*This blog was first published by myself on the Before We Go Blog site*
My Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Book Blurb from Goodreads
A deserted shipwreck off the coast of Iceland holds terrors and dark secrets in this chilling horror novel from the author of The Lighthouse Witches.
The year is 1901, and Nicky is attacked, then wakes on board the Ormen, a whaling ship embarked on what could be its last voyage. With land still weeks away, it’s just her, the freezing ocean, and the crew – and they’re all owed something only she can give them…
Now, over one hundred years later, the wreck of the Ormen has washed up on the forbidding, remote coast of Iceland. It’s scheduled to be destroyed, but explorer Dominique feels an inexplicable pull to document its last days, even though those who have ventured onto the wreck before her have met uncanny ends.
Onboard the boat, Dominique will uncover a dark past riddled with lies, cruelty, and murder—and her discovery will change everything. Because she’ll soon realize she’s not alone. Something has walked the floors of the Ormen for almost a century. Something that craves revenge.
My Review of A Haunting in the Arctic
This book is told in several different timelines – the past, which centers around Nicky, the daughter of the owner of the shipping company. A mid-timeline, which shows the researchers that were aboard the ship. Then we have Dominique, who is determined to document the Ormen, the ghost ship, before it is scuttled by the Coast Guard.
Nicky’s story, well, that was sometimes rough to navigate through. It seemed a little jumpy sometimes. However, she is attacked in the park, and brought aboard the Ormen, bound to be a Selkie wife for the men aboard the boat. It is just a nice way of saying that they can use her whenever they want. She is determined to escape, and when that fails, determined to seek revenge upon those who degraded and abused her.
Dominique seems rather damaged, and that story is not fully explained. While the memories seem to float in and out, there seems to be more to her than the readers are first given insight into. When three other explorers join her, she seems on edge, not sure if she can trust them or not. The more she stays around them, the more her fears grow.
While this was an interesting read, there were sometimes some confusions around the timelines, which the reader has to go back and figure out where they are. The researchers who disappeared, there could have been more there, and less on the degredations that Nicky endured. For a whaling ship, it seemed that they were not super interested in catching them, as its mentioned almost in passing that they get one. There were also some nature features that did not seem to really fit the location of the book.
Overall, it was a decent read, but reader beware if you have any triggers. There are several which are floated throughout the text.
