The Arctic Fury

"I liked the resilience of the female characters in this, and the parts that take place in the arctic are interesting. However until maybe the last 2 chapters the courtroom scenes are excruciating - every one of them is the same and they grind all plot momentum to a halt. I also found Virginia’s connection to a different historical event kind of stupid and unnecessary. Overall a solid 3/5."

"January - Arctic - Alaska"

"This was a really hard book for me to rate. There were parts of it I loved, but other parts I sort of hated in equal measure.<br/><br/>The Arctic expedition chapters were interesting and while some actions the characters took were ridiculous they were at least understandable. The characters were mostly great though I wish they were developed more. Some of the diversity elements were handled well and some were not - I thought the Black characters were competently written and did the best they could with what they were handed but the gay character was written in a really weird way and while the trans character herself was fine, the way she was written required another character to "become" a trans man against her will which is certainly A Choice in today’s political climate.<br/><br/>I loved the last courtroom chapter but every single other courtroom chapter was boring and repetitive and could have been replaced with a short "court transcript" without losing anything of value.<br/><br/>The author clearly did a lot of research and feels fondly toward the people the characters are based on. There is one connection that the main character has with a separate historical event (I won't spoil it) which felt kind of sensational and unnecessary, and the ultimate scheme behind everything that was happening was way too convoluted.<br/><br/>On the whole I'm happy I read it but it's kind of hard to recommend."

"Oh man, can't believe nobody has commented on this yet. Ah, well #firstcommentdance for me! This book is a nicely written half-adventure half-legal drama that features a wilderness explorer whose Expedition to the Arctic goes horribly wrong. It's really good. "

"This is barely short of a 5 star read for me, though honestly I loved it so much I’m tempted to bump it up just because. This is absolutely everything I love about historical fiction; the author created an entirely fictional story, but based it in so much historical fact that it was believable. I could very easily imagine the real life counterparts of each of these women, even if a women-led expedition to the Arctic never happened.<br/><br/>This book also happened to combine some of my more obscure historical interests into a single novel, and I really appreciated that aspect. I watched a horror anthology on AMC called The Terror a few years back, and while it’s another fictional take on the real life Franklin expedition, I highly recommend watching as it captures the same feeling of isolation and hostility that comes with being so far from civilization. I also happen to be a long time student of Oregon Trail history, so much so that I physically walked a part of the remaining trail a few months ago. The fact that the author could take two completely separate historical events but match up the timelines so seamlessly is incredible to me. <br/><br/>Ultimately, the key between the two historical events highlighted in the novel is survival against all odds. I think reading this put my 2020 experience into a much needed perspective, and as a result I want to go back and read more of this author’s work. Also, I love reading cold weather books in a warm home!"