 A stranded Antarctic exploration crew have If you are after a wintery and atmospheric read to cuddle up to with a nice hot cup of cocoa (or something stronger) then All The White Spaces, the debut novel of Ally Wilkes, is an arduous journey worth undertaking. Predominately set in the Antarctic and surrounding regions south of the Falkland Islands, the author does a fine job of bringing this desolate region to life, coupled with the daily threats nature brings. She also weaves a fascinating supernatural story around a group of sailor explorers who get stranded in the middle of nowhere who realise the bad weather, which is only going to get worse, is not the only danger. I guarantee by the time you are halfway through this meaty atmospheric 600 pager you will be feeling the same frostbite the characters are beginning to suffer from. The story is set during a incredible period in history, shortly after the end of the First World War, where the spectre of the trenches is never far away with many of the characters damaged by loss, impacted by shellshock or haunted by atrocities they caused or had inflicted upon themselves. This was one of the most effective themes of All The White Spaces, the war never dominated the story, but bubbled away in the background as the haunted characters struggling to move on with their lives. Or if they were running away, was there any further away places to hide than Antarctica? Everybody has ghosts lurking in their pasts and in this absorbing story they are more than metaphorical. The novel begins in 2018 with a powerful sequence when teenage girl Jo and her mother open a letter which reveals that both her elder brothers, whom she hero worshipped, were dead. With her family broken, the young woman dreams of escape and exploration, and within a few pages is stowed away on a ship destined for the Southern Hemisphere aided by family friend Harry, who served with her brothers. Her final destination is the expeditionary ship of her hero, the world-famous explorer, James “Australis” Randall and the opportunity of starting her life again, almost from scratch. From the moment Jo Morgan stows away she becomes known as Jonathan and going forward is continually referred to as a man, with the novel written in the first person. I know nothing of how trans-men lived in this period of history but found it difficult to swallow how easily Jo/Jonathan hid the fact that she was a biological woman, considering the fact that she would be living in very close quarters with men for very long periods. All The White Spaces does not particularly make gender a major issue of the story, and perhaps it should have done more with it, things like (not) shaving are explained away with cursory mentions. It only genuinely comes up with Harry’s attraction to Jo/Jonathan, but as the novel is written in the first person, Jo/Jonathan sees himself as a man and in his own eyes is living as his true gender and is having the adventures which he would have been almost certainly denied as a woman. As the novel moved on I kept expecting this to play a significant part in the plot but it never did and considering it was 600-pages this was strange. The gender issue had the potential to make All The White Spaces different from other exploration novels instead it seems to duck the issue failing to merit this complex issue the page time it deserved. It is hard to talk about All The White Spaces without referencing the Dan Simmons masterpiece The Terror and it would be unfair to compare a debut novelist with one of the most revered novels of the last twenty years. However, comparisons are inevitable and although Ally Wilkes falls short of the 944-page stone-cold classic she can hold her head high, as even though she covers much of the same frozen ground (but different Polar regions) her novel is equally atmospheric, has a great collection of characters, an exceptional eye for detail and manoeuvres her supernatural story in a completely different direction. Her creation has more in common with the paranoia in John Carpenter’s The Thing than the snow beast in the Dan Simmons novel. Whilst The Terror has multiple story strands and more than one voyage to justify its huge page length, All The White Spaces has one narrative and one character voice and could have done with shedding some of its 600-pages. After a point it became repetitive, with the characters snowbound and stuck in the middle of nowhere, with even the supernatural entity’s appearance becoming slightly samey. To be brutal, not enough happened to justify such a girthy page length and a very good ghost story became lost somewhere in the Antarctic snow. Some of the promotional material make interesting comparisons to Michelle Paver’s Thin Air, another snowbound ghost story, the difference being the Paver story is a lean 200-pages. I am not saying for a moment this novel needs to shed 400-pages, but it was just too long for what the final product merited. Building a convincing ghost story against the backdrop of the golden age of polar exploration was a clever idea and was beautifully executed with the shadow of the First World War adding even more potence with its long and painful shadow. I loved the way that as disaster struck in the frozen Weddell Sea the sailors were seeking a German ship which disappeared earlier, knowing full well that the Germans might not realise that the war was over and could potentially attack them. The cabin fever which comes with the isolation and slowly developing supernatural story laced with paranoia was also skilfully handled as the sailors all begin to see their own ghosts and manifestations of guilt. This was not the horrific beast of The Terror, but instead was a much more personal horror which preyed on their deepest desires and fears. The strengths of All The White Spaces greatly outweigh any issues and the novel provides many points to debate, particularly how the gender issue is presented, and I am sure some readers will disagree with my earlier assumptions. For a debut attempt this was a very ambitious novel and I will be interested to see whether Ally Wilkes sticks with horror rooted in historical periods, as there is definitely a market for it, as Alma Katsu as shown, when it is delivered as authentically as this. Tony Jones ALL THE WHITE SPACES ALLY WILKES A vivid ghost story exploring identity, gender and selfhood, set against the backdrop of the golden age of polar exploration. Perfect for fans of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights and Michelle Paver’s Thin Air. In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men. Aboard the expeditionary ship of his hero, the world-famous explorer James “Australis” Randall, Jonathan may live as his true self―and true gender―and have the adventures he has always been denied. But not all is smooth sailing: the war casts its long shadow over them all, and grief, guilt, and mistrust skulk among the explorers. When disaster strikes in Antarctica’s frozen Weddell Sea, the men must take to the land and overwinter somewhere which immediately seems both eerie and wrong; a place not marked on any of their part-drawn maps of the vast white continent. Now completely isolated, Randall’s expedition has no ability to contact the outside world. And no one is coming to rescue them. In the freezing darkness of the Polar night, where the aurora creeps across the sky, something terrible has been waiting to lure them out into its deadly landscape… As the harsh Antarctic winter descends, this supernatural force will prey on their deepest desires and deepest fears to pick them off one by one. It is up to Jonathan to overcome his own ghosts before he and the expedition are utterly destroyed. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE PAPERBACKS FROM HELL: STAGE FRIGHT BY GARRETT BOATMAN THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR REVIEWSComments are closed.
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