This was an interesting book. I'm torn about what to think about--I certainly didn't love it, but I didn't hate it and the ending was actually pretty good. But if nothing else, it kept me on my toes! Thanks to @bookishfirst and #publerati for the early copy!
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Quick recap: White guy historian/explorer decides to visit The Edge (basically the edge of land in the Arctic) because he pretended he'd been and someone calls him out. Things go horribly wrong and he finally has an adventure of his own like the type he writes about.
*This does a really good job at portraying an unlikeable character. Nothing about the main character is sugar coated, he's a terrible person throughout. But it did make him interesting. I was 100% rooting for his ice floe to sink but I did find him intriguing.
*
I liked the adventure aspect, what the main character does for survival (which he happens to know because that's his life work -- writing about how others survived or didn't in the arctic.) I liked the Inuit mythology that was woven throughout. I also liked the added twist of the 24-hour sun and how that messed with his head. I was not sure about the talking animals at first, but they definitely grew on me.
*
My negatives were that it was a very slow start--the first third of the book is irrelevant for the plot and only needed for character development--and the fact that I wanted the main character to be eaten by a seal. (But that shows I was connecting with the book at least!)
*
Quick recap: White guy historian/explorer decides to visit The Edge (basically the edge of land in the Arctic) because he pretended he'd been and someone calls him out. Things go horribly wrong and he finally has an adventure of his own like the type he writes about.
*This does a really good job at portraying an unlikeable character. Nothing about the main character is sugar coated, he's a terrible person throughout. But it did make him interesting. I was 100% rooting for his ice floe to sink but I did find him intriguing.
*
I liked the adventure aspect, what the main character does for survival (which he happens to know because that's his life work -- writing about how others survived or didn't in the arctic.) I liked the Inuit mythology that was woven throughout. I also liked the added twist of the 24-hour sun and how that messed with his head. I was not sure about the talking animals at first, but they definitely grew on me.
*
My negatives were that it was a very slow start--the first third of the book is irrelevant for the plot and only needed for character development--and the fact that I wanted the main character to be eaten by a seal. (But that shows I was connecting with the book at least!)