The White North Has Thy Bones

by Dorian Ravenscroft

London, 1860, and crowds flock to witness a hanging. The condemned man is one of the survivors of HMS Melpomene, an Arctic exploration ship whose bitter fate was to be gnawed by ice and swallowed by the depths, with just five men miraculously rescued to return to wonder and acclaim. And now, one of them has murdered his family, with no explanation except his cryptic last words from the gallows: An act done by me against my will is not my act.

Newspaperman Harry Lambert is fascinated by the case. His search for answers takes him to the door of Sidney Blakely: Melpomene carpenter's mate-turned-expedition-leader, and now celebrated Spiritualist medium - a power granted to him, he claims, by the thin veil of the Arctic itself.

But after attending one of Blakely's séances, Harry meets Lieutenant Taylor, who offers Harry his own version of the story of the doomed ship. Blakely tells of courage and conviction, human heroism triumphing against the merciless Arctic. But Taylor's tale whispers of unquiet ghosts, savage beasts, sedition, and strange meat. Harry must tread a dangerous path between them, where what is true and who can be trusted is as shifting and unstable as the ice itself.

Harry knows what Melpomene's crew left in the Arctic. But what did they bring back?

Genres: Horror, Historical Fiction, Adult, Historical, LGBT, Fiction, Queer

464 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication October 22, 2026

Reviews

[bri]

Interview With The Vampire meets The Terror in this queer, historical, feral, horror debut.

You. Yes, YOU. If I could recommend you one book for the entirety of the second half of 2026, this would be it. This is going to be HUGE, mark my words.

It’s rare to find a book that reaches this level of narrative complexity, AND is thoughtful and well-researched in regard to its historical elements, AND beautifully written, all while being just a goddamn hell of a time. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I had this much fun, was so utterly engrossed and entertained by a book. The horror is unnerving and brutal, yet balanced with hilariously melodramatic layers of interpersonal drama, and all framed by a genius web of biased narration that keeps the reader on its toes.

If you like toxic yaoi (peak toxic peak yaoi), unreliable narrators, and cannibalism, run do not walk to what is bound to be your new obsession. Dorian Ravenscroft is a writer to watch, and THE WHITE NORTH HAS THY BONES is a book to read and reread.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC. Disclaimer that I am friends with the author, but all opinions are my own. In fact, this is a rare moment in which I read this book and felt suddenly humbled and overwhelmed with honor to know the author of this book.

CW: violence, blood and gore, dead bodies, injury detail, gun violence, cannibalism, colonialism, homophobia (including and mostly internalized), classism, illness, murder, grief, suicide (off-page), suicide attempt (on-page), drowning, death, toxic relationship, alcohol, animal death, racism, emesis

[The Reading Frog (semi ia, sick)]

Thank you to Dorian Ravenscroft, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) | Raven Books (UK) & NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review

Semi buddy-read with Teru (aka she has read it before, and I got to scream in her DMs)

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Rating: 5/5 ⭐
Re-readability: Yes, it would be a different experience
CW: I'd advise skipping them for the optimal reading experience, but if you have specific triggers or concerns, hmu.
Explicit | Blood, cannibalism, death/murder, gore, injury description, manipulation, toxic/abusive relationship, violence
Moderate | Fade-to-black sex scene, frostbite, gun violence, (internalised) homophobia and repression/denial, sexist thoughts, starvation, suicide, symptoms that mirror dissociation
Mild | Alcohol and morphine use, amputation, animal death, criminalisation of sodomy, death by hanging, lashings, racism against native/inuit people, use and abuse of opium
My chosen soundtrack(s): Where the Bough Has Broken - Hilary Woods | Death Is Not The End - Chelsea Wolfe | Bitter Duty - SAINt DAG

"A violent shiver derails his thoughts. He’s been shivering for days, despite the summer heat. He’s always cold now, down to his marrow. Sometimes he dreams he’s filled with ice, his veins frozen straits and sounds."

Representation
╰┈➤ Queer characters and dynamics
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ Multiple gay/queer MCs
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ (Past) MLM dynamic(s)
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ Unspecified, but one main character dresses somewhat gender non conforming
╰┈➤ Disability
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ MC with digit amputation, "he's missing the tips of his three longest fingers"
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ SC with leg amputation
╰┈➤ Mental health
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ Though nothing is explicitly stated, multiple (main) characters deal with symptoms that mirror dissociaton/depersonalization and PTSD. There are also recurring thoughts of morbidity and suicidal ideation.


Themes
Accountability, active vs passive behaviour, blame-shifting, bodily autonomy/agency or the lack thereof, commodification/exploitation of tragedy and trauma, control, denial of the self, ego/hubris, grief, hopelessness, isolation, money, optics, poverty, power imbalanced dynamics, rank-based hierarchy vs actual social hierarchy, regret, responsibility, sensationalism, survival vs morality, the intrigue of mystery and mystique, the power of a name, truth.


Tropes/What to expect
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Interview with a vampire X Arctic expedition gone wrong
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ 3 POVs
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ The past haunts the narrative
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ A hunt for the truth
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Morally ???? characters
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Queer MCs
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ EXTREME BONE-CHILLING COLD

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What I liked/loved
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ I love an unhinged opener. Dropping us readers into the middle of a public hanging of one of the HMS Melpomene survivors was such a smart move. I was instantly invested and intrigued. This prologue alone convinced me that I would probably love this book. (Spoiler alert! I was absolutely right)
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ This book has such a unique premise.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ We follow Harry, a journalist trying to uncover what truly happened on the mysterious and infamous HMS Melpomene. An Arctic exploration ship that never got to sail home. Besides hopefully making some good money, Harry has some personal motivations that bring him to Sidney Blakely. As the survivor-turned-medium invites Harry to his home to tell his story, Harry starts to realise he might be getting more than he bargained for.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ For years, the survivors have been tight-lipped about the traumatic events they went through, and slowly, through Harry's interviews with them, we get to understand why.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I absolutely loved this premise and the format it was presented in. Sometimes I get frustrated by POV switches and potential cliffhangers, but in this case I was happy with whoever's story I got to read. It constantly kept me on edge without diminishing its enjoyability.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ What stood out to me is how this book reminds us that these stories are actively being told through interviews, yet each time seamlessly slips into the time frame being discussed. It reads like a POV taking place in the present. This was masterfully done and transported me alongside them to those horrid years of the Melpomene tragedy.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ The prose is descriptive, poetic without feeling pretentious, and manages to highlight small details that become hard-hitting and devastating in the context of their sentences. Those additions do a lot of work in building a deep understanding and care for the characters depicted. It made them feel like real people. I found myself in awe of the creative and heart-aching ways show-don't-tell was utilised.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The writing style also does a great job with recurring symbolism, motifs and imagery that support the narrative and paint very vivid pictures.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ What might've blown me away the most is how the writing style translated the horrifying reality of being exposed to the extreme elements of the Arctic, which I will expand on in the next section.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ The Setting. This story takes place around the midpoint of the 19th century, following Melepomene on its expedition North.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Never have I ever truly understood how absolutely horrifying the freezing cold is until this read. On an objective level, I understood it, but reading this book was like actually being there.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Much like the small details mentioned before that really emphasised the characters' realism, it did the same for the setting. The complete isolation, desperation, hopelessness, and the literal body horror the setting can inflict were terrifying to read about, even more so because of how they were described.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Ever thought about fresh, bleeding wounds letting off steam when met with icy air? How about your own sweat freezing painfully on your face, or perhaps your tears? Ever considered the possibility of skin bursting open from the razor-sharp winds? Ever feared your nose might freeze to your pillow even when wrapped in layers upon layers upon layers? Well, I hadn't either, but I sure am thinking about it now!
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The Arctic can be a brutal monster and doesn't give a damn if you try to reason with it, and I love how Dorian highlighted that with their writing style.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Don't even get me started on scurvy. Childhood me was right to fear it.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ Another aspect where this book shines is with its characters. I was interested in every one of them.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ They all have distinct voices, and thus the POVs feel different from each other.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The main characters are super complex and layered. My opinion of them was ever-changing. Even now, a few days after finishing it and letting it marinate, I still can't form a solid opinion on some of them.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Everything is nuanced, context matters, people have their reasons, and even though certain acts are unforgivable, the world just isn't that black and white. Morality is a convoluted concept, not definable by one universal truth, made even more complex in the brutal context of survival. That being said, be prepared for characters who are at their best morally grey, and at their worst fully morally corrupted black holes.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The character dynamics are just as interesting and layered. Often, a heavy, tangible tension could be felt between varied duos or groups. Whether this tension is positive, negative, or a secret third thing you'll have to find out for yourself. What I can tell you is that they were always fascinating.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ What added even more to this tension was the huge contrast between Harry and Sidney when it came to (displays of) wealth and their way of carrying themselves.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The way in which the characters were different/opposites or similar to each other felt very poetic.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The environment/setting (aka the extremely cold Arctic) and Melpomene are just as much main characters as the actual people are. Treating them as such enhanced their presence.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ I loved the paranormal, mystic, and spiritual elements.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ Tense and mysterious, a page-turner till the end!
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ This book truly held me in its clutches and still hasn't let go. Those who saw my updates on this read know that I went a little insane and went full detective mode. I took lots of notes, went back to certain passages and spammed my friend Teru's DMs every half hour or so with madman-sounding theories and emotional reactions. I genuinely put everything on hold to finish this book.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Take this as my warning to clear your schedule once you start reading the last 25%. I promise you, you do NOT want to be interrupted when reading that last quarter.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ Extremely immersive! I'm not exaggerating when I say I had some bodily reactions to this book. I was sick to my stomach, heartbroken, devastated, had an elevated heart rate, ruined the cozy cuddling vibes with my cats by being stressed and loud about it, and even cried. And yes, all of this is a good thing when it comes to the quality of a book, in my opinion.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ It surprised me! As stated before, I like being a little detective and tend to see plotpoints/reveals coming from a mile away, which is why it's worth mentioning that this book caught me entirely off guard multiple times! I was shocked, bamboozled, flabbergasted and at some point had to stare at the wall a little before continuing. I believe this says a lot about Dorian as a writer and how talented and unique they are.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ White North provided discourse on...
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The commodification and (financial) exploitation of trauma/tragedy. The ethics of it, as well as the nuances that make it hard to fully condemn it. I won't go into it much further (even though there is a whole essay on it sitting in my notes), but this is an aspect I highly enjoyed and am still thinking about.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ How groups behave and organise themselves in hopeless situations, and how rank does or doesn't weigh in on these decisions. It adds a sociological aspect to this read.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Hubris/ego and how those aspects not only shape one's own fate, but those of others as well.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Greed, imperialism and colonisation. Though not a huge plot point, the racism against an indigenous population while simultaneously taking from their land and adapting their ideas/costums to conquer that land to stamp their name on it more efficiently/safely is horrifying yet realistic. I'm really glad this was addressed and elaborated on in the author's note.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ (Bodily) autonomy or the lack thereof, as well as agency, control, and power (imbalances).
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ What it really means to be a survivor. Explored in a way that isn't afraid to highlight the less-than-rosy parts or what comes after.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The comfort of dissociation, desensitisation and distancing from awful situations.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ When warmth (in both its meanings) is a rarity, it's coveted and desperately held onto all the more.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Who gets to write history?
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ Nobody was as shocked as I was when I realised this is a debut. I'd never have guessed that, since Dorian's work reads like that of a seasoned author.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ It has such a big rereadable quality. Which is why I plan to reread this with my pre-ordered physical copy at some point!
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ I loved the ending. Believably realistic yet still poetic.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ It's staying with me. I never needed this much time to let a book marinate before writing my review, or struggled this much with putting into words WHY I loved it so much. Though this review might be a bit more convoluted than my other ones, I hope it still convinces you to pick up this amazing book!


What I didn't like/felt lacklustre about
‎ ‎ ‎ ✦ I think this is fully a me-issue but still wanted to mention it so you'll be prepared for this read. I felt a teensy bit overloaded with info and character names at the start, but I'm a notorious note taker, so all was well in the end. I recommend doing the same if you're a reader who struggles to remember names.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✦ Literally nothing else. This was so good, and I fear I'll never get over it.


Conclusion/Notes
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ This was the easiest 5 stars of my life. I do, however, need someone to sedate me now because I'm in absolute shambles... The fact that it took me over 6 days to write my review says A LOT. I can say without a doubt this book will haunt me as much as the Arctic expedition haunted our MCs.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ What a horrid, raw, realistic, hard-hitting story about humanity, hubris, survival, morality and the ugly, often unspoken aspects of survival and what comes after. Not only did we get a story about battling the unforgiving freezing cold, but it also provided something deeply personal and intimate.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ It offers intriguing, imperfect characters who make horrible/questionable yet nuanced and at times understandable choices that readers will probably have some polarising opinions on. Which makes this a perfect read for a book club, as it highlights complex topics that could spark intriguing discussions.

‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I genuinely don't know how to properly talk about or hype up this book without spoilers, which is why I don't think any review can really do it justice. Nonetheless, I hope that my immense love for this book came across and convinces you to check it out! It's simply an amazing read you should experience for yourself.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Dorian Ravenscroft, you are a new insta-buy author for me, and I can't wait to find out about whatever future projects you are cooking up!

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The White North Has Thy Bones is set to release on 22 October, 2026. Make sure to add it to your TBR and/or pre-order it. Follow @dravenscroftwrites on Instagram as well to keep up to date with their projects.



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"The dead desire to speak, just as fiercely as the living. Perhaps more so, for the dead have far more regrets than we do."

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Want to buddy read this book now or in the future? You can do so on Storygraph.

Follow me on Spotify for specific reading playlists like these: 📚 This Connection Is Muddled With Rot | 📚 Gothic 📚 Dark Academia 📚 Dark Fantasy | 📚 Horror/Thriller Reads

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[amie]

Silly me thinking I was spotting inconsistencies & they were there on purpose and were actually clues !! (Lmao)

This is a ghost story/mystery X Victorian gothic X arctic horror.

Loved this, such a strong debut. I properly enjoyed how the setup felt like the classics - that way of someone finding out some outrageous story because of an interview or writing a letter etc. Some really lovely historical detail. A proper mystery with solid build up and enough twists to be exciting without feeling like it wasn’t earned. Many toxic gay intense dynamics going on. Truly what more could you ask for!

[Jenny]

Review of ARC Provided by Author

The most perfect twisty-turny gothic, gay horror to get me out of my reading slump! The unreliable narrators keep you guessing throughout, and although the characters are for the most part objectively unlikeable, they have a depth of characterisation that keeps you engaged with them and their stories through to the end. The level of historical detail is amazing, but all exposed in a way that made me (somebody who knows very little about Victorian seafaring!) feel at home with the subject matter. Overall, a fun, terrifying, and devastating read, which I thoroughly enjoyed!

[Magdalena (magdal21)]

Incredible book. This is the polar horror I’ve been waiting for since reading The Terror many years ago. Dorian Ravenscroft has created a queer historical fiction that is fantastically written, immaculately researched, and completely unputdownable. I can’t remember the last time I was so immersed in a story. I was thinking about this book constantly while I was reading it.

Set in London in 1860, the story takes place a couple of years after the tragic voyage of the HMS Melpomene, an Arctic exploration ship sent to find the lost Franklin expedition. The ship was lost, with only five crew members surviving. In the opening scene, one of them is hanged for a brutal murder he has no memory of committing. The story of the doomed ship and its crew fascinates Harry Lambert, a newspaperman desperate to uncover the truth about what happened in the white north. He tracks down two other surviving crew members, Sidney Blakely, now working as a spiritualist medium, and Lieutenant Taylor.

The plotting is excellent. Harry’s investigation in London is interwoven with the stories told by Blakely and Taylor, gradually revealing what happened during the expedition. Having two unreliable narrators recount the same events from their own perspectives works incredibly well and reminded me a little of Interview with the Vampire. Blakely and Taylor’s versions of the voyage differ drastically. One speaks mostly of heroism and survival, while the other tells a story of madness, ghosts, obsession and murder. As a reader, you’re never quite sure who’s telling the truth. By depicting the HMS Melpomene as it becomes trapped in the Arctic ice, Ravenscroft does a fantastic job of showing how the harsh conditions gradually strip the sailors of their health, strength, dignity. Yet, as in the best horror, the greatest threat doesn’t necessarily come from the environment or even the supernatural elements, but from the people themselves. As the story progresses, we discover how the events in the Arctic connect to the present day storyline in London. I gasped more than once at some of the revelations.

This book feels like a love letter to polar expeditions. The amount of research that has gone into it is impressive, and it’s clear that Dorian Ravenscroft is deeply fascinated by the subject. Anyone already interested in polar exploration will have a lot to enjoy here, but you don’t need any prior knowledge of the topic to appreciate it – the historical detail never feels like infodumping, and everything is woven naturally into the story. The vivid descriptions make it incredibly easy to imagine the brutal conditions of the white north.

Overall, an incredible debut and definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. I’ll be thinking about it for a long time, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Libby]

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the ARC!

As usual when I absolutely love a book, I'm struggling to find things to say beyond repeating variations of "oh my gosh, amazing!" over and over again. I barely put this down, reading almost obsessively until I reached the end. The details and atmosphere of the polar landscape and the ship Melpomene are perfectly drawn here, and the interweaving web of narratives, motivations, and character interactions keep unfolding until everything you guessed was true is turned on it's head. 

Now, to be fair, The White North Has Thy Bones is a book absolutely made for me. I love polar exploration stories, and have read many books on the subject, fiction and non-fiction; I've watched hundreds of YouTube videos and the number of times I've re-watched The Terror TV show is probably too high. I knew this was going to be one made for me, and oh boy, I was right. Ravenscroft is clearly a polar exploration aficionado, and he creates an amazing sense of the terrifying, bleak polar atmosphere. The world of the Melpomene and the crew's perilous walk across the High Arctic feels totally real, without ever getting bogged down in too much historical detail or description. 

The thing that really stands out here is the interlocking web of stories. All the survivors have their own story to tell, and how they fit together - or don't - becomes the heart of the novel. Finding out what really happened - and the real connection between the expedition and Harry, our main character - is the highlight of the book. How far can we trust any of these characters to tell us the truth, even the character in whose head we sit? This question rings through the book, and even at the end of the story, we aren't one hundred per cent sure. I loved the mystery, the unfolding of the story of the doomed voyage of the Melpomene, the questions surrounding what was real and what wasn't, and all the twists that totally shocked me!

The narrators are unreliable, but man, are they interesting. Every character in this story shines, coming alive on the page. Our MC, Harry, is a hard character to love - even like - but he feels totally alive and realistic. Fair warning: he's realistically classist, misogynistic, and is struggling with a lot of internalised homophobia, if that's not your thing. But I really liked the way Ravenscroft challenged and deconstructed these views within the story. The whole narrative is a searing critique of English classism, which I really enjoyed. As for the other characters, I feel like saying almost anything would be a spoiler, but the way they tell their stories and the things revealed about them are so interesting, I loved every minute!

This is the part where I would usually point out at least one gripe or nitpick... But I seriously can't think of one. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish, and now I know what's really going on, I feel like I need to go back and read it again with the benefit of hindsight and context! 

Basically, if you're a polar exploration girlie (gender neutral): run, don't walk.

[HJ]

I have not left a review on here for a very long time but I NEED EVERYONE TO UNDERSTAND HOW INSANELY GOOD THIS BOOK IS.
Toxic gays at their FINEST
Interview with the Vampire but if it was about a failed arctic expedition.
Honestly, that’s all you need to know going in, I promise you will NOT be disappointed.
Do yourself a favour and go and PREORDER NOW

The finest Victorian Gothic.

Oh I’ll be thinking about this book for a VERY long time.

[mar ☆]

thank you netgalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review!


i don't know what i expected when i went into this book barely knowing anything about it, but it was not this (in a good way!!!). the white north has thy bones is a story that sets out to do many things, and i would say it did a pretty good job on almost all fronts. firstly, i really liked how atmospheric the book was, both in the present day and in the povs set in the past, the images of ice chilling you to the very bone and a dreary london set as background for the characters' tales worked very well and i felt like i was right there with them. i was obviously driven by the desire to know what happened, but i also really liked the exploration of the characters and their turmoils, you find yourself caring for them and their motivations, whether they be good or bad. i think where it suffered a bit was the relationship between the characters, especially when it came to the idea of loving someone all for the wrong reasons & misplaced lust. it was suchhh an interesting plot point and i would've loved to see it be more developed given that it was also quite rushed which was a shame. I also wish the main antagonist had been developed a little more but i understand that it was kind of also the point. i did absolutely adore the ending and how meta it got, it reflected the reader in a very interesting way and made me think about those last few pages for a good while. overall this was a blast, i took my time with it and had a nice reading experience. i will definitely be recommending this to anyone who listens.

[Samantha Lindberg]

The White North Has Thy Bones is a stunning debut full of twists and turns that will make you want to SCREAM at the author for doing this.

Listen, I have a personal beef to crush with Dorian for being such an amazing author and ruining any arctic books that come after this, because they’ll never measure up.

I read this book in one sitting, spamming Dorian with my comments along the way, with them laughing the whole time. Because you will not BELIEVE the things I missed. Nothing is as it seems in this book! It’s one that really rewards close reading and paying attention to the minute details to predict the culmination of all the little hints you’ve gotten.

Let’s get into the wider review!

_________________________

Plot:

The novel unfolds along two interwoven timelines: the doomed Arctic expedition of the HMS Melpomene, its crew on a mission to locate the wreckage of Sir John Franklin and his crew’s tragic demise on the way to the northwest passage, and its grim aftermath in London several years later. What begins as a familiar tale of imperial exploration fractures into something far more unsettling. The Arctic sections are harrowing in their physical realism—icebound ships, scurvy, starvation, and the slow erosion of order—while the London narrative becomes an investigation into truth, performance, and journalistic ethics.

We follow a journalist in London as he chases down the survivors of the Melpomene to create his own account of the disaster, and, hopefully, his fortune. Spurred on by the execution of a Melpomene survivor for the murder of his family, Harry is eager to capitalize on the opportunity to answer questions about what truly happened out there in the great white north. From there, the tale splits off into competing accounts of the “truth”, and Harry’s struggle to make sense of a story that feels so impossible.

But there’s something else Harry is searching for in the histories of those aboard the Melpomene… something he doesn’t care what he has to do to get.

_________________________

Characters:

Harry Lambert — this little bastard. I hate him, and also love him for being so awful. It’s almost charming. Harry is the main character and one of three POVs through which you get to experience the fallout of Melpomene’s journey to the arctic. Harry is, above everything else, a coward. This is his defining characteristic, and the one through which this novel’s social commentary truly shines. Harry exhibits a lot of what is wrong with bystanders in today’s society—he’s a character study in the debate on “true crime”, and the ethics of sensationalizing and dramatizing tragedy. His cowardice is instrumental in this endeavor. He would never get into the thick of it himself to satisfy his curiosity, but sees others as a theatre for his own benefit.
Oh, and he’s classist as all hell. Though in fairness, this is Victorian England. I think that comes with the territory.

Sidney Blakely — charismatic, manipulative, shaped by a central theme of class resentment. As a lowly carpenter on the Melpomene before its demise, Sidney Blakely recalls with bitter frustration how the culture of the ship bent around the high points of the officers. Blakely is the novel’s main interrogation of class struggle. Though Harry offers a great counterpoint to Blakely’s experiences, this is where the theme is truly solidified, through Blakely’s memory of the expedition, and how the balance of power tilted as the circumstances grew dire. But something about Blakely’s recollection doesn’t entirely add up to Harry. He can spot Blakely’s manipulations and exaggerating miles away, and needs to get a perfect composite of all perspectives for his magnum opus piece. Which brings us to

Lieutenant Taylor — perhaps the most unsettling figure: vulnerable and magnetic, capable of tenderness and cruelty in equal measure. The novel’s treatment of mediumship through Taylor is especially effective, keeping the reader constantly uncertain whether what they are witnessing is fraud, delusion, or something genuinely supernatural. You’ll be switching back and forth between each of these perspectives time and time again until the narrative crystallizes towards the end. He’s the character who will make you question your own judgment, and then question the very act of questioning. He provides a differing interpretation of the events of the expedition from Blakely, painting the truth of the tragedy in a much more sinister light.

_________________________

Themes:

This book is a masterclass in unreliable narration and the ethics of storytelling. It’s about survival, yes, but also about the stories we tell to survive—and the ones we tell to justify what we’ve done. It’s about class, power, and the monstrous things people do when the world stops watching. The death of the Melpomene survivor, Harry’s insistence on digging into these peoples’ traumas, all of it paints a disturbing picture of those who might exploit crime and tragedy for profit, for social station. It asks the reader to think: is interpretation, recountal, an act of violence in and of itself, splitting open cauterized wounds to bleed out stories for bystanders again and again?

The White North Has Thy Bones is also a brutal, unflinching look at the cost of empire and the myth of heroic exploration. Bodies and souls are ground up endlessly in the machinery of ambition, and legacy is carved out from the bones of cruelty.

And yes, it’s also about cannibalism. Because SPOOOOOOKY!!

____________________

In short, I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s immersively written and at times darkly comedic, and truly rewards the attentive reader with a great bounty of payoff. It is a wild ride, and well worth it.

Thank you Dorian for letting me read way too early, and for tolerating my fangirling <3

This was a lovely experience, and an easy five ⭐️

[Morgan Dante]

What is better when a men on a ship go missing or die horribly than to send more men on a ship to try to rescue any survivors or see what happened to them? But then again, for the sake of the families, what else can be done? When John Franklin and those on the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror perish in the Arctic, a team is sent to find what remains of them on HMS Calliope and HMS Melpomene. They witness and experience horror, but no one quite knows what the few survivors saw; one of them, William Moore, returns home and butchers his wife Mary and brother Thomas before being executed by hanging.

Our journalist protagonist Harry, working for small-time paper the Chelsea Herald in mid-nineteenth century London, wants to learn more about what happened on the Melpomene from Sidney Blakely and Lieutenant Taylor, two men who survived the disastrous retrieval effort and now live together and work as a psychic medium and someone who is possessed by the ghosts during seances, respectively. However, the tale is long and dark, and Harry, while he says his writing is meant to be about Moore, may have his own personal reasons for his fixation on the Melpomene disaster.

I haven’t read Dan Simmons’ The Terror and haven’t seen the AMC show, and I’m generally unfamiliar with the HMS Terror story except that it was a tragedy, but Dorian Ravenscroft’s The White North Has Thy Bones captures the cold and cruelty of the setting, and of course, this doesn’t just mean the landscape. If you like horror with toxic love between complicated men and cannibalism, then you will love The White North Has Thy Bones. These men are cruel, ruthless, conniving, self-serving, codependent, trauma-bonded, you name it. Harry is a mess in a great way. Seriously, he loves to ruin everything. More than once, my jaw dropped at his decisions, but they were all believable because of his clear biases that he cannot see; it’s his fatal flaw.

I flew through this book because it’s the definition of hard to put down. It’s one of my favorite reads of the year, alongside C.N. Vair’s The Devil Knows Her Name. I found myself connected with the characters, and I got emotional about their relationships, particularly Harry and the story of his childhood friend, Lawrence, largely told in epistolary format with unanswered letters. I was teary-eyed at some points. I am also a big fan of whatever Harry and Sidney Blakely had going on. It’s catnip to me. Nothing compels me more than a good homoerotic loathing that can be summed up as: “There is only one person in the world who will ever truly understand me, and I hate that guy.”

There is so much in here that is evocative and heartbreaking. It’s a story about ghosts and hauntings and regret. It’s also about how grief and trauma shift a narrative; Harry is far from impartial, and same with the people he interrogates. They lie and obfuscate, and they certainly weren’t healthy or mentally sound while struggling in the Arctic, while Harry has things that he would prefer to believe. He’s also judgmental toward others because of his own unaddressed shame. I love love love stories that interrogate the lens of a story and question the reliability of multiple characters and the purpose of a narrative created from tragedy; to the public, this real and horrible trauma for the few survivors is titillation. Same with Harry. Nobody asks him to do it, but he sacrifices so much, from his money to his integrity, to claim a story that doesn’t belong to him, to the point that he feels frustrated and entitled to the truth when his subjects rebel. No one cares about these survivors, and they are ready to judge them for what they did to survive from the comfort of their own homes. If Victorian England, a vicious imperial regime, is willing to throw its people to the wolves, is it much better than the Arctic where animals only eat to survive in harsh conditions? Is there some magical element that makes the Arctic uniquely “evil,” or is it what the men brought from England, from their broken homes and broken friendships? The narrative is about how both the survivors and everyone else use the story for their own ends, and what is the ”right” way after a tragedy?

Possessing chilling horror and rich themes, The White North Has Thy Bones is a layered and macabre ride from start to finish; it meticulously reveals its characters in ways that look effortless but must have taken a great amount of research and forethought. And I love seeing multiple troubled and complex queer characters.

Thank you to the author, Dorian, for the ARC. Be sure to check this one out on Netgalley UK and on October 22 when it comes out!

[Lena Leimgruber Haraldsson]

As someone neck-deep in a PhD thesis on fiction set in the Arctic, I tend to approach new entries in the genre with the clinical detachment of a 19th-century surgeon -- or perhaps just the weary cynicism of a man who has read one too many accounts of scurvy. However, Dorian Ravenscroft’s debut novel The White North Has Thy Bones did the impossible: it thawed my academic heart and then promptly shattered it into very small, very sharp ice crystals.

If Dan Simmons’ The Terror is a heavy, lead-poisoned fever dream of Arctic exploration, this novel is the crisp, sharp-edged medicine we desperately needed to follow it. It masterfully subverts common tropes of "officer good/sailor bad" and "good versus bad gays", replacing them with a masterclass in unreliable narration and class resentment.

The descriptions of the Arctic are nothing short of sublime. Ravenscroft treats the landscape as a living entity with its own terrifying agency. I was AMAZED by the metaphors used by the protagonists: Taylor perceives the North as a mindless, destructive beast, while Blakely personifies it as a woman demanding respect: a subtle but brilliant distinction that reflects their differing relationships with power and survival. Another example I liked was how the fog is described as shifting and circling the men "like a stalking animal" (it really does something considering these men are kind of stalking the environment that they really don't know a lot about...). Light also plays a big role (it usually does in fiction set in the Arctic): in the perpetual light of summer, the sun is compared to "a lazy cat that didn’t want to leave its warm spot", having chased away the stars "like frightened mice".

In terms of characters, they are, to put it mildly, absolutely dreadful people. Harry Lambert is a cowardly, classist vulture of a journalist; Sidney Blakely is a manipulative, yet charismatic medium who may or may not be a complete fraud; and Lieutenant Taylor is a vessel for the dead whose moral compass is spinning faster than his actual one. I loathed almost everyone involved, which, in academic terms, is a sign of exquisite characterisation. They are deliciously unlovable, yet you find yourself rooting for their survival simply because you want to see who manages to out-manipulate whom in the dark.

The novel’s treatment of the ethics of storytelling is where my PhD-brain really started buzzing. It asks whether we, as readers (and scholars!), are merely cannibals of a different sort, consuming the trauma of these lost men for our own gain. Damn.

I could write so much more (and definitely plan to do so in my thesis), but in brief: this novel is a haunting, queer historical horror that rewards close reading and punishes the faint of heart. It is atmospheric, darkly comedic and will keep you on the fricking edge of your seat. If you enjoyed the meat of The Terror but found the gender and class politics a bit too blahh/problematic, this is the book for you.

Note to the author: thanks. You have officially ruined all other Arctic fiction for me. But also: thank you for sending me a digital copy of The White North Has Thy Bones before its release in October this year!

---

"I have him committed to memory, the lightness of his laughter and the beauty spot on his left cheek engraved into me like the rings of a tree. If I was split open with an axe, parts of Lawrence would show within me."

"The Arctic is a place of mysticism and holy revelation. There’s so much of nothing that you begin to see everything, past our material realm, to look upon the face of God."

"I’m the worse cannibal of the two of us... It weren't the spirits people were interested in, it was my suffering. They wanted to hear about it, get a look at a man they all secretly believe done the unthinkable."

[Nina van der Kooij]

Thanks Netgalley & the publisher for the ARC!

The moment I heard polar horror, I was intrigued. It's such an interesting setting, and one I had rarely seen in horror. Combined with the unusual structure and unreliable narrators, it made for a very unique sort of book.

This book follows Victorian era journalist Harry Lambert. Harry is the bastard son of a very wealthy man, and he will not let you forget about it. He's stuck in this job his father arranged for him, but cannot count on monetary support of which he is resentful. He's extremely classist and desperately wants to be viewed as one of the upper class. All in all, this whole deal makes him insufferable. For the most part, I hated him. But he is an interesting enough character to follow.

In the present day, one of five survivors of an arctic tragedy murders his wife and brother quite brutally, and it seems like he cannot remember doing it. All he has to say is that an act done by him against his will is not his act, whatever he means by that. Harry has to write a little piece about this, and goes to one of the other survivors, Sidney Blakely to ask a few questions. But Harry has a particular interest in this tragedy. He's not satisfied just getting some comments from Blakely, he must know every gory detail of what happened back then, and how it relates to the current murder. Here, the commentary on true crime really shines. This is not Harry's story, but he will make it his by any means necessary. He is particularly intrigued by the implication of cannibalism. The story here really asks the question what right the public has to the tragedy of others, and if rehashing every last detail is an act of violence in of itself.

But Blakely agrees to tell Harry his tale, for the right price. He tells the version of the story fit for the public, leaving out any unsavory details and casting himself as the hero. He tells a tale of ghosts too, and claims he has been able to communicate with ghosts ever since he returned. In the current day, he works as a medium, assisted by fellow survivor Lieutanant Taylor, who just so happens to live with him. Blakely is cunning and manipulative, but he is also interesting. He grew up very poor, and Harry judges him harshly for his lower class, but Blakely's class resentment is something I found interesting about him, and one of the reasons I overall sympathize with him more than the others. He's definitely still not a great person, with a romance you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, but I ended up really liking him.

Blakely, however, is not the only one telling the tale of the tragedy. Lieutanant Taylor offers his own account of what happened, which is a much more gruesome version that isn't at all careful to preserve anyone's reputation. This version of the tale is also explicit about Taylor's and Blakely's not so healthy romance. Compared to Blakely, Taylor seems much more like a pathetic kicked puppy, but not all is as it seems in either tale.

I really liked how grounded in history the expedition is. While the Melpomene and his disaster never existed, they sailed to the arctic to search for another expedition that did really happen, and many ships were sent to look for this expedition. The arctic setting is very vivid and brutal, an environment these people really have no business being in.

For much of the tale, the story seemed pretty straightforward. I suspected because Taylor told the less socially acceptable version, his was closer to the truth, while Blakely kept to the version he can live with. But it was anything but. I will not spoil anything, but the twists really, really surprised me, and they were brilliantly done. It makes me want to reread the book to see if this time around I can pick up on all the hints.

This is a book full of queer characters who are all terrible, and you do need to be able to stomach that. Harry in particular I mostly disliked, and he was incredibly classist and misogynistic, and I ended up much preferring Blakely over him. But these men are certainly interesting. There's not much more I can say without spoiling everything, but it all was constructed very well to say something about how people consume tragedy, and in particular how the cannibalism was handled was really interesting and fit with this theme.

Would recommend it to people interested in the polar setting, true crime commentary and horrible queer main characters.

[Teru]

An act done by me against my will is not my act.

My fellow horror fans - queer historical horror fans in particular - gather around! We’ve got a real treat waiting for us right here. I’ll be genuinely shocked if this book doesn’t end up among my top five reads of 2026 😳
And yet again, I can’t talk much about it because WOAH is everything a potential spoiler! This is a ride you want to take as blindly as possible, trust me.
(Now watch me proceed to talk about it lol)

The Melpomene tragedy began in 1852 when the ship embarked on the polar exploration of the Nunavut territory, in hopes of finding the lost Sir John Franklin expedition. Melpomene herself carried a crew of nearly fifty men. By the end, after a slew of events, only five survivors remained, rescued in 1854 and brought home to England.
Now, in 1860, a newsman Harry Lambert hungers for the real story of what happened to the men, after one of them was just hanged for a terrible crime. And where better to get the answers than Sidney Blakely, another survivor who now curiously holds seances, claiming he’s able to communicate with ghosts?
Harry Lambert wants nothing more than the truth he’s sure was hidden from the public.
He might just get exactly what he wished for.

What follows is a brutal tale of survival in ruthless conditions, ghosts and lost souls, and toxic codependence that will make your head spin and your heart pound. And let me tell you, this freaking book takes the concept of unreliable narrator to a new level!

The horror here lies mostly in the complete isolation of a lost ship trapped in the icy waters for months on end. Isolation not only from civilization, but warmth and light as well. Knowing the chances of survival are thinning with every creak of the ice hugging the ship. Watching the fellow crewmates either lose their minds one at a time, or accept there might just be something else prowling around, hungry yet unseen.

I have to say, I completely fell in love with this particular historical setting! Looking at Google maps, tracking their entire journey, scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had 👀

And I know some of you perked up like meerkats at the mention of “queer” but stand down for a bit - yes, it’s very queer. No, there isn’t romance. It’s tragic, shocking, devastating, utterly brilliant, but for the love of god don’t go in looking for a budding romantic relationship. You would end up either simply disappointed... or a bit traumatized.

Well, now I don’t know what to do with myself. I finished this book yesterday late at night, sacrificing sleep because there’s NO WAY I was gonna put it down for the last wild 20 percent, and I still feel shell-shocked and trapped inside the story.
I’m sat. Sat and ready for more by Dorian Ravenscroft, because they have my full trust with this masterpiece.

(To create an even more immersive reading experience - put on ”Trapped in Ice - Franklin’s Lost Expedition” ambiance on YT, the eerie music and creaking ship sounds are fabulous!)

BIG thank you to the lovely author for being so kind and sending me the e-arc! These are my honest thoughts (as always). The pub date of The White North Has Thy Bones is October 22, 2026.

[Amy Appleby]

With thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing/Raven Books for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of Dark Matter by Michelle Paver and I am obsessed with stories set in that ethereal part of the world – the Arctic. I knew this book would be right up my street as soon as I read the premise. This is a chilling (no pun intended) and masterfully constructed debut by Dorian Ravenscroft.

The novel begins in a grim, atmospheric 1860 London. A crowd has gathered to witness the hanging of one of the five survivors from the HMS Melpomene, an Arctic exploration ship which surrendered to the pack ice of the Arctic while searching for the lost Franklin expedition. We very quickly learn that this man has brutally murdered his family, claiming that the act was done against his will.

Enter Harry Lambert, a deeply sceptical journalist obsessed with the Melpomene disaster. Harry is determined to find out what truly happened in the frozen wastes at the end of the Earth, and what drove one of the men to brutally murder his family once he had returned to England. This leads him to discover Sidney Blakely, another survivor and self-made leader of the expedition who has reinvented himself as a psychic medium – powers he claims were granted to him by the thin veil of the Arctic. Beside him is Lieutenant Taylor, another of the survivors and a conduit for the spirits brought forth by Blakely. As Harry finds himself dragged further and further into the mystery it becomes unclear which story is the reality – is it the supernatural tale or is it the tale of human monstrosity? Blakely’s tale is the standard heroic navy men enduring in a desolate place doing what they need to do to survive whereas Taylor’s tale tells of the ghosts of sailors lost to the frost, unspoken horrors of their encounters with the ghosts, meat obtained from mystery sources and huge beasts stalking the men across the ice.

The book switches between the Gothic atmosphere of Victorian London and the frozen isolation of the Arctic. I found myself glued to every page, getting further and further drawn in to Blakely’s and Taylor’s vastly different accounts of what happened once the Melpomene was lost to the ice.

The author’s prose oozes atmospheric tension – I found myself second guessing right up until the closing chapters of the book.
The book also does not pack its punches when it comes to the damage caused to the survivors – the men are utterly broken by the horrors they had to go through to survive the journey to safety. The men are bonded in ways no one could understand – the queer undertone is a breathtakingly different take on the romance of gothic horrors. Don’t expect to be championing any budding romances though – the relationships seem as damaged by the Arctic as everything else has been.

Overall, it is a haunting, original ghost story about complicated men who are ruined by the ice and by each other. Quite possibly one of my favourite books of the year and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

[Nettle Reads]

It´s rare that I have so little to say after finishing a page turner that I enjoyed. Yet, I shall endeavour to write more, and perhaps like the naval explorers of old, I shall find my journey longer than I expected.

The story takes place in London, 1860, around the edges of high society: we've got an illegitimate bastard of nobleman turned newsman as narrator, a disgraced younger son turned naval officer and a commoner whose sudden rise to fame in spiritualist circles allows him to rub elbows with all classes. All of them queer. At least one of them a conman and a liar, but what is the true nature of the con being pulled? And how does it relate to recent murders?

As good as the London scenes were, the majority of the book takes place in the Arctic. I had feared the arctic storyline was going to be kept small and secret, but it takes up the vast majority of the narrative. Our narrator, the newsman Harry, transcribes two unreliable accounts of a failed arctic mission to rescue the crew of a ship that went missing previously. The arctic is gripping, and terrifying. As a reader, you never know whether you should be more afraid of the isolation, the weather, the wild beasts, the fellow men or of something more supernatural altogether.

And yes, I did say fellow men. This book is three men uncovering the story of a ship full of 'em. I don't think it would pass the Bechdel test. Harry has internalized many of the prejudices of the time: he is even chastised for this in-text, as right before his death he is called out for his own class insecurities as well as his total disregard and underestimation of women. Implied is that, had the book had a different narrator, the women in the book would have had a bigger role.

Off course, there's one bigotry that Harry struggles with the most: homophobia. harry is permanently haunted by the love he threw away through his own cowardice - and the multiple other gay relations in the book are equally tragic, yet not always devoid of love.

The big twist at the end was one that I -in part- saw coming from miles away, yet it was delivered so suddenly and with so much punch, it still landed. Not to mention the book's ending...

[Katie]

Thank you to the author for sending me an ARC!

This is SUCH an astonishing debut novel from Dorian Ravenscroft. I was utterly hooked from start to finish. Set both amidst the Arctic and society London in the 19th century, it is chilling and atmospheric and so thrilling. We follow three parallel threads as Harry Lambert, a newspaper man, searches for what seems a grisly and compelling tale: murder, mutiny, potential cannibalism, and survival on a doomed expedition like Franklin's failed venture. Lieutenant Taylor and carpenter-turned-medium Blakely tell two stories that intersect and flow and make both the reader, and Harry, wonder what is true and what is not.

The historical detail was fabulous, both in London and on HMS Melpomene. The settings are used to their absolutely full potential and oh, my nerdy naval polar heart was so pleased by all the Arctic research. Told with such strong and intimate voices (I'm usually not a fan of first person but WOW! Fantastic narrative choice), you are really dragged on this complex and incredible journey of three very troubled and compelling men. I went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth with my feelings for these characters (in the best of ways). As much as Blakely and Taylor weave the tale, the reader is drawn along with it too. THE TWISTS. Oh man, I won't spoil anything but SO GOOD, especially the feverish last quarter or so.

I also loved the underlying themes of sensationalist narrative and class that threaded throughout the story. That is such an interesting way to approach a tale like this and one I haven't really seen explored before, so that was SO refreshing.

AND IT HAS QUEER REPRESENTATION. All of this AND there are multiple queer relationships? No notes, perfect.

Thank you again, Dorian. Even if I didn't know you, I would be lapping this up and loving it just as much! Can't wait to see this properly out in the world with its gorgeous cover and its gorgeous writing.

[potatoship]

This was INCREDIBLE. The doomed gay polar expedition novel you didn't know was missing from your life. Full of haunting descriptions, unreliable narrators, horrible characters, and meat. Incredible. 10/10. New favourite. I need to go back and reread it. Immediately pre-ordered a copy. Might go and buy some pear drops, too.

The plot itself is gripping and tense in a way that made it impossible to put the book down. I could imagine the scenes so vividly. But what elevates it is the characters. Characters you love to hate, balanced with characters you are rooting for. Characters who are the worst but feel so, so, so human (but, like, are really the worst). Characters you are hoping will persevere even when you know their fates from the beginning of the novel.

The story is told through Harry Lambert, a newsman who is obsessed with the doomed Arctic voyage of the Melpomene. Harry has a Richard Papen quality to him, that gives the novel almost a Secret History-esque feel (...if The Secret History took place in 1850s/1860s London and involved survivors of an Arctic expedition instead of a Classical society at a New England arts university). Harry's desperation to insert himself in the narrative felt organic and compelling in its own right. And Harry's interviews with multiple surviving members of the expedition comprise the bulk of the story. It's in those accounts that we follow the two other POVs as the true events of the Melpomene disaster unfolds.

Oh and it's super gay. Capital 'Q' Queer. Messy gays. It's toxic yaoi at its finest. The 'oh-wow-I-hope-this-type-of-love-never-finds-me' kinda dynamics. Beautiful. Flawless. I ate it up.

I do not want to say anything that gives this story away, but if it wasn't obvious: 5 stars, thank you SO much to NetGalley and Raven Books for the ARC! I cannot wait to see what else Ravenscroft writes.

[Alyson]

The story is told through Harry Lambert, a sceptical newsman who is sent a mystical evening by his editor in order to get a quote about the recent hanging of a survivor from the Arctic voyage of the Melpomene. He is dismissive of his hosts spiritual abilities and the claims that the thin veil of the Arctic have granted them extraordinary powers but he is drawn to the story of their survival and begins to interview Sidney Blakely, an apprentice carpenter on the ship and Tristan Taylor, third lieutenant onboard. The two tales he is told are poles apart and it is up to Harry to try and discover who is telling the truth.
The book switches between a gothic Victorian London and the frozen wasteland of the far north, where the Melpomene is searching for the wreckage of Franklin's 1845 expedition to find the North West passage. The descriptions of life on board ship and then on the ice when the ship is destroyed are brutal and it is no surprise that the men struggled to survive and the experience left them as wrecks of their former selves. Whether they returned damaged enough to murder, as is the case with one of them, is something Harry is struggling to find out.
The pacing is great, pushing the book forward. None of the characters are likeable, they are all damaged, but quite how much we don't discover until the end. However they all have depth and secrets that they hide from each other and from us, the reader. The relationships between them, both romantic and friendship are all skewered by the need to survive.
This is a raw, realistic story of man versus nature and man versus himself. With ghostly, gothic undertones and queer romance, it left me shocked, overwhelmed and sad it had ended.
An excellent read.
With thanks to the author, Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for an early copy in return for an honest review.

[Evie]

I am sitting here, a shattered and empty shell at the end of this wild, incredible and gory journey and find that I am at a bit of a loss what to do with myself.

It is 1860, and Harry Lambert, a reporter for the Chelsea Herald, is assigned to cover the execution of William Moore; a man who murdered his wife and brother in a crime as sudden as it was sensational. Adding to the sensation is the fact that Moore was also one of the few survivors of the Melpomene, an ill-fated Arctic expedition.

As Lambert digs deeper in his efforts to understand Moore’s motivations, his investigation leads him to Sidney Blakely, a former crew member of the Melpomene who has since reinvented himself as a spiritualist. Blakely agrees to tell his story for the first time, but, as with all things, his truth comes at a cost.

I have mentioned this before but stories featuring complete and inescapable isolation crawl under my skin in a way that nothing else can manage to do. However this book took that to the next level and had me feeling like I was holding my breath for hours. I think I could feel my pulse in my neck for most of the final 20% of this story as it came to such a dramatic conclusion.

This is an exceptional effort for a debut, I am kind of blown away if I am being honest. The tension is masterfully ratcheted up as the reader learns of the increasingly horrific tale of the Melpomene. The amount of knowledge and research that Ravenscroft has clearly put into the little details of this story is shockingly impressive.

If you are someone without much in the way of triggers or need for content warnings I would encourage you to go in to this as blind as possible for maximum impact.

I am so serious when I tell you that you need to understand that this is a historical horror that happens to have queer characters in it. It is NOT a traditional romance… If you are looking for something that is romance forward I would suggest this may not be the right book for that mood.

If there is any higher word of praise to give, please know I will 1000% be getting my grubby little hands on a physical copy as soon as humanly possible to display it like a little trophy of madness on my bookcase. This book was gory, bleak and tension filled and will easily land in my top reads of the year. This book has instantly made Ravenscroft an autobuy author for me, I am so excited to see what else they are capable of producing.

If you are after a tense historical horror told cinematically through dual time lines and unreliable narrators, this could be a big win!

I was generously provided an ARC of this book by the author and these are my honest thoughts ❤️

Planned release 22nd October


For a second I contemplate if I really want this. Revealing the truth about Melpomene–whatever that truth may be–will upset many in good society, those in the Admiralty most of all. But surely, for the good of the Empire, the rot must be cut out? The removal of a decayed tooth is never a pleasant experience; it is a mess of blood and pain, yet no sane man would welcome a mouthful of rotten teeth over a few moments of discomfort. I’ve read that a bad tooth can even poison the blood and kill. That’s what Blakely is, with his lies about William Moore and his sham seances. England will simply have to wince and clench its fists as I uproot him for its benefit. That it will benefit me too is merely a welcome accident.



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[Paulette Kennedy]

Breathtaking and impressive in scope, The White North Has Thy Bones is a chilling pressure cooker of a novel that will have you questioning everything you thought you believed about the nature of good and evil.

It's 1860, and an intrepid young newsman named Harry Lambert has the lead of a lifetime. The spare, surviving crew of an ill-fated expedition to the Arctic has returned to England, and one of their own has just been executed for a murder he has no memory of committing. His remaining crewmates, each of them carrying scars of their own, are willing to talk to Harry about what really happened to the HMS Melpomene in the frozen North--for a price.

Harry seeks out the crew's de facto captain, Sidney Blakely, and his housemate, Lieutenant Taylor, who make their living as Spiritualists. The Arctic, it seems, has left the pair with a haunting gift: the ability to channel the dead--for Blakely--and to be possessed by them, for Taylor.

Through a series of compelling interviews, Harry gets his story...but at a perilous cost. The dark secrets of the HMS Melpomene transcend any coordinates on a map, and the survivors of her mission to the White North are forever marked by what they witnessed there.

If you've ever been fascinated by Franklin's missing Arctic expedition and the unanswered questions surrounding it, you will enjoy this atmospheric and unnerving novel as much as I did. This is high, intellectual gothic horror at its finest.

[Karen Campbell]

Whilst reading this book, when about 40% in, I went back and skimmed the first few chapters. A lot of characters, and settings. I found it easier to follow the alternating timelines when I did this.
This is an excellent story, and I’m stunned that it’s a debut novel.
A young, ambitious journalist, eager to make a name for himself, attends the hanging of a man convicted of a terrible double murder.
He is one of only 5 survivors of a doomed Arctic sea expedition. Two of the other survivors claim to be clairvoyant, and run seances, and our journalist’s editor sends him to one, in order to get some ‘background’ for his article.
This leads to a series of interviews with the two survivors, and it becomes clear that there is at least one unreliable narrator in this tale.
The description of life on board ship, trapped for months-years- in the Arctic ice, is superb. And as conditions worsen, and men start to die, the fear and tension is palpable. The narration switches between the two survivors recounting of the past and the journalist’s POV in the present.
The pace and tension ramp up rapidly towards the end, and whilst I had an inkling of one or two of the plot twists, the denouement definitely blind-sided me.
This is an atmospheric and gripping tale and well worth reading.

[Rat Queen]

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this arc.

“Actus me invito factus non est meus actus”

An incredibly stunning debut that transports you to the Arctic, The White North Has Thy Bones is an exquisitely written queer historical horror that you will devour! So much love and care has gone into the crafting of this story to fully immerse the reader in the isolation, the chill, the survival and the horror of a polar expedition in 1852.

London 1860, with a fascination with the survivors and the disaster of the HMS Melpomene - newspaper reporter Harry Lambert sets out to interview the remaining living crew of Melpomene after one of the few survivors is hanged for a horrendous crime.
Harry desires to know the full story, whatever that might take. Even toying with the idea that perhaps more came back from the arctic than just the surviving crew.

I fully encourage you to chuck on some ambience and immerse yourself in the beautifully crafted story that will chill you in more ways than one.
Absolutely blown away and prepare to never hear me shut up about this one! I will be recommending this to ANYONE and EVERYONE who will listen!

[Vermillion]

Huge thanks to the author for sending me an advanced ebook copy!

Just when I thought I’d had enough of unreliable gay narrators, Ravenscroft puts 3+ and they reel me back in! These gents come in all shapes and sizes, some have lost fingers, and all (allegedly) have eaten some suspect meat, and I love them all even with their myriad of transgressions. Truly in awe of how well the interview format works to obscure/tease at the narrative... could read a million more books like this.

Absolutely staggering attention to detail and genuine love for the setting (and the horrors) bleeds through the pages, making it impossible to put down. The plot will unravel and re-ravel and unravel again before your very eyes, making you question everything. If you struggle with ship terminology or 19th century jargon, please, please stick with it, because when Ravenscroft finally stops feeding us scraps and lets the truth come rattling out of its cage, well, it’s like waking up in a warm bed after a year or two in the northern passage.

Can’t recommend this enough (gotta preorder myself a real copy so I can keep it forever!).

[Jade Prior]

A bone-chilling atmospheric polar horror, crafted so beautifully you will feel transported to HMS Melpomene. I could vividly picture the vast polar landscapes, the smoky parlour, the ship interior - the settings felt tangible and cinematic, which was definitely one of my favourite aspects of this immersive book. Some of the imagery was genuinely stunning, I was watching things unfold rather than reading about them.

I finished this book feeling as though I personally knew the deeply flawed, multi-faceted men who made up Melpomene's crew, and able to name a hell of a lot more parts of a ship! It's clear just how much research must have gone into writing this novel; it really shines through in the details of the voyage and daily life aboard the ship, giving it a really authentic feel.

I also loved the beautifully understated, slow(ish)burn gay romance. The tension builds deliciously in parts and there are some ache-inducing lines that made me stop and stare at the page for a moment!

Please do give this a go if any of this sounds up your street, I don't think you'll regret it.

[Ben Bergonzi]

A very clever take on the Franklin disaster and later attempts to discover what happened on that ill-fated journey, this books is told in a framing story through the eyes of London journalist Harry Lambert as he researches the loss of the ship HMS Melpomene, interviewing some of the handful of surviving crew. However much of the story comes to us via the dramatic accounts relayed via the survivors Blakeley (a lower deck sailor now working as a spiritualist) and Taylor, a lieutenant working as the spiritualist's assistant. Both turn out to be unreliable narrators. Either there were supernatural appearances, even in their own heads, or else they were liars. Did the dead crewmen from the Franklin ships turn into wolves? The answers to these and many more questions make this twisty tale a gripping read. Gay love between the trio turns up the stakes of this enjoyable adventure still higher. A tightly written and well researched book which deserves to do well.

[Anahita Karthik]

This book is genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life, like, if I could give it 10 stars, I would. It’s on the same level for me as The Dragon Republic or Crooked Kingdom. The sheer scale and genius of Dorian’s mind is unfathomable. Like, I genuinely don’t understand how a plot this complex, twisty, brilliant, and engaging can just come out of someone’s mind, especially someone I know so well and whom I have endless respect for. 2 years later, and TWNHTB still haunts me. A masterpiece of an Arctic historical horror. Absolutely blood-curdling and bone-chilling. It will never leave your mind. It hasn’t left mine.

Read 5/11/24: I might've just finished reading one of the best books ever in my entire life and I mean it historical fiction is my new favourite genre. Dorian Ravenscroft, your book has turned my brain into mashed potatoes.

[Amber Maren]

A stunning debut, just as wonderfully gay and horrible as I was promised. The twists and turns were top-notch, making for a page-turning, white-knuckled read. And what can I say about Harry, Tristan and Sidney? They were all delightfully despicable, while still leaving you desperate to see what became of them. A real skill of the author!

The writing was flawless, with the tension built from page one and increasing exponentially throughout. It’s so harrowing it’ll have you staring at the ceiling after you finish reading it, trying to get the images out of your head. I think this one's going to stay with me for a while!

As a lover of polar history and from a long seafaring background, the portrayal of life on a polar expedition was incredibly well researched and expressed, without ever feeling heavy-handed. Bravo!

Best thing I’ve read this year. I can’t wait for more from Dorian!

[Faye &#x1fac0;]

Yellowjackets but adult toxic yaoi in the Victorian era Arctic… from the POV of an outsider trying to make sense of what happened while they were out there…. Awesome… I’m also not familiar with the real story this was based on, but I thought this was a really cool concept

- gay (awesome)
- Victorian historical setting that felt really well written and researched
- a mystery that had me on the edge of my seat and constantly second guessing what was happening
- banger ending that felt like the carpet was ripped out from me a bit
- loved the descriptions of the Arctic/characterization of the Arctic dare I say
- at times I honestly struggle a bit differentiating between the characters and got confused, but that might just be the fault of my one brain cell (it was trying as hard as it can)

[Sarah New]

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book was not what I expected.

At first, I really struggled to connect with the story, but wow, am I glad I decided to stick with it. It's a bit of a slow burn, but the narrative descends into this beautifully monstrous exploration of human nature and isolation. The Gothic elements of the book work really well with the historical horror; how accurate it is, I don't know, but I almost didn't care. The prose is poetic, bordering on purple at times, but this works within the context of the story. The longer I read this book, the more intrigued I was. Really enjoyable.

[Madeline White]

Absolutely INCREDIBLE book! I absolutely tore through it in a matter of days, and would have gone faster, if I hadn't gotten spooked at one point and closed it for the night (I was camping in the Wyoming winter at the time, and after dark the arctic horror started feeling a little too close to home!). This is a book that gets its teeth into you and drags you through the whole story, leaving you thinking about it for a long time after. I can't wait for it to come out so I can recommend it to everyone I know!