Dark Matter is about tension and atmosphere. The ‘ghost’ doesn’t make many appearances but when it does you want to hide behind a couch and wet yourself. Paver devotes many pages to building tension and atmosphere. Jack’s voice does a great job of creating chills.ĭark Matter is a very subtle ghost story. Dark Matter wouldn’t have been half as good if Paver had chosen a 3 rd person narrator.

This is made all the more tense by the loss of daylight and the eternal night. He hears strange noises and is plagued by unsettling dreams. Another man goes with him and Jack is left holding the fort. Another man becomes ill with a mysterious fever and needs to be taken to the mainland. One man breaks his leg during the journey and never makes it. Paver takes you deep into Jack’s psyche as he is left alone in the camp. This is a very effective way to tell the story of Dark Matter. The novel takes the form of Jack’s expedition diaries so it’s written in the first person. I love the way Paver structures Dark Matter. Paver created a perfect setting for a ghost story. I heard the strange noises Jack and his crew did. The Arctic was very real to me on every page of this short novel. I felt like I was right there with Jack and his crew in the remote wilderness. Paver does a brilliant job of creating a sense of place in this novel. I don’t think this is necessary.ĭark Matter is set in a remote part of the Arctic. Dark Matter fits this creepy, atmospheric novel perfectly. I found Dark Matter a compulsive, chilling read. Dark Matter is an old fashioned ghost story that focuses on atmosphere as opposed to gore and terror. My faith in this genre has been given a bit of a knock recently thanks to Simon Clark’s awful London Under Midnight. I have been a fan of horror fiction, especially supernatural fiction for years. It didn’t quite live up to the expectations created by the rave recommendation but it was still a great read.

Soon he will reach the point of no return – when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year.īut the Arctic summer is brief. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. So when he’s offered the chance to be the wireless operator on an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. It sounded right up my street so I reserved it at the library.Ĭlouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. She knows I like supernatural fiction and told me to check it out. My mother works in the dementia unit of a nursing home.

Ship fever andrea barrett summary