The White Darkness

Stark and sublime

This book was not 'easy' to read, but the suspense and grittiness and even romance kept me entranced and just as I was about to be disappointed in the ending, the author threw in a little twist that left me with a smile on my face and a happy heart. Very satisfying read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Abound with Ice and Snow

Sym, the narrator, told this novel in a down-to-earth way and I enjoyed her spritzes of dark humor. The author Geraldine McCaughrean used excellent imagery so Sym's thoughts were crystal clear. Her tale of traveling in the snowy void of Antarctica with her eccentric Uncle Victor was an engaging one, that had more than a few well-defined and outrageous characters. Sym's active imagination was something that I especially noticed since few people have great imaginations nowadays I grew very fond of her charming companion, Titus Oates, who turned out to be more than just a figment after all. I was able to easily identify with Sym's self-doubt and reluctance to mingle. What started out as just a harmless jaunt to the South Pole with her uncle turned into a fruitless quest to find Symmes's Hole which just as quickly turned into a nightmarish fight for survival against the elements and just-as-unpredictable humans. This terrifying tale had me hanging on every last ice-frosted word!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

check it out

From the beginning, the story follows a teenaged Sym who ends up on a surprise trip to Antarctica with her polar obsessed Uncle Victor. The flaky uncle would raise red flags for anyone right away but it is Sym's self professed love for doomed Antarctic explorer Lawrence "Titus" Oates. Initially Sym is just like any other kid with a dead father, overwhelmed mother and rather pushy relative (who it turns out is really only a relative in that "old family friend" kind of way). Titus is her imaginary friend but even that makes some kind of sense; from her own reading she has known about his part in Robert Scott's final doomed South Pole expedition for quite awhile. But while watching DVDs of The Last Place on Earth alone one night she became captivated by the story, particularly one element of it. "And there, at the heart of it, was Captain Oates” Sym and Oates were an inseparable "couple" from that point on. Sym's rather quirky affectation of "talking" to the explorer (something she knows enough to keep to herself), becomes of deadly importance after she and Uncle Victor embark on their Antarctic cruise. After their tour group finds itself in more and more dire circumstances, (all for very mysterious reasons) Victor reveals that he has long ago succumbed to a myth of his own. It turns out that Sym's know–it–all uncle is a follower of John Symmes's hollow Earth theory. (This revelation is when our heroine's name starts to make a horrible amount of sense.) Victor thinks there is a lot more going on underground in Antarctica than above and he is determined to prove it in a very big way. Sym finds herself literally dragged along for the ride as Victor maneuvers them further and further away from civilization looking for his hole in the ground. It is only Titus Oates who sticks with her, refusing to give up; it is only Oates who convinces Sym that survival is even possible. The deeper she travels into the continent's interior as part of her uncle's twisted dream, the more Sym finds herself disappearing into the real life of Titus Oates in her mind. It's an old trick; something she has done before when overwhelmed with problems in her life. "Sometimes when I need to get further away than usual," she thinks, "I'm Florence Chambers." Chambers was a young woman Oates met only briefly but apparently carried a flame for until his death. As a different Florence, one who eloped with Oates, Sym imagines changing history, she considers sharing a real life with Oates as the kind of woman he would have loved: "And I ride on the back of Titus's motorbike, and look after his pet deer and exercise his horse in the cool, misty mornings, and afterward we curry the sweat from its flanks, the horse in parentheses between us, our arms mirroring each other as we brush, the tail, splashing us each in turn, amid a smell of saddle soap and straw, because if Titus were ever to love a woman, it wouldn't be anyone helpless or feeble who cried for want of an airplane or out of fright and couldn't make her legs stop shaking or keep her wits about her or marshal her facts; it wouldn't be anyone like that; it wouldn't be anyone like that; no one like that." The myth of Oates's strength on that last horrific march back from the Pole is what Sym needs to provide comfort on her own dangerous journeys, her own difficult adolescent moments. She remembers also the Brontë sisters who ". .

Amazing!

So, I will say that at some areas in the book, it really slows down and gets a smige boring. But, then it picks right back up again and you simply CANNOT put it down. I found the small, short relationship between Sigurd and Sym to catch my attention and it helped keep the story interesting. Some minor swears DEFINETLY caught my attention and they gave everything a more relaxed feel in some moments, compared to the historical references. If you aren't familiar with Scott's expedition, read the postscript in the back first, so you aren't totally lost. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a decent adventure/action novel.

A Great adventure story-you'll be suprised

The White Darkness (By Geraldine McCaughrean) : is a mysterious, surprising, and adventurous story about a young girl named Sym and her trip to the Antarctic. Sym is whisked away from school, her mother and all responsibilities by her Uncle. At first she was thrilled to be taking a trip the Antarctic, it was a land she had a fond and vast knowledge of. Sym soon learns about her Uncle Victor's hidden agenda with the trip and with her, as he tries to find Symmes hole ( a hole that he was convinced lead to an inner part of the world). Sym ends up finding out many secrets in her life by the end of the story, as she tries to survive the Antarctic looking for Symmes hole.
While the story has many eventful twists and turns that keeps you on your feet, it also has parts where pages would go on, yet nothing seems to be getting accomplished. Sym would be in a difficult situation and go on thinking about miscellaneous subjects, yet the plot was not advancing and as a reader I was not entertained, I wanted to get on with the story. The white darkness has an interesting ( just not always upbeat) story line. If you enjoy being really involved with the main character to the point when you know their thoughts even then there isn't a point to them, and you have patience, you will enjoy this book. If your looking for non-stop action novel with a clear plot this would not be a story I would suggest. I give it 3.5 starts out of 5.

Not Worth the Time

The White Darkness is a long drawn out read with little to offer. It took about half the book to get to the story, only to have a disappointing ending. I found the book predictable as I was reading and more so as it went on. I think the mystery villain was obvious, as I figured out what he had done in the third chapter. I kept waiting for something to happen that was unexpected, something that would allow the book to redeem itself. I was disappointed. Then when the book ends, you don't have any resolution. You follow the heroine through a harrowing experience with out solving the problem. The history that the book mention was interesting but only if you are interested in the Antarctic. However I did like the invisible friend who helps her keep things in perspective. I thought he was interesting and fun. All in all I would not recommend this book.

The White Darkness

McCaughrean, G. (2007). The White Darkness. New York: HarperTempest.

ISBN: 0060890355



This Printz award winner was first published in England in 2005 by British author Geraldine McCaughrean. This beautiful and challenging read takes readers and fourteen-year-old Simone on an unexpected and arduous odyssey to Antarctica. The 373 page novel features wonderful characterizations, from the masterfully depicted insanity of one character, to the betrayal of a love interest and then to the well-researched portrayal of the historic figure of Captain Oates as an imagined friend and coping mechanism.

The novel features references to Greek myths, historic facts and some works of literature that McCaughrean has delved into before in her previous writings.

This book is challenging not only due to its use of vocabulary, but also because of the dangerous quest naïve Simone is recruited to make. About midway through my reading of the book, I found myself asking, "Is it over yet? Please let this end." but at the same time, I did not want it to end.



Activities to do with the book:

Research projects on Antarctica, Antarctic explorers, paranoia, coping mechanisms, antibiotics, pollution, Symmes's Theory etc.

Dramatic inquiry with visiting the Antarctic.



Favorite Quotes:

"I have been in love with Titus Oates for quote a while now-which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead, too, and then the age difference won't matter" (p. 1).

"I'm planning on being older in a year or two" (p. 363).

For more of my reviews, visit sjkessel.blogspot.com.

Great Book Kept Me Reading

Book Review on A White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean This book has a unique plot filled with suspense and action. The book was well written and I was reading it for hours at a time. Overall I would say it was an interesting book and I would suggest it to anyone who likes adventures. Summary In the book the main character is Sym. Sym is a normal high school girl who gets good grades and a victim of bullies. Right before exams Sym¿s uncle takes her on a trip to Paris, this trip however ends up later in Antarctica with a bunch of tourists, her uncle however had other plans for them. Before Sym could say anything she is on a journey into the middle of the Antarctic. She has to battle fierce winds and subzero climate to survive. This book contained very good suspense and ¿out of the box¿ thoughts and actions. When a son turns out just to be an actor it was very surprising. Later a scam set up to kill and take the money from tourists was the father and actor¿s plan all along. The actor who pretends to love Sym was something that I had never expected to happen. This book overall was a well balanced book. Geraldine McCaughrean has written this book in just that way that made me not want to put the book down. She created a huge rising action and shocking downfall. If I could only take one book with me somewhere this book would defiantly be in my top ten choices.

Antartic gone wrong

The White Darkness By, Geraldine McCaughrean I did not like the book, The White Darkness. I thought the book would be a great adventure story however, it focused more on the main characters obsession with an Antarctic explorer who had been dead for 90 years. Symone, or Sym, as she is called grew up with a father and uncle who were obsessed with Antarctic exploration. She was knowledgeable about all the explorers but had an obsession with Captain Titus Oates who had died in the Antarctic 90 years ago. Sym has ¿conversations¿ with him about her life¿s problems. Sym gets the opportunity to go to Antarctica with her uncle but her adventure begins to unravel as her uncle seems to have some mental issues and puts their lives in danger. The book continues with a struggle for survival not just in the wilderness but with each other. The White Darkness is a strange book. Sym is a strange girl. Her father dies of some unknown mental illness. Her uncle wants to risk her life in the Antarctic so he can reach his summit as an explorer. The characters all have some sort of mental issues. Sym is obsessed with a dead explorer. She comments in the beginning of the book, ¿I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now ¿ which is unusual since he has been dead for ninety years. We talk about things.¿ Then as Sym embarks on her trip across the Antarctic, she has a conversation with the dead Oates in which Oates says, ¿I won¿t come on that one¿.I went once before and I didn¿t enjoy it.¿ Obviously, Sym has some mental issues that a dead explorer is talking back to her. In addition, her uncle is willing to sacrifice Sym¿s life to reach his destination within the Antarctic. Sym states, ¿I thought Uncle Victor loved me. But he only wants to drop me in a hole in the ground¿part of his great obsession.¿ The plot of the book has an adventurous theme. Sym and her Uncle Victor are on his quest to reach a summit in Antarctica, called Symmes Hole. Their attempts to reach this location and survive in such a harsh wilderness are exciting. The authors style of writing when describing the adventure of it all keeps the readers attention. Her descriptions of the Antarctic make it easy to visualize. However, I found it hard to follow when the author writes the conversations between Sym and the dead explorer Oates. I found it all to be too weird. The characters were ¿crazy¿. I believe the author¿s message is that everyone needs someone to talk to. In Sym¿s case it is a dead explorer. She could ¿talk¿ to him about her fight to survive in the dangerous Antarctic and share her feelings about her dangerous uncle. This book, although an adventure, has characters who would risk their own family¿s lives to achieve a goal and who talk to dead explorers. I would only recommend it to people who can relate to those who talk to ¿imaginary friends¿. I give it a rating of ¿strange¿ on a scale of normal to weird.

White Darkness Book Review

September 8, 2008 Section 08 ¿ Plath The White Darkness ¿The White Darkness¿ was different, not in the exciting way but dull and depressing. It is not a fun loving book, not adventuress in any way for me. The story is about this girl who is hard of hearing and she loves Antarctica. The main character has a dead Antarctic explorer in her head like an imaginary person. Things start to go wrong while in Antarctica, Sym the main character with her Uncle Victor are in search of a hole that leads into the inner layers of the Earth. There is deceit among the group that is also with Sym and her Uncle on the trip. The fight for fame or survival is at risk. The book was not ¿bad¿ or ¿good¿ or even ¿boring¿ it was just not in my interest to read it. The reason I read it was because when I read the description on the book I found it the least depressing out of all the other choices. The only moments I can think of from the book that relate to this are when Sym is being taken away from Antarctica and she says that she will never return and that she never wants to read or hear about this place ever again. The plot was not the way I expected it to be, it really wasn¿t the way the summary described the book. The author¿s style of writing was interesting because he wrote it from the main characters point of view while she was telling the story when the story had already happened. The characters were simple, not too much crazy backgrounds for their lives. The message I received was don¿t go there its cold and miserable and bad things happen to people. I did not enjoy this book that much but the audience who it would attract to would probably be the ones experiencing the ¿not fitting in with other people.¿ The rating is just my opinion be free to express yours in a comment.

Fabulous and Unique

This has to be one of the most interesting and thought provoking books i've read in a long time. The fabulous writing style of mccaughrean kept me eagerly turning page after page well past 3 in the morning. Although hesitant over the prospect of reading another tale about arctic adventure, (i've read a series with the same jist)i was happily surprised to find that White Darkness was so much more than that, revovling much more around deeper themes like betrayal, love and impossible hope, opposed to the shallow plot of just another adventure. A great read for anyone!

Very Different

This book, The White Darkness, is something very different from what I'm used to reading. Sometimes, while I was reading, I'd have to go back and re-read passages because I wasn't getting the jist of it: The British dialect and writing isn't something I'm used to. Normally, I would've given this book 4 stars but since it was quite creative and unusual how the author wrote about Antartica (something I've never even dreamed of having interest in) I gave it 5.

Ummm, what?

This book was good, I guess, but I couldnt finish it. The action was confusing, and I don't like the way it was written. I suppose the concept and plot was good, but I couldnt finish the last hundred or so pages simply because I had better things to read. Sym, the main character, was frustrating in her naivete and stupidness. It was confusing and boring, like most award winners.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

the best

this book was awsome. I ursaly don't read books like this , but this one really pulled me in .

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