Dark Matter (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Michelle Paver is best-known for her very enjoyable young adult series `The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness'. Dark Matter is not Paver's first adult novel but it is her first ghost story. It is an eerie story set in the Arctic in the late 1930s. Dark Matter is told in the first person through the journal of Jack Miller. Jack Miller is poor and eager to change his life so when four upper-class young men offer him the chance to be a wireless operator on an Arctic expedition he jumps at the chance even though the difference in their class makes him the odd man out.

The expedition seems to be doomed from the start and there are inklings of chilling things to come on the deserted bay of Gruhuken.
What makes Dark Matter so effective is Paver's clever evocation of the stark and desolate landscape of the Arctic and Jack's increasing isolation as the novel progresses. It is more of a psychological novel than a gory sort of ghost story but the best ghost stories often are. It is the suggestion of the ghost which creates the most suspense and there is a genuine sense of unease throughout the novel which Paver manages to keep up all the way through.

What I also liked is the relationships in the novel which I felt lifted it from the normal, run-of-mill ghost story into something really interesting. The tense relationships between Jack and his fellow explorers - Gus and Algie being the main ones and Gus in particular- and Jack's relationship with the husky Isaak which is finely portrayed and the most warming part in a very chilly novel!

When a group of friends set off on an exploration of the Arctic, eager for adventure, they are oblivious to the danger and darkness they face ahead.

You are invited to read Jack's diary, a young man whose luck turns when he is offered the life changing experience of wireless operator which he sees as an opportunity to make a name for himself.

When unfortunate events start forcing the others to abandon the expedition Jack finds himself with the difficult choice of abandoning the trip or staying behind to face whatever is walking among them.

Sounds like a great premise doesn't it? An Arctic winter, an era when communications were basic, something unknown walking around the camp, in the endless days of darkness. Enough to give you Goosebumps before reading the first page but does the story live up the hype?

Well, it would apart from one major problem. You end up not really caring about the main character, Jack. His bitterness of everything from what he perceives as the others not liking him, mainly because he is poor, to complaining he is poor and resenting the easy lives he perceives the others of having. Why they bothered taking him on the trip is beyond me. So if you can get over this dislike of Jack you might be able to enjoy him shudder and shake at every shadow in the dark. Hash, aren't I?

There is one saving grace about this book, the description of living a lonely existence in the Arctic winter is both chilling and atmospheric, so much so you will start feeling the cold yourself. Yet it has to be mentioned that the ghost story itself is slightly predictable. Even in the 1930's, when your weather-beaten Captain refuses to drop you off at the spot you requested with no further explanation and a look of horror on his face you must know there is a good reason for it. Perhaps as a modern audience our ghost sensors are mature and we are used to spotting the clues but this is simple `text book' ghost story telling you wouldn't expect from this novel.

Nevertheless, its a good story to keep you company over a couple of dark evenings even if it is just to experience being left alone through an Arctic winter. If it hadn't been for the obvious ghost story this book would have received an `excellent' instead of a simple `good.'

The set-up for this ghost story is economical and effective - a working class young man drawn onto a polar expedition with three upper-class gentleman explorers. The sense of dread builds slowly through throwaway comments and strange events recorded in diary format. Several bits were really quite chilling, and the silent figure whom the protagonist witnesses in Gruhuken reminds one very much of The Woman in Black or The Turn of the Screw. The descriptions of the Arctic landscape are superb. My only quibble is that this is a very short book which felt slightly rushed: the protagonist's psychology hints at much rich texture which is unexplored - his past, his sexuality - and there was room for plenty more scares before the slightly anti-climactic denouement. It was a shame that the author had to abandon the diary format near the end - the impression was that she couldn't make the narrative work while sticking to it, and so had to withdraw from the established narrative structure. The epilogue diary entry had me expecting a final twist that never came. Still, despite these minor issues, I really enjoyed Dark Matter.