What Haunts the Ice

by S. Hati

From author S. Hati comes a high stakes young adult thriller about what happens when the pursuit of knowledge goes too far, set against the alluring—and endlessly dangerous—backdrop of Antarctica.

None of this would have happened if we’d left Antarctica alone.

For seventeen year old Payal, a once-in-a-lifetime high school trip to Antarctica is the perfect distraction: from her hazy, unformed plans for the future, and from her empty home, echoing with the ghost of a sister who is no longer there. For Zoe, though, it's something much more sinister: a way to keep an eye on her increasingly troubled older brother who’s an expedition guide for Payal’s trip.

But after Zoe's brother is found dead on the ship on the way to the research station, the teens realize that they aren't the only ones with secrets.

The glittering landscape of the South Pole holds the promise of life-changing knowledge and scientific advancements, but as kids on the expedition begin to experience inexplicable visions of strange creatures appearing in the ice, Zoe and Payal must confront the question: Will Antarctica let them leave? Or will whatever is buried in the permafrost keep them trapped there forever?

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery Thriller

368 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication January 12, 2027

About the author

S. Hati is a speculative fiction writer, currently residing in the Bay Area. She holds a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from UCLA and a master’s degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and pretends to use them both while working in health tech. She writes about brown girls in strange worlds that straddle the line between magic and science.

Reviews

[aundrea]

for a book about antarctica and ghost-like beings this was a bit boring 😭

i feel like the plot was advancing so slow that by the point we got to the climax i literally couldn’t care less what was going on.

the plot twist was kind of cringe as well…im just personally not a fan of these kinds.

everything wrapped up so quickly due to the weird pacing and it was a riding off into the sunshine type ending which didn’t sit well 🤷🏻‍♀️

thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

[Paula]

Zoe and her brother Eric are headed to the Antarctic with the latest group of high schoolers for a week of exploration and learning. Eric is Zoe's guardian and they have been making this trip for a few years now as Eric is a guide.

Eric has been acting strangely since the previous years trip and Eric's girlfriend and best friend who are also guides seem to be hiding something.

This was a good scary story that I think teens would like with a twist. There was one character who was a They/Them that I found to be very confusing while reading the text. I kept having to slow down and reread to make it make sense. I tended to skim these passages.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

[Haley Marotta]

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I had really high hopes for this because the plot sounded so intriguing. I thought it would be more supernatural/paranormal, but it was kind of boring throughout. In the beginning, there is an incident on the boat going to Antarctica that I thought was going to set up an action packed plot, but it didn’t.

The ending was fine, but by that point I was already kind of over it. I didn’t love any of the characters, which made it harder to become invested in the story. Probably wouldn’t recommend.