifiying truths which gradually chills and frightens you as the reader.
One of the underlying themes of the story is hostility both imagined and real. The whole story is in the context of a diary kept by our hero and so we get only his opinion, his viewing of the situation but Paver enables us to see his mistakes and misunderstandings and misrepresentations because, when all else is said and done, he is an honest man.
Jack, setting off on a polar expedition, senses the supposed hostile sneers and low opinion of his more affluent and 'well-educated' companions; On board ship he encounters the seeming hostility of the captain of their transport ship, and gradually, as the adventure continues, he begins to sense and feel the hostility of the landscape even in amidst its beauty and then over-riding everything the glimpses he has caught of the 'dark figure against the glare, hands at his side, one shoulder higher than the other, something about the tilt of his head that I didn't like' suddenly morphs into the realization that this figure is not seeking recognition or help or comfort but revenge and that that hatred and hostility is focused directly on Jack.
It being a book by the author of the 'Chronicles of Ancient Darkness' the wolflike qualities of the huskies are analysed and celebrated and the relationship of Jack with the dog Isaak is well observed and wonderfully humanizing, if that is not a contradiction in terms.
The story is a relatively quick read and it is certainly one that you will not put down easily. If you love a good scare and chill, then I would very highly recommend you pick this up. Close your curtains or if you leave them open, make sure you move any posts far far away......and don't check on them, no really, don't start checking.
She manages to create a claustrophobic atmosphere in one of the greatest great outdoors there is. And it is not by blood and guts and grossness but by the gradual ratchetting up of tension as the hero, left alone, suddenly discovers that he is neither. He is not a hero, nor is he alone. And it is the uncovering of these horrifiying truths which gradually chills and frightens you as the reader.
One of the underlying themes of the story is hostility both imagined and real. The whole story is in the context of a diary kept by our hero and so we get only his opinion, his viewing of the situation but Paver enables us to see his mistakes and misunderstandings and misrepresentations because, when all else is said and done, he is an honest man.
Jack, setting off on a polar expedition, senses the supposed hostile sneers and low opinion of his more affluent and 'well-educated' companions; On board ship he encounters the seeming hostility of the captain of their transport ship, and gradually, as the adventure continues, he begins to sense and feel the hostility of the landscape even in amidst its beauty and then over-riding everything the glimpses he has caught of the 'dark figure against the glare, hands at his side, one shoulder higher than the other, something about the tilt of his head that I didn't like' suddenly morphs into the realization that this figure is not seeking recognition or help or comfort but revenge and that that hatred and hostility is focused directly on Jack.
It being a book by the author of the 'Chronicles of Ancient Darkness' the wolflike qualities of the huskies are analysed and celebrated and the relationship of Jack with the dog Isaak is well observed and wonderfully humanizing, if that is not a contradiction in terms.
The story is a relatively quick read and it is certainly one that you will not put down easily. If you love a good scare and chill, then I would very highly recommend you pick this up. Close your curtains or if you leave them open, make sure you move any posts far far away......and don't check on them, no really, don't start checking.
November 20, 2014
This is subtitled A Ghost Story, so I knew what to expect... or at least, I thought so. While it will be lapped up by lovers of traditional ghost stories - myself included - this novel also has a unique edge and great literary quality. Dark Matter relates the experiences of Jack, a former student of physics who, at 28, is poor, lonely, sick of London life and hates his job as an export clerk. On a whim, he applies to join an Arctic expedition as a wireless operator, and is thrilled to be accepted - even though he feels a little alienated from his rich, Oxford-educated teammates. Confiding in his journal, he writes of the group's journey to Norway, their arrival in Spitsbergen and first encounters with Gruhuken, the desolate bay they intend to make camp in. As the Arctic winter - permanent night - draws in and a series of mysterious accidents befall the others, Jack's misgivings about Gruhuken grow and grow.
The ghostly element of the book is executed beautifully, with a suspenseful build-up, a sense of great foreboding and brilliant subtlety. However, there's much more to the story than that. The real power of the novel is in its depiction of the frozen wastelands of the Arctic - the empty, untouched, lonely landscapes Jack at first relishes but comes to regard with horror. Paver's descriptions are so evocative I felt like I was actually there, and could imagine exactly what Gruhuken looked like with absolute clarity. There is so much packed into this little book and it's all done with such flair - the development of Jack's feelings towards his teammates and in particular Gus, his initial antipathy towards the dogs evolving slowly into affection for Isaak, his immense relief when he receives a visitor. The most striking part is the portrayal of Jack's increasing fear, paranoia and confusion as he faces the horrors of Gruhuken and its never-ending darkness alone. His experiences made me question my own love of/desire for solitude, and that is a rare thing indeed for me.
Michelle Paver has written a number of children's books and some historical romances that don't really interest me. I'm really hoping that Dark Matter will lead to more in the ghost-story mould from this author, as it's exactly the type of book that makes me want to read more. I know I've read something good when, upon finishing it, I immediately want to re-read it, to immerse myself in its world once again - this was one of the rare few to provoke such a reaction. Every time I think about it I immediately want to grab it and start reading again; I also want to travel to the Arctic and, at the same time, find myself feeling terrified of it. If you enjoy supernatural tales, suspense, or tremendous atmosphere, this book is highly recommended.
The ghostly element of the book is executed beautifully, with a suspenseful build-up, a sense of great foreboding and brilliant subtlety. However, there's much more to the story than that. The real power of the novel is in its depiction of the frozen wastelands of the Arctic - the empty, untouched, lonely landscapes Jack at first relishes but comes to regard with horror. Paver's descriptions are so evocative I felt like I was actually there, and could imagine exactly what Gruhuken looked like with absolute clarity. There is so much packed into this little book and it's all done with such flair - the development of Jack's feelings towards his teammates and in particular Gus, his initial antipathy towards the dogs evolving slowly into affection for Isaak, his immense relief when he receives a visitor. The most striking part is the portrayal of Jack's increasing fear, paranoia and confusion as he faces the horrors of Gruhuken and its never-ending darkness alone. His experiences made me question my own love of/desire for solitude, and that is a rare thing indeed for me.
Michelle Paver has written a number of children's books and some historical romances that don't really interest me. I'm really hoping that Dark Matter will lead to more in the ghost-story mould from this author, as it's exactly the type of book that makes me want to read more. I know I've read something good when, upon finishing it, I immediately want to re-read it, to immerse myself in its world once again - this was one of the rare few to provoke such a reaction. Every time I think about it I immediately want to grab it and start reading again; I also want to travel to the Arctic and, at the same time, find myself feeling terrified of it. If you enjoy supernatural tales, suspense, or tremendous atmosphere, this book is highly recommended.
December 25, 2018
Um yeah....
A small group of guys get together for an expedition in the wild northern Arctic. They've already chosen a spot for their observations. The problem is, the spot happens to be haunted!
So I got halfway through this book and realize that absolutely nothing has happened yet. I got tired of waiting for them to get to the punchline so I'm putting this book down. It was like nothing's happening.... nothing's happening.... ok he saw a shadow. And nothing's happening again.
It seems like the book took way too long to set up the scene and the characters when it was completely unnecessary to do so. Like I said I was about halfway through the book when I decided to stop reading it.
other people seem to have liked this book but it's just not for me so I'm not recommending it.
A small group of guys get together for an expedition in the wild northern Arctic. They've already chosen a spot for their observations. The problem is, the spot happens to be haunted!
So I got halfway through this book and realize that absolutely nothing has happened yet. I got tired of waiting for them to get to the punchline so I'm putting this book down. It was like nothing's happening.... nothing's happening.... ok he saw a shadow. And nothing's happening again.
It seems like the book took way too long to set up the scene and the characters when it was completely unnecessary to do so. Like I said I was about halfway through the book when I decided to stop reading it.
other people seem to have liked this book but it's just not for me so I'm not recommending it.
February 6, 2024
So much to say about this book! Michelle Paver is such an amazing storyteller! My second book I’ve read, totally different than Wakenhyrst, but similar with the very accessible, immediately immersive narrative. I was completely absorbed into this story. The slow turn of the temperature to boiling was masterful. More soon
November 30, 2022
There were times reading the book that I genuinely felt an old type of fear, by old fear, I mean the fear/anxiety you feel as a child in a dark house or somewhere spooky etc. The way the author brings the levels of anxiety soaring by Jack just being on his own, never mind the malevolent spirit stalking him is just brilliant.
The part when Mr Eriksons trapper friend turned up to check on Jack I felt genuine relief for him and I myself felt completely at ease while reading the book, but as soon as he left I also felt my anxiety levels go up.
I found the book had a dry humour in parts which worked as I suppose in that sort of situation you would have to try see the dry funny side of things. I am not sure if anyone who has read this felt the same?
Furthermore I felt the love Jack felt for Gus was a beautiful touch and worked in the sense that in the dead of night, in the absolute pit of blackness, who do we/would we think of? the person/persons we love the most.
Great ghost story!
The part when Mr Eriksons trapper friend turned up to check on Jack I felt genuine relief for him and I myself felt completely at ease while reading the book, but as soon as he left I also felt my anxiety levels go up.
I found the book had a dry humour in parts which worked as I suppose in that sort of situation you would have to try see the dry funny side of things. I am not sure if anyone who has read this felt the same?
Furthermore I felt the love Jack felt for Gus was a beautiful touch and worked in the sense that in the dead of night, in the absolute pit of blackness, who do we/would we think of? the person/persons we love the most.
Great ghost story!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2012
I'm a sucker for creepy stories, or any stories really, set in the arctic or antarctic.
Snow and ice? Check.
Beautiful and desolate isolation? Check.
Spooky quiet and shadows on the ice? Check!
I liked the epistolary approach and there are plenty of genuinely goose-bumpy moments. Mild complaints: the diary approach was ditched at the climax (cheating!) and the end was a bit rushed. But minor quibbles really. An excellent arctic ghost story.
Snow and ice? Check.
Beautiful and desolate isolation? Check.
Spooky quiet and shadows on the ice? Check!
I liked the epistolary approach and there are plenty of genuinely goose-bumpy moments. Mild complaints: the diary approach was ditched at the climax (cheating!) and the end was a bit rushed. But minor quibbles really. An excellent arctic ghost story.
March 27, 2025
I felt its will coming at me in waves. Intense, unwavering, malign. Such malevolence. No mercy. No humanity. It belonged to the dark beyond humanity. It was rage without end. A black tide drowning.
In 1937, four young Englishmen set forth on an arctic expedition to the remote island of Spitsbergen off the coast of northern Norway. There, they plan to camp for a year, conducting scientific experiments and tracking meteorological data for their "sponsors" and also sending entertaining and informative dispatches back to London. Jack is the outlier of the rest of the group who are public school comrades from wealthy families, and at the start of the book he feels this difference keenly and resentfully. But extraordinary and challenging circumstances have a way of drawing people together, and Jack soon warms up to his new colleagues as well as this adventure of a lifetime. However, soon after the advent of polar night, a series of events leave Jack isolated in their small camp with only a team of huskies for companionship. Or, perhaps, it's not only the dogs keeping him company after all.
I felt such a sense of dread throughout this book, a knot in my chest like an icy hand clutching my heart, heightened by the diary entry format, and it didn't let up until the very end. Dark Matter is a quintessential ghost story with an arctic twist, and I can honestly think of no setting more suitable for a desolate haunting than the far north and the polar night. The only complaint I have about this book is that I wish it was longer.
In 1937, four young Englishmen set forth on an arctic expedition to the remote island of Spitsbergen off the coast of northern Norway. There, they plan to camp for a year, conducting scientific experiments and tracking meteorological data for their "sponsors" and also sending entertaining and informative dispatches back to London. Jack is the outlier of the rest of the group who are public school comrades from wealthy families, and at the start of the book he feels this difference keenly and resentfully. But extraordinary and challenging circumstances have a way of drawing people together, and Jack soon warms up to his new colleagues as well as this adventure of a lifetime. However, soon after the advent of polar night, a series of events leave Jack isolated in their small camp with only a team of huskies for companionship. Or, perhaps, it's not only the dogs keeping him company after all.
I felt such a sense of dread throughout this book, a knot in my chest like an icy hand clutching my heart, heightened by the diary entry format, and it didn't let up until the very end. Dark Matter is a quintessential ghost story with an arctic twist, and I can honestly think of no setting more suitable for a desolate haunting than the far north and the polar night. The only complaint I have about this book is that I wish it was longer.
February 8, 2025
Paver’s book appealed to me as a ghost story and as an arctic thriller set in the 1930s. A diary is written by a member of a small scientific expedition that intends to overwinter in a very remote part of Spitsbergen. Circumstances reduce the party to the diarist alone. He is the person to operate the radio and keep contact with the outside world. Norwegian sailors have tried to discourage the group from going to the site of an abandoned mining camp and fur trapping settlement. There is lots of bad juju attached to it.
Eventually long arctic night arrives, only one man stays on and a malevolent ghost becomes a big part of the story. Paver writes very well and has done terrific research including several trips to the area. The reader gets lots of information on Norwegian folklore, science expeditions of the time and a detailed picture of what a cabin there would be like, what they ate, what taking care of sled dogs would be like and my favorite bit, operating a radio powered by bicycle.
The desolation, confinement, and severe climate are vivid. There are descriptions of being cramped, living in smelly conditions and eventually claustrophobia, loneliness and darkness. Then there is whatever is outside. Is the author pointing out that brutish people came to abuse nature here (mining and trappers) or that simply the brutal situation drives people insane? Or both?
If you liked Dan Simmons’, The Terror, you might like this. I liked Paver’s book much better. Simmons went on too long and was too violent and not as realistic for me.
Eventually long arctic night arrives, only one man stays on and a malevolent ghost becomes a big part of the story. Paver writes very well and has done terrific research including several trips to the area. The reader gets lots of information on Norwegian folklore, science expeditions of the time and a detailed picture of what a cabin there would be like, what they ate, what taking care of sled dogs would be like and my favorite bit, operating a radio powered by bicycle.
The desolation, confinement, and severe climate are vivid. There are descriptions of being cramped, living in smelly conditions and eventually claustrophobia, loneliness and darkness. Then there is whatever is outside. Is the author pointing out that brutish people came to abuse nature here (mining and trappers) or that simply the brutal situation drives people insane? Or both?
If you liked Dan Simmons’, The Terror, you might like this. I liked Paver’s book much better. Simmons went on too long and was too violent and not as realistic for me.
September 14, 2011
Review from Badelynge
Michelle Paver's Dark Matter is a chillingly accomplished ghost story that takes place in the dark isolation of a snowbound base-camp of a small but ambitious scientific expedition, as the long dark night of an Arctic Winter sets in. The year is 1937. Unbeknown to the youthful group, their new home already has a black history and a reputation that makes the hardened seamen and trappers of the region reluctant to even speak of it.
Paver's love of the Arctic, first hand knowledge and experience of the region shine through the narrative. When A.C.Doyle wrote classic's like The Captain Of The Polestar, his experiences on Arctic Whalers' fueled the authentic tone and similarly Algernon Blackwood's tales of isolation and fear drew on his extensive trekking through the various wild places.There is an art to writing a good ghost story and one of the absolutes is in the appearance of authenticity. If the reader can't forget that the story is a fiction then the story loses its power. Paver certainly succeeds in that regard. Jack is well realised character, that I had no problem investing my interest in along with his horrific travails.
The narrative is in the form of a journal by the expedition's newest member and here again Paver excels in the form, using a journal's natural economy to provide ambiguity when needed but also to ride closely the mental battle taking place as our faithful scribe Jack details the occurrences. I've read other similar types of story that have been ridiculously large tomes, supposedly the diary of a few weeks stretched out to 700 page monstrosities, as if the narrator could possibly do the work that a professional author would have to chain themselves to the desk to achieve. There is a sort of infectious anxiety that slowly builds as the days slowly advance and the ill-fated expedition goes from one set back to the next. The ambiguity I mentioned has nothing to do with questions of whether the haunting is real or imagined - take it from me - the place is Haunted as Hell, no rather I ascribe it to the visual descriptions of the more visceral episodes. The scenes are painted with as few strokes as possible, so that in true classic style the reader has room to draw on their own nightmare imagery.
You could easily read Dark Matter in one sitting, though I spread it out over four. This is the sort of book you don't see too often these days, indeed you might be fooled into thinking it was written contemporaneously. Recommended.
Michelle Paver's Dark Matter is a chillingly accomplished ghost story that takes place in the dark isolation of a snowbound base-camp of a small but ambitious scientific expedition, as the long dark night of an Arctic Winter sets in. The year is 1937. Unbeknown to the youthful group, their new home already has a black history and a reputation that makes the hardened seamen and trappers of the region reluctant to even speak of it.
Paver's love of the Arctic, first hand knowledge and experience of the region shine through the narrative. When A.C.Doyle wrote classic's like The Captain Of The Polestar, his experiences on Arctic Whalers' fueled the authentic tone and similarly Algernon Blackwood's tales of isolation and fear drew on his extensive trekking through the various wild places.There is an art to writing a good ghost story and one of the absolutes is in the appearance of authenticity. If the reader can't forget that the story is a fiction then the story loses its power. Paver certainly succeeds in that regard. Jack is well realised character, that I had no problem investing my interest in along with his horrific travails.
The narrative is in the form of a journal by the expedition's newest member and here again Paver excels in the form, using a journal's natural economy to provide ambiguity when needed but also to ride closely the mental battle taking place as our faithful scribe Jack details the occurrences. I've read other similar types of story that have been ridiculously large tomes, supposedly the diary of a few weeks stretched out to 700 page monstrosities, as if the narrator could possibly do the work that a professional author would have to chain themselves to the desk to achieve. There is a sort of infectious anxiety that slowly builds as the days slowly advance and the ill-fated expedition goes from one set back to the next. The ambiguity I mentioned has nothing to do with questions of whether the haunting is real or imagined - take it from me - the place is Haunted as Hell, no rather I ascribe it to the visual descriptions of the more visceral episodes. The scenes are painted with as few strokes as possible, so that in true classic style the reader has room to draw on their own nightmare imagery.
You could easily read Dark Matter in one sitting, though I spread it out over four. This is the sort of book you don't see too often these days, indeed you might be fooled into thinking it was written contemporaneously. Recommended.
September 25, 2016
1947. The story opens with a response to letter. ” I don’t think we’ll ever learn the truth of what happened at Gruhuken. However I know enough to be convinced that something terrible took place… No doubt the journal would, as you suggest explain much of what happened, but it has not survived, and I cannot ask Jack himself.”“
1937. The one year research expedition to the Arctic is told strictly through the words of Jack Miller’s journal. Jack joins the expedition of 3 other men looking for a communications expert. It is a decision to escape poverty, and why not, since he’s very alone in this world. Jack doesn’t yet know how “truly alone” feels, but he just might.
There are at least two meanings for the term, Dark Matter, in this book. First, as stated in Jack’s journal:
Secondly, it concerns the lack of daylight the men of this voyage are about to experience. During the winter period within the Arctic Circle (see Norway’s far northern island, Svalbard, in this case), the four months from late October to mid-February will experience Polar Night. This means the sun never rises. By the way, saying ‘winter months’ sounds so wrong when speaking about the Arctic. I’d call it winter all the damned time. But as I learned, there is winter and there is Winter. Same is true for the dark, and its effects on the human mind.
When Jack, Gus and Algie finally arrive by ship to their destination, they know that the captain believes the place is haunted. Something bad has occurred here. It’s only a feeling. All that speaks of past human inhabitance here is an abandoned mine and an old trapper’s hut that leans against the rocks above the bay, but Jack sees something else on the first day. “The one who walks.” I won’t go into the plot any further here, except to say that he will end up alone. There could be no other way, right?
Well, maybe Jack’s not quite alone.
1937. The one year research expedition to the Arctic is told strictly through the words of Jack Miller’s journal. Jack joins the expedition of 3 other men looking for a communications expert. It is a decision to escape poverty, and why not, since he’s very alone in this world. Jack doesn’t yet know how “truly alone” feels, but he just might.
There are at least two meanings for the term, Dark Matter, in this book. First, as stated in Jack’s journal:
”In one of my periodicals, there’s a paper by someone who’s worked out that what we know of the universe is only a tiny percentage of what actually exists. He says what’s left can’t be seen or detected, but it’s there; he calls it ‘dark matter’. Of course, no one believes him; but I find the idea unsettling. Or rather, not the idea itself, that’s merely an odd notion about outer space. What I don’t like is the feeling I sometime get that other things might exist around us, of which we know nothing.”
Secondly, it concerns the lack of daylight the men of this voyage are about to experience. During the winter period within the Arctic Circle (see Norway’s far northern island, Svalbard, in this case), the four months from late October to mid-February will experience Polar Night. This means the sun never rises. By the way, saying ‘winter months’ sounds so wrong when speaking about the Arctic. I’d call it winter all the damned time. But as I learned, there is winter and there is Winter. Same is true for the dark, and its effects on the human mind.
”In a month, on the 16th of October, we’ll see the sun for the last time. According to the books, there’ll still be some light for a few weeks after that, because at noon the sun won’t be all that far below the horizon. They call it ‘midday dawn’. After that, nothing.”
When Jack, Gus and Algie finally arrive by ship to their destination, they know that the captain believes the place is haunted. Something bad has occurred here. It’s only a feeling. All that speaks of past human inhabitance here is an abandoned mine and an old trapper’s hut that leans against the rocks above the bay, but Jack sees something else on the first day. “The one who walks.” I won’t go into the plot any further here, except to say that he will end up alone. There could be no other way, right?
”But the thing to remember, Jack, is that it’s only an echo. It’s like a footprint or a shadow. It can’t hurt you. All it can do is frighten. After that, nothing.”
Well, maybe Jack’s not quite alone.
February 16, 2017
I spent the majority of this novel saying a silent prayer that the dog survives.
This novel was.....good. I say that with a gap because it was also not as wholly impressive as I wanted it to be either, but an entertaining ride all the same.
The whole thing just sort of left me wanting more. The ending was creepy (credit where it's due) but the suspense sort of needed to be featured a bit more throughout, it seemed like we were at the finale before we had time to really understand it.
The characters were also rather weak, and I didn't necessarily feel the pull that I'm guessing the author wanted me to feel. I LOVED the dog though, best character in the book.
This novel was.....good. I say that with a gap because it was also not as wholly impressive as I wanted it to be either, but an entertaining ride all the same.
The whole thing just sort of left me wanting more. The ending was creepy (credit where it's due) but the suspense sort of needed to be featured a bit more throughout, it seemed like we were at the finale before we had time to really understand it.
The characters were also rather weak, and I didn't necessarily feel the pull that I'm guessing the author wanted me to feel. I LOVED the dog though, best character in the book.
January 19, 2021
Dark Matter is a slow moving tale, centered around some explorers isolated in the Arctic.
It came to me highly recommended and I usually love tales of isolation and distress, but for whatever reason this one didn't move me much. I thought the narrator was excellent though.
It came to me highly recommended and I usually love tales of isolation and distress, but for whatever reason this one didn't move me much. I thought the narrator was excellent though.
June 27, 2016
Ghost of "Gruhuken" - 4.5 stars....
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.
In 1937, a 28 year old, down-on-his luck guy named Jack, is offered the chance to join an Artic expedition to a remote uninhabited area named Gruhuken. From the start, the expedition is cursed with problems and after departing, the crew learns that Gruhuken may not be the picturesque & "uninhabited" area they were hoping for...
This is the perfect ghost story especially for a cold winter night. It's chilling, spooky and very atmospheric! I wish the ending was extended a little more though and that's the only reason I didn't give it a full five stars. The loose ends were tied up nicely but I felt like they were rushed and compacted into just a few pages. Actually the book was so good I could have used about 100 more pages but even a few more would have been nice. If you like ghost stories though, you don't want to miss this one.
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.
In 1937, a 28 year old, down-on-his luck guy named Jack, is offered the chance to join an Artic expedition to a remote uninhabited area named Gruhuken. From the start, the expedition is cursed with problems and after departing, the crew learns that Gruhuken may not be the picturesque & "uninhabited" area they were hoping for...
This is the perfect ghost story especially for a cold winter night. It's chilling, spooky and very atmospheric! I wish the ending was extended a little more though and that's the only reason I didn't give it a full five stars. The loose ends were tied up nicely but I felt like they were rushed and compacted into just a few pages. Actually the book was so good I could have used about 100 more pages but even a few more would have been nice. If you like ghost stories though, you don't want to miss this one.
March 4, 2019
‘There’s no dawn and no dusk. Time has no meaning. We’ve left the real world, and entered a land of dreams.’
In this period ghost story, Jack, an office clerk, joins Gus, Algie, Hugh and Teddy to prepare for an expedition to the Artic. Jack’s role in the team is a wireless operator.
The story is told through Jack’s eyes.
Jack seems to have a grudge when it comes to bonding with the others. His insecurities come from class differences.
The 1937 Spitsbergen Expedition is blighted from the beginning.
The skipper of the Isbjorn, Mr Ericsson, is reluctant to take them to the bay they have chosen, Gruhuken, and wants to drop them off ‘forty miles short’.....he will not say why. The workers on the ship, helping to assemble the camp will not stay overnight........ there are rumours and discontentment.
Once the depleted team are truly on their own, the realisation that they are in such an isolated and desolate location really hits home .
When the summer is over and darkness sets in, you can truly visualise the derelict trappers hut, the ice, the snow and harsh landscape.
When the moon is full, it circles the whole day, never dipping below the horizon. During the polar night it is the only time they have light, bathing their world in an eerie glow.
A touching part of the book is Jack’s bond with one of the huskies, Isaac. Although he was against the huskies being part of the trip at the beginning, he finds great comfort in his friendship with Isaac
The writing is sharp, you feel the eeriness, the coldness and the story sends a chill deep to your bones.
In this period ghost story, Jack, an office clerk, joins Gus, Algie, Hugh and Teddy to prepare for an expedition to the Artic. Jack’s role in the team is a wireless operator.
The story is told through Jack’s eyes.
Jack seems to have a grudge when it comes to bonding with the others. His insecurities come from class differences.
The 1937 Spitsbergen Expedition is blighted from the beginning.
The skipper of the Isbjorn, Mr Ericsson, is reluctant to take them to the bay they have chosen, Gruhuken, and wants to drop them off ‘forty miles short’.....he will not say why. The workers on the ship, helping to assemble the camp will not stay overnight........ there are rumours and discontentment.
Once the depleted team are truly on their own, the realisation that they are in such an isolated and desolate location really hits home .
When the summer is over and darkness sets in, you can truly visualise the derelict trappers hut, the ice, the snow and harsh landscape.
When the moon is full, it circles the whole day, never dipping below the horizon. During the polar night it is the only time they have light, bathing their world in an eerie glow.
A touching part of the book is Jack’s bond with one of the huskies, Isaac. Although he was against the huskies being part of the trip at the beginning, he finds great comfort in his friendship with Isaac
The writing is sharp, you feel the eeriness, the coldness and the story sends a chill deep to your bones.
February 22, 2021
The subtitle to Michelle Paver's enthralling "Dark Matter" states that is a ghost story, and it indeed is. But the horrors Jack Miller endured during a 1937 arctic expedition to Gruhuken, the most haunted (fictional) place in the Arctic, are also in big part due to his isolation, his being cut-off from the civilization he loathed so much under normal circumstances. And that aspect, so timely and insightful these days, is what interested me the most here.
No need to remark that Paver, as a real connaisseur of the big ice, does great at describing the polar landscapes and the awe-inspiring impressions they have on us. The character development was very plausible, making it easy to feel with and root for Jack and, on a last note, I really liked the tragic story of the ghost itself too.
So it was an all around delightful experience to read "Dark Matter". I hear the author has published other ghost stories, so I'll definitely have a glance at those too.
No need to remark that Paver, as a real connaisseur of the big ice, does great at describing the polar landscapes and the awe-inspiring impressions they have on us. The character development was very plausible, making it easy to feel with and root for Jack and, on a last note, I really liked the tragic story of the ghost itself too.
So it was an all around delightful experience to read "Dark Matter". I hear the author has published other ghost stories, so I'll definitely have a glance at those too.
May 26, 2024
A well-done story of a man trapped in the arctic with a dog and a ghost. This is no ordinary spook.; he is malevolent and deadly. The tale slowly creeps along, spreading dread that inches over you bit by bit. The cold is palpable. You feel you are there enduring the harsh winter conditions and the worse supernatural ones. There is a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. Touche Ms Paver.
March 23, 2018
“How odd, that light should prevent one from seeing.”
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.
Dark Matter features an Arctic expedition in 1937, when four young men set off in a Norwegian vessel to spend a year on the remote land spit of Gruhuken on the Barents Sea. For twenty-eight year old Jack, who narrates the story through journey entries, his role as wireless operator on the expedition is a way to prove himself and escape his drab job as clerk that has kept him afloat after his family was bankrupted, ending his hopes of finishing his university degree. After his family’s fall from grace, Jack has turned into a loner who has no friends and rarely associates with other people, keeping himself to himself. Gruhuken, in its remoteness, has a strange appeal to him, a way to make a new start, clean his slate. Both his background as well as his personality make Jack an interesting, rounded character whose voice is perfect for the era and drive much of story’s momentum as his initial reserve and preconceived ideas begin to crumble in the remoteness of the Arctic Circle.
Paver does an excellent job in evoking the spirit of the wild setting she describes so vividly. The initial beauty of the Arctic summer with its constant daylight, which makes the men optimistic and confident about their mission, feeling invincible even in the wild, remote region they feel themselves stranded in. As the seasons change, and the days become shorter, there is an obvious change in the men, their confidence eroded by the ever increasing darkness and the eerie silence of the surrounding land when all the birds have fled before winter. As daylight gives way to constant darkness, Paver creates an atmosphere so tense and claustrophobic that I could literally feel the cold creeping in through the cracks in the wall, grateful of my own bedside lamp that kept the night at bay whilst reading.
Tension soon mounts as the isolation plays tricks on the human psyche – or is the threat real? Jack is a man of science, and he is all too eager to explain away the feelings of dread and menace he sometimes feels when venturing outside. But as his last companions are forced to leave, and he is left on his own in this unforgiving place, he soon finds that his rational explanations are woefully inadequate to explain away the fear. Something evil is afoot at Gruhuken, and it is slowly closing in.
Paver has achieved the art of balancing her narrative on the fine line between reality and the occult, in a way that we are never quite sure if Jack’s accounts are the unravelling of his own mind due to the constant dark, the isolation and the absence of other human contact, or whether there really is something evil haunting Gruhuken. All I know is that it was so authentic and believable that I buried deep under my doona and wild horses could not have made me go outside alone in the dark! Personally, I find that it is very difficult to find a book where the supernatural element is just right – enough to make you very, very afraid, but not over the top to make you having to suspend disbelief. It is a balance achieved by very few, and Paver has absolutely nailed it! One passage about the bear post in particular had my hair stand on end as I pictured it so vividly in my mind.
For anyone looking for a good ghost story with a rich, atmospheric setting and a historical element (yes, this book has it all!), I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
*blog* *facebook* *instagram*
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.
Dark Matter features an Arctic expedition in 1937, when four young men set off in a Norwegian vessel to spend a year on the remote land spit of Gruhuken on the Barents Sea. For twenty-eight year old Jack, who narrates the story through journey entries, his role as wireless operator on the expedition is a way to prove himself and escape his drab job as clerk that has kept him afloat after his family was bankrupted, ending his hopes of finishing his university degree. After his family’s fall from grace, Jack has turned into a loner who has no friends and rarely associates with other people, keeping himself to himself. Gruhuken, in its remoteness, has a strange appeal to him, a way to make a new start, clean his slate. Both his background as well as his personality make Jack an interesting, rounded character whose voice is perfect for the era and drive much of story’s momentum as his initial reserve and preconceived ideas begin to crumble in the remoteness of the Arctic Circle.
Paver does an excellent job in evoking the spirit of the wild setting she describes so vividly. The initial beauty of the Arctic summer with its constant daylight, which makes the men optimistic and confident about their mission, feeling invincible even in the wild, remote region they feel themselves stranded in. As the seasons change, and the days become shorter, there is an obvious change in the men, their confidence eroded by the ever increasing darkness and the eerie silence of the surrounding land when all the birds have fled before winter. As daylight gives way to constant darkness, Paver creates an atmosphere so tense and claustrophobic that I could literally feel the cold creeping in through the cracks in the wall, grateful of my own bedside lamp that kept the night at bay whilst reading.
Tension soon mounts as the isolation plays tricks on the human psyche – or is the threat real? Jack is a man of science, and he is all too eager to explain away the feelings of dread and menace he sometimes feels when venturing outside. But as his last companions are forced to leave, and he is left on his own in this unforgiving place, he soon finds that his rational explanations are woefully inadequate to explain away the fear. Something evil is afoot at Gruhuken, and it is slowly closing in.
Paver has achieved the art of balancing her narrative on the fine line between reality and the occult, in a way that we are never quite sure if Jack’s accounts are the unravelling of his own mind due to the constant dark, the isolation and the absence of other human contact, or whether there really is something evil haunting Gruhuken. All I know is that it was so authentic and believable that I buried deep under my doona and wild horses could not have made me go outside alone in the dark! Personally, I find that it is very difficult to find a book where the supernatural element is just right – enough to make you very, very afraid, but not over the top to make you having to suspend disbelief. It is a balance achieved by very few, and Paver has absolutely nailed it! One passage about the bear post in particular had my hair stand on end as I pictured it so vividly in my mind.
For anyone looking for a good ghost story with a rich, atmospheric setting and a historical element (yes, this book has it all!), I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
*blog* *facebook* *instagram*
March 7, 2021
Five intrepid explorers planned to leave the safety of their London homes for the unknown Arctic. Five quickly became three before their destination was even reached and with the endless night soon approaching will this number be enough to both complete their expedition as well as to ensure each other's safety and sanity?
This was an entirely unsettling read throughout, but also one less truly terrifying than I was anticipating. I did not begrudge this shifted focus as the first 100 pages read like an adventure or expedition story, spent predominately on following the characters as they journeyed to, secured, and settled into their base camp. I found this section intriguing and enlightening, with a beautiful evocation of icy setting.
The next 100 pages were slightly more chilling in design and sinister occurrences featured, with the resulting terror allowed to slowly seep through every scene that remained. I found this section added tension as the internal emotions, rather than external action, remained at the forefront of the focus.
During the final 50 pages the previous shifting shadows and distant dread crept closer. I was left a little disappointed that no final confrontation occurred but remained satisfied with the conclusion and, overall, found this was a solid chilling read, a thrilling adventure story, and an interesting historical insight.
This was an entirely unsettling read throughout, but also one less truly terrifying than I was anticipating. I did not begrudge this shifted focus as the first 100 pages read like an adventure or expedition story, spent predominately on following the characters as they journeyed to, secured, and settled into their base camp. I found this section intriguing and enlightening, with a beautiful evocation of icy setting.
The next 100 pages were slightly more chilling in design and sinister occurrences featured, with the resulting terror allowed to slowly seep through every scene that remained. I found this section added tension as the internal emotions, rather than external action, remained at the forefront of the focus.
During the final 50 pages the previous shifting shadows and distant dread crept closer. I was left a little disappointed that no final confrontation occurred but remained satisfied with the conclusion and, overall, found this was a solid chilling read, a thrilling adventure story, and an interesting historical insight.
November 5, 2014
Michelle Paver is most famous for writing a series of fantasy novels for younger readers - which I have not read - and Dark Matter, subtitled A Ghost Story, is her first novel for adult readers.
The book opens in London at the eve of World War 2, where a young man named Jack is having a rough time: despite his Oxford education he has trouble finding employment and starting a career as a physicist, and has to work as an export clerk - a job he dislikes intensely. Jack is lonely and poor, down to his last pennies when he is approached by a group of four men who want to recruit him as a wireless operator on a voyage to the arctic. Jack is a character with whom most readers can relate and care for - he's lonely and confused, clutching at straws to stay afloat. The short beginning scene at the bar -where Jack has to count his pennies to see if he'll be able to afford to buy each of the men a beer, and realizes that he won't be able to afford it and sweats to find an excuse - is a touching and effective invocation of someone who suddenly found himself being poor, something which he never expected to happen.
Despite feeling the class difference, Jack jumps at the opportunity and sets out with the four men to Gruhuken, in the Svalbard archipelago of remote northern Norway - a geographical expedition to study weather patterns, glacial structures, and such. But the expedition seems to be cursed - even before their ship departs one member of the crew drops out. While tthe remaining three are decided on reaching Gruhuken, the Scandinavian captain of the vessel does not want to sail - although he eventually succumbs and sets course to Gruhuken, he does not want to share the reason for his reluctance. Shortly after their arrival, another member of the expedition soon falls sick and has to be moved away to the doctor - which leaves Jack alone to save the mission. Jack stays alone at Gruhuken, recording his thoughts in a diary - although he is determined to help his compatriots and prove himself worthy, he is soon convinced that there is more to Gruhuken that he initially thought; as the cold, endless night set in, he starts to see and hear things which he cannot explain, but which begin to convince him that he is not alone.
Jack's notes show how he changes throughout his stay: aside from his growing fear and paranoia of isolation, we see how he develops as a person - how he grows to care for his fellow expedition members, and develops great affection for their dogs which he initially loathed. Despite its short length, the novel's greatest strength is its sense of place and the atmosphere it evokes: while reading Jack's first person account you'll feel as if you were there beside him in the deep north, chilled to the bone. In the afterword Michelle Paver writes that she has visited Spitsbergen, the largest inhabited area of Svalbard archipelago, and it shows - although Gruhuken is ultimately imaginary, the place, climate and atmosphere that she evokes are not. Because of the theme and setting the book drew comparisons to Dan Simmon's historical horror, The Terror - but in my opinion it a more accurate comparison would point to the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, particularly his wonderful book Treasure Island, which is my great childhood favorite. Michelle Paver manages to do the same thing that Stevenson did in his classic - transport the reader to an unknown, strange and faraway place on an adventure. Although it is not as grand as Treasure Island, Dark Matter is at its heart an adventure - a novel of exploration: of the world around us, and of one's own self.
Although ultimately the book doesn't offer anything new on its plate, it is definitely worth reading - especially now, during the longer, colder evenings. It might not surprise you but it's atmosphere might envelop you, which is precisely what I sought from it and exactly what I got.
The book opens in London at the eve of World War 2, where a young man named Jack is having a rough time: despite his Oxford education he has trouble finding employment and starting a career as a physicist, and has to work as an export clerk - a job he dislikes intensely. Jack is lonely and poor, down to his last pennies when he is approached by a group of four men who want to recruit him as a wireless operator on a voyage to the arctic. Jack is a character with whom most readers can relate and care for - he's lonely and confused, clutching at straws to stay afloat. The short beginning scene at the bar -where Jack has to count his pennies to see if he'll be able to afford to buy each of the men a beer, and realizes that he won't be able to afford it and sweats to find an excuse - is a touching and effective invocation of someone who suddenly found himself being poor, something which he never expected to happen.
Despite feeling the class difference, Jack jumps at the opportunity and sets out with the four men to Gruhuken, in the Svalbard archipelago of remote northern Norway - a geographical expedition to study weather patterns, glacial structures, and such. But the expedition seems to be cursed - even before their ship departs one member of the crew drops out. While tthe remaining three are decided on reaching Gruhuken, the Scandinavian captain of the vessel does not want to sail - although he eventually succumbs and sets course to Gruhuken, he does not want to share the reason for his reluctance. Shortly after their arrival, another member of the expedition soon falls sick and has to be moved away to the doctor - which leaves Jack alone to save the mission. Jack stays alone at Gruhuken, recording his thoughts in a diary - although he is determined to help his compatriots and prove himself worthy, he is soon convinced that there is more to Gruhuken that he initially thought; as the cold, endless night set in, he starts to see and hear things which he cannot explain, but which begin to convince him that he is not alone.
Jack's notes show how he changes throughout his stay: aside from his growing fear and paranoia of isolation, we see how he develops as a person - how he grows to care for his fellow expedition members, and develops great affection for their dogs which he initially loathed. Despite its short length, the novel's greatest strength is its sense of place and the atmosphere it evokes: while reading Jack's first person account you'll feel as if you were there beside him in the deep north, chilled to the bone. In the afterword Michelle Paver writes that she has visited Spitsbergen, the largest inhabited area of Svalbard archipelago, and it shows - although Gruhuken is ultimately imaginary, the place, climate and atmosphere that she evokes are not. Because of the theme and setting the book drew comparisons to Dan Simmon's historical horror, The Terror - but in my opinion it a more accurate comparison would point to the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, particularly his wonderful book Treasure Island, which is my great childhood favorite. Michelle Paver manages to do the same thing that Stevenson did in his classic - transport the reader to an unknown, strange and faraway place on an adventure. Although it is not as grand as Treasure Island, Dark Matter is at its heart an adventure - a novel of exploration: of the world around us, and of one's own self.
Although ultimately the book doesn't offer anything new on its plate, it is definitely worth reading - especially now, during the longer, colder evenings. It might not surprise you but it's atmosphere might envelop you, which is precisely what I sought from it and exactly what I got.
September 16, 2019
I've been meaning for a long time to write a review of this atmospheric and unsettling novel by Michelle Paver that I've read quite a few months ago.
Set in 1937 in Gruhuken, Dark Matter chronicles an ill-fated attempt at Arctic research and the unfolding of the nightmarish stretch of time the main character, Jack Miller, is forced to spend on his own in an isolated hut plunged in the depths of the Arctic night.
Constructed as an understated ghost story in the mould of M.R. James, Dark Matter is built upon layers of events and accidents that slowly but surely increase the sense of unease and dread that we, as readers, experience along with Jack. It'd be wrong to share details of the plot here so I shall try to keep it vague, suffice it to say that the malevolent presence that stalks Jack in the night is the result of such tragic and horrifying events that I couldn't help but almost feel sorry for it and its unbearable solitude.
The ghost tries to take forcefully from Jack everything the young man cherishes: a sense of belonging, companionship, purpose and perhaps even a hope for love. It wants him to be isolated and fearful, cornered in the dark while surrounded by noises and visions.
It wants Jack to become just like him: another shadow prowling the Arctic night.
Jack is a difficult character to love at first. He's bitter, resentful, suspicious of his travel companions who seem to look down on him for being "a grammar-school boy with a London degree" and not part of their sophisticated social and academic circles. The way he grows into his own self and starts opening up to the others, Algie, Hugo, Teddy and, above all, Gus, is human and compelling.
The wide-eyed wonder at the expeditions's arrival in Longyearbyen and the first impact with the reality of the Arctic is an amazing part of the novel. The details conjure up the atmosphere of infinite space and edge-of-the-world reality faced by the group in a very convincing manner and the passage from the blinding light reflecting on the ice to the relentless darkness set a heavy weight on my chest as I was reading.
I love reading about Arctic expeditions and there are many novels that tackle this topic in a number of different ways, horror and suspense being amongst the more prominent genres (think of Dan Simmons' The Terror as a case in point). Dark Matter is unsettling without being bloody or unnecessarily gruesome, melancholic and full of compassion. I'd say it's probably one of the best ghost stories I've read recently and I highly recommend it.
Set in 1937 in Gruhuken, Dark Matter chronicles an ill-fated attempt at Arctic research and the unfolding of the nightmarish stretch of time the main character, Jack Miller, is forced to spend on his own in an isolated hut plunged in the depths of the Arctic night.
Constructed as an understated ghost story in the mould of M.R. James, Dark Matter is built upon layers of events and accidents that slowly but surely increase the sense of unease and dread that we, as readers, experience along with Jack. It'd be wrong to share details of the plot here so I shall try to keep it vague, suffice it to say that the malevolent presence that stalks Jack in the night is the result of such tragic and horrifying events that I couldn't help but almost feel sorry for it and its unbearable solitude.
The ghost tries to take forcefully from Jack everything the young man cherishes: a sense of belonging, companionship, purpose and perhaps even a hope for love. It wants him to be isolated and fearful, cornered in the dark while surrounded by noises and visions.
It wants Jack to become just like him: another shadow prowling the Arctic night.
Jack is a difficult character to love at first. He's bitter, resentful, suspicious of his travel companions who seem to look down on him for being "a grammar-school boy with a London degree" and not part of their sophisticated social and academic circles. The way he grows into his own self and starts opening up to the others, Algie, Hugo, Teddy and, above all, Gus, is human and compelling.
The wide-eyed wonder at the expeditions's arrival in Longyearbyen and the first impact with the reality of the Arctic is an amazing part of the novel. The details conjure up the atmosphere of infinite space and edge-of-the-world reality faced by the group in a very convincing manner and the passage from the blinding light reflecting on the ice to the relentless darkness set a heavy weight on my chest as I was reading.
I love reading about Arctic expeditions and there are many novels that tackle this topic in a number of different ways, horror and suspense being amongst the more prominent genres (think of Dan Simmons' The Terror as a case in point). Dark Matter is unsettling without being bloody or unnecessarily gruesome, melancholic and full of compassion. I'd say it's probably one of the best ghost stories I've read recently and I highly recommend it.
October 16, 2017
Although technically a ghost story, the real horror for me is the sense of creeping dread and isolation and loneliness as the last man left in the endless night of an arctic camp. Most chilling of all is the man’s horror at contemplating the afterlife should he perish there and become a ghost himself – not just a winter of endless night alone, but an eternity.
Audiobook via Audible. Jeremy Northam proves he’s as wonderful an audio narrator as he is an actor, which certainly isn’t true of everyone.
Audiobook via Audible. Jeremy Northam proves he’s as wonderful an audio narrator as he is an actor, which certainly isn’t true of everyone.
March 22, 2024
5 go mad in the Arctic but then it's only 4.... 3 .....2....1 man and his dog. Wonderfully atmospheric chiller which is more a story about isolation and beards than a straight up ghost story. In the end the world is saved by dog, which is how it should be.
October 7, 2022
A pretty unnerving and creepy slow burn with lots of animal violence/cruelty.
June 12, 2015
I dare you...
It's 1937 and war clouds are gathering over Europe. Jack Miller is poor and struggling in a job he hates, so he jumps at the chance to join an expedition to Gruhuken, an abandoned mining settlement in the Arctic. Part scientific expedition, part adventure for the group of upper-class men who are arranging it, for Jack it is an escape and a possible way back into the scientific studies he had to abandon when his father died. But the expedition begins to hit trouble even before they leave London, with a couple of the men having to drop out at the last moment. And the troubles don't end there – once they are in Gruhuken a series of events mean that eventually Jack is left alone to keep the expedition alive...and the long dark Arctic winter is beginning...and Jack begins to feel he may not be as alone as he thinks...
This is billed as a ghost story, and like the best of those it's totally amibiguous, not to mention totally terrifying! Is there a malevolent presence haunting Gruhuken, or is it all a product of Jack's mind? Since the story is told through his journal, his is the only perspective we have, and we see his mind being affected by the vastness of this empty landscape and the ever-deepening darkness. And the loneliness. And the silence. And the ice beginning to freeze his only escape route – the sea...
Did I mention it's terrifying? There was actually one point late at night where I thought 'Nope! Not reading that till the sun's shining tomorrow!' And yet, what happens? Very little – no gore-fest, no clanking chains or shrieks (except mine), no werewolves, vampires or zombies. It's all done by a brilliantly executed build-up of psychological terror – from 'don't go there' warnings from the captain of the ship to things barely glanced from the corner of the eye, sensations of a presence, distorted perspectives, and mysterious legends of barbarous cruelty. And all added to some fabulous descriptive writing that puts the reader right into this cold, dark, threatening landscape where the only contact with the outside world is through the fragile valves of Jack's wireless, and where help would take days to arrive, if at all.
The depiction of Jack's growing loneliness is superb. At first resentful of his companions' effortless social superiority, he gradually begins a tentative friendship with Gus, the leader of the group – a friendship that borders on hero-worship. And it's for Gus' sake that he tries to keep the failing expedition alive. As a natural loner, he thinks he'll be fine on his own, but soon learns the difference between being alone in the midst of the teeming city streets of London and the total solitude of his new surroundings. Well, maybe total solitude – or maybe not. (Cue spooky music.)
I have regularly commented in reviews on my aversion to first person present tense narratives. I've explained in the past that the reason I usually hate these is because they are used when they're not appropriate or else they are handled clumsily. This book is an example of how FPPT should be used – Paver handles both person and tense brilliantly, slipping in and out of present and past at exactly the right moments and never once allowing herself to be trapped into a particular tense when it doesn't suit the narrative. As a result, this achieves its aim of reading like a genuine contemporaneous journal, and should be a compulsory text in all creative writing classes. But only ones that are held in daylight because – did I mention it's terrifying?
There are lots of other things I'd love to praise but really this is one where every incident adds to the overall effect so I'll restrict myself to saying cryptically – loved all the stuff about Jack and the huskies, and loved the way Paver used human contact to increase the effect of the all-pervading loneliness. If you've read it you'll know what I mean, and if you haven't – do!
I dare you...
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
It's 1937 and war clouds are gathering over Europe. Jack Miller is poor and struggling in a job he hates, so he jumps at the chance to join an expedition to Gruhuken, an abandoned mining settlement in the Arctic. Part scientific expedition, part adventure for the group of upper-class men who are arranging it, for Jack it is an escape and a possible way back into the scientific studies he had to abandon when his father died. But the expedition begins to hit trouble even before they leave London, with a couple of the men having to drop out at the last moment. And the troubles don't end there – once they are in Gruhuken a series of events mean that eventually Jack is left alone to keep the expedition alive...and the long dark Arctic winter is beginning...and Jack begins to feel he may not be as alone as he thinks...
This is billed as a ghost story, and like the best of those it's totally amibiguous, not to mention totally terrifying! Is there a malevolent presence haunting Gruhuken, or is it all a product of Jack's mind? Since the story is told through his journal, his is the only perspective we have, and we see his mind being affected by the vastness of this empty landscape and the ever-deepening darkness. And the loneliness. And the silence. And the ice beginning to freeze his only escape route – the sea...
Did I mention it's terrifying? There was actually one point late at night where I thought 'Nope! Not reading that till the sun's shining tomorrow!' And yet, what happens? Very little – no gore-fest, no clanking chains or shrieks (except mine), no werewolves, vampires or zombies. It's all done by a brilliantly executed build-up of psychological terror – from 'don't go there' warnings from the captain of the ship to things barely glanced from the corner of the eye, sensations of a presence, distorted perspectives, and mysterious legends of barbarous cruelty. And all added to some fabulous descriptive writing that puts the reader right into this cold, dark, threatening landscape where the only contact with the outside world is through the fragile valves of Jack's wireless, and where help would take days to arrive, if at all.
The depiction of Jack's growing loneliness is superb. At first resentful of his companions' effortless social superiority, he gradually begins a tentative friendship with Gus, the leader of the group – a friendship that borders on hero-worship. And it's for Gus' sake that he tries to keep the failing expedition alive. As a natural loner, he thinks he'll be fine on his own, but soon learns the difference between being alone in the midst of the teeming city streets of London and the total solitude of his new surroundings. Well, maybe total solitude – or maybe not. (Cue spooky music.)
I have regularly commented in reviews on my aversion to first person present tense narratives. I've explained in the past that the reason I usually hate these is because they are used when they're not appropriate or else they are handled clumsily. This book is an example of how FPPT should be used – Paver handles both person and tense brilliantly, slipping in and out of present and past at exactly the right moments and never once allowing herself to be trapped into a particular tense when it doesn't suit the narrative. As a result, this achieves its aim of reading like a genuine contemporaneous journal, and should be a compulsory text in all creative writing classes. But only ones that are held in daylight because – did I mention it's terrifying?
There are lots of other things I'd love to praise but really this is one where every incident adds to the overall effect so I'll restrict myself to saying cryptically – loved all the stuff about Jack and the huskies, and loved the way Paver used human contact to increase the effect of the all-pervading loneliness. If you've read it you'll know what I mean, and if you haven't – do!
I dare you...
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
November 16, 2020
"Dark Matter" is a truly EXCELLENT ghost story that gets more than full use out of its time (1937) and setting (the Arctic).
Recommended for : those who like paranormal tales that are far more psychological than horror-based, fans of the Scandinavian Arctic or Artic exploration, and those who enjoy no-nonsense analytical MCs.
Imagine a desolate and isolated bay in the Arctic. You're going to be there for 1 year as a part of an English expedition to collect weather data. Your group has prepared well for the adverse conditions, and pulled down all the rotting ruins of abandoned mining and fur trapper cabins, building a roomy house, a lean-to for the huskies, a weather station, and other small storage buildings on the same spot. You've settled in. Everything's going smoothly.
Only thing is, there is this bizarre-looking, malicious-feeling figure wandering around outside that only you seem to be able to see. Uh oh.
Jack Miller, the character through whose eyes we watch events unfold, is the radio man. He's analytical, not given to wild notions about the paranormal. His explanations of what he's seeing/sensing are so wonderfully logical and scientifically sound, they'd make a modern parapsychologist proud. It's not a poltergeist haunting him, see, it's an 'echo' of the past. A fuzzy bundle of electromagnetic waves. The ice and rock playing acoustic tricks on his hearing.
And all of that seems terribly sensible....until he's left alone at the site and that carefully constructed, oh so logical framework begins to crumble. . .
What makes this story is that you are never sure if it's all in Jack's head and stems from his depressive state of mind ... the dark, extreme loneliness, fear of abandonment, disillusionment...or if there is something tangible and real going on. Paver continuously tilts you one way, and then the other. And the effect is spectacular!
Well-written, well-researched, and really really great story telling. 5 stars. (read the German edition)
Recommended for : those who like paranormal tales that are far more psychological than horror-based, fans of the Scandinavian Arctic or Artic exploration, and those who enjoy no-nonsense analytical MCs.
Imagine a desolate and isolated bay in the Arctic. You're going to be there for 1 year as a part of an English expedition to collect weather data. Your group has prepared well for the adverse conditions, and pulled down all the rotting ruins of abandoned mining and fur trapper cabins, building a roomy house, a lean-to for the huskies, a weather station, and other small storage buildings on the same spot. You've settled in. Everything's going smoothly.
Only thing is, there is this bizarre-looking, malicious-feeling figure wandering around outside that only you seem to be able to see. Uh oh.
Jack Miller, the character through whose eyes we watch events unfold, is the radio man. He's analytical, not given to wild notions about the paranormal. His explanations of what he's seeing/sensing are so wonderfully logical and scientifically sound, they'd make a modern parapsychologist proud. It's not a poltergeist haunting him, see, it's an 'echo' of the past. A fuzzy bundle of electromagnetic waves. The ice and rock playing acoustic tricks on his hearing.
And all of that seems terribly sensible....until he's left alone at the site and that carefully constructed, oh so logical framework begins to crumble. . .
What makes this story is that you are never sure if it's all in Jack's head and stems from his depressive state of mind ... the dark, extreme loneliness, fear of abandonment, disillusionment...or if there is something tangible and real going on. Paver continuously tilts you one way, and then the other. And the effect is spectacular!
Well-written, well-researched, and really really great story telling. 5 stars. (read the German edition)
October 20, 2025
Paver created a great atmosphere, and an interesting and believable main character.
May 18, 2025
”In one of my periodicals, there’s a paper by someone who’s worked out that what we know of the universe is only a tiny percentage of what actually exists. He says what’s left can’t be seen or detected, but it’s there; he calls it dark matter”.
London, 1937. Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway and at last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year.
But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one his companions are forced to leave. Soon Jack will see the last of the sun, the sea will freeze and escape will be impossible.
And Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark…
Loaded with tension and atmosphere, Dark Matter is my idea of the perfect ghost story. I could of easily read it in one sitting, I was gripped from the very start.
The writing was of a gentle pace, methodical, magical, terrifying. I was transfixed. In the first hundred pages not a lot had actually happened, but that didn’t matter to me in the slightest. The feelings of isolation and suspense traveled up through my fingers with the turn of each page, cold yet clammy because I was there, with Jack.
The relationships between the characters were bold and often amusing, their personalities deep, emotional, with subtle hints of their own darkness and fears.
Jacks relationship with Isaak, one of the eight Huskies who accompanied them on the expedition, developed into something really very heartwarming.
This is the first book I’ve read by Paver, but it definitely won’t be my last. Horror and the Paranormal is one of my go-to genres, so I’ve read a LOT of spooky reads. But this, by far, was of a higher quality, superior to most I’ve read before.
A five star rating is deserved.
London, 1937. Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway and at last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year.
But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one his companions are forced to leave. Soon Jack will see the last of the sun, the sea will freeze and escape will be impossible.
And Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark…
Loaded with tension and atmosphere, Dark Matter is my idea of the perfect ghost story. I could of easily read it in one sitting, I was gripped from the very start.
The writing was of a gentle pace, methodical, magical, terrifying. I was transfixed. In the first hundred pages not a lot had actually happened, but that didn’t matter to me in the slightest. The feelings of isolation and suspense traveled up through my fingers with the turn of each page, cold yet clammy because I was there, with Jack.
The relationships between the characters were bold and often amusing, their personalities deep, emotional, with subtle hints of their own darkness and fears.
Jacks relationship with Isaak, one of the eight Huskies who accompanied them on the expedition, developed into something really very heartwarming.
This is the first book I’ve read by Paver, but it definitely won’t be my last. Horror and the Paranormal is one of my go-to genres, so I’ve read a LOT of spooky reads. But this, by far, was of a higher quality, superior to most I’ve read before.
A five star rating is deserved.
March 5, 2015
I wasn't sure that I would like this book as I read the first ten pages, but it gradually drew me in until I knew that I could not escape!
The opening is a letter to a journalist from Algernon Carlisle, a survivor of the ill-fated 1937 expedition to the deep Arctic Circle, which denies the existence of Jack Miller's journal. He admits that Jack wrote a journal during those continuously dark days in the far north, but, although it would probably explain a lot, he knows not what happened to it and requests that the journalist backs off.
Almost the whole of the rest of the book is a transcription of Jack's mysterious journal.
All the way through, I was wondering if Jack also survived, or if his journal was found next to his lonely, dead body, or of numerous other possibilities. Did Algernon have the journal, and have good reason to hide it? After all, he was now an aspiring post-war politician.
When I was a child at boarding school, we used to try to terrify our friends with our imaginative ghost stories. I therefore regard myself as a bit of an expert in the potency of such stories. Let me tell you that this rates as a powerful ghost story.
It also brings out the beauty and dangers of the cold and hostile frozen north.
I really loved this book, and it was nicely capped off with the author's notes at the end.
Highly recommended.
The opening is a letter to a journalist from Algernon Carlisle, a survivor of the ill-fated 1937 expedition to the deep Arctic Circle, which denies the existence of Jack Miller's journal. He admits that Jack wrote a journal during those continuously dark days in the far north, but, although it would probably explain a lot, he knows not what happened to it and requests that the journalist backs off.
Almost the whole of the rest of the book is a transcription of Jack's mysterious journal.
All the way through, I was wondering if Jack also survived, or if his journal was found next to his lonely, dead body, or of numerous other possibilities. Did Algernon have the journal, and have good reason to hide it? After all, he was now an aspiring post-war politician.
When I was a child at boarding school, we used to try to terrify our friends with our imaginative ghost stories. I therefore regard myself as a bit of an expert in the potency of such stories. Let me tell you that this rates as a powerful ghost story.
It also brings out the beauty and dangers of the cold and hostile frozen north.
I really loved this book, and it was nicely capped off with the author's notes at the end.
Highly recommended.
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