Hooked on Books

"Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog. Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone. One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness. Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him."

"Dismissing Noah's warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther. When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination. Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves."

I have a huge thing for books with cold weather settings like the Artic or Antarctica so I've been really excited about reading this book. Unfortunately though it wasn't as enjoyable as I was hoping for. The first half was very slow and lacking in suspense, and it took me all week to trudge through it. The second half had a lot more action but I didn't care for the

plot turn the story took. The ending also wasn't very satisfying. It felt rushed and it didn't tie up a lot of the loose ends and questions I had.

As for all of the characters that we were introduced to, including the main character, Noah, I really only liked Connor. Sometimes I could relate to Noah's character but then other times he came across as meek and spineless and I just wanted to yell - 'Stand up for yourself please!'

What I did enjoy about the story though was the shipboard atmosphere and the cold climate setting. No I never felt the foreboding feeling and

I never felt the terror I was hoping for but I was able to feel the crews' plight of being stranded in the middle of ice as far as you can see.

The story had all of the ingredients for a good horror novel but, in my opinion it just didn't quite pull it off. 

*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Tor Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

**I read this for my 2016 Halloween Bingo: ~It was a Dark & Stormy Night~ square