This book reminds me of my childhood. When I was around the age of the main character, Sym, I also had an obsession with Antarctica. Just like Sym, I had a shelf full of “ice books.” I read everything I could about Scott’s failed attempt to reach the South Pole in the early 1900s. Also like Sym, I was more comfortable with my imagination than with real people. It’s eerie to find a fictional character who is so similar to fourteen-year-old me.

Sym is obsessed with Antarctica, so she is thrilled when her uncle takes her on a surprise trip to this frozen wasteland. What she doesn’t know is that her uncle also has an obsession. He believes that there is a hole in Antarctica that leads to the center of the Earth. He’ll do anything to find the hole, even if it puts Sym’s life in danger. Once in Antarctica, the only person who Sym can fully trust is her imaginary boyfriend, Titus Oates.

This book is intense and beautifully written. It’s a survival story with amazing descriptions of Antarctica. You’re never sure which characters to trust because they all have selfish motives for being so far from home. They’ll even resort to murder to get what they want. By the end of the book, you can’t even trust Sym because the cold and sensory deprivation of Antarctica makes her hallucinate. I couldn’t stop reading this story. I had to find out how Sym would survive.

Sym is a slightly frustrating character because she’s very naïve, and the other characters manipulate her easily, but she’s still a realistic fourteen-year-old. She’s hearing-impaired and not comfortable with herself or her body. A lot of teenagers could probably relate to her.

My second-favorite character—after Sym—is Titus. The concept of an imaginary boyfriend is awesome. I haven’t read many books about characters who have imaginary friends. Titus has a dry sense of humor and jokes about his own death. He gives Sym the courage to keep going whenever she wants to give up.

I like Sym and Titus, but a few of the other characters are over-the-top. They’re a little cartoonish and unrealistic. I especially feel this way about Uncle Victor. I liked him more at the end of the book than at the beginning, but he still doesn’t seem like a real person. He’s a caricature of a mad scientist.

My only other criticism is about the pacing. The book gets repetitive in the middle because Sym spends a lot of time wandering aimlessly around Antarctica. I think the book could have been shorter. The repetitiveness makes it lose some of its intensity.

The relationship between Sym and Titus is intriguing, and the setting of this book is one of the more interesting settings I’ve come across in young adult fiction. If you like survival stories, you’ll probably enjoy The White Darkness.

This review can also be found at: Blogger & Goodreads.

Where do I start, it should come to no surprise to me that this sequel wasn't going to be very good, yet somehow it was a surprise. Strange I know, but there is a logic to this. For me the surprising bit was the fact that the story went in a whole different direction.

"Something is wrong in Neverland. Dreams are leaking out-strangely real dreams, of pirates and mermaids, of warpaint and crocodiles. For Wendy and the Lost Boys it is a clear signal-Peter Pan needs their help, and so it is time to do the unthinkable and fly to Neverland again. But back in Neverland, everything has changed-and the dangers they find there are far beyond their dreams. . ."

From reading the blurb I got the impression that they would return and would have to possibly fight to bring back Neverland, but this wasn't the case. The story was completely different, they end up going on hunt following Peter to find Hooks treasure. For me this is the biggest disappointment, the idea is a good one, and original too. But I found it so strange that instead of fighting a new foe we're going on a treasure hunt. The children are now grown adults and the only way to return to Neverland is by turning themselves back into children, logically, this is a great example of the stories originality.

Once there they do forget why they have returned and soon follow Peter in his games, who is clearly a different Peter from the one we met. There is so much potential to this book but it's wasted, even the journey the take is a bit boring, yes things happen but it's like the story is going nowhere fast. There is also an introduction to a new character but I guessed who they were soon after meeting. I tried to enjoy this as best I could but it was hard, there were a few interesting parts and ideas like what happens to Lost Boys once they defy Peter and grow up and the fact we explore more of Neverland, which you think would be great as it's new places to discover but it's not enough. Even the character change in Peter isn't enough to make this interesting, the gang just follow him anyway.

Happy reading.

xx