I really liked this! Very good scene setting as I reallly thought I was in a research station in the middle of the darkest snowy landscape ever. When she dropped that torch outside!!! OMG. A lot of fun for the reader but not the characters!

There is a main character who pops pills for no apparent reason and seems obsessed talking about them this is true, but ignore that and it's a good thriller. Twisty characters aplenty and although some of them weren't as well formed as I would have liked, the overall picture was a good, dark one.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. This had a great concept, plus a stunning cover had me intrigued. Unfortunately I did find this a rather disappointing and an average read.

This opens with Kate, who arrives at Antarctica following a personal tragedy for a job. She’s desperate to escape her past, which isn’t revealed to the reader immediately. Kate has a scar on her left cheek which draws attention. The man whom she’s taking the job over from leaves suddenly without giving her the fortnightly handover she’d expected. She’s in close quarters with about a dozen other colleagues. But then she finds another person who had the job before died in strange circumstances...and then one by one her colleagues start to vanish...

Part of the problem for me was the characterisation. Her mysterious past wasn’t hard to guess at (if you’ve read or watch many thrillers you’ll know what it is too), yet this isn’t revealed to the reader until well over 80%. Why? Just as a way getting the reader hooked by with-holding information about the protagonist’s past, when it has nothing to do with the current murder storyline. That just didn’t work for me. Also I wasn’t even sure what her job was. Maybe had the author clarified that I would’ve been to have connected with her better. Furthermore there were too many characters to keep track of, and the tension that I was hoping to see between characters in tight spaces wasn’t there. Sadly a lacklustre read for me. 2.5/5

Now, there’s genuinely nothing worse than having high expectations for a book and then not liking it. I have read a few of Emma’s books before so when I received this ARC, I was super excited but this book has all the ingredients for a great thriller but the outcome was flat.

I didn’t like our main character which is probably the biggest problem I had with this book. I think because she irritated me, I couldn’t sympathise with her as much as I wanted to and she had a insane issue with pills that I don’t think was properly addressed.
I also thought the setting was so atmospheric and great. I mean can you imagine being stuck in Antarctica? But I just didn’t feel the thriller aspect as much as I wanted to. I also thought the entire plot needed more thought. I found too many inconsistencies than I would like liked.
I think Emma’s writing is great though which is why this book isn’t one star. I definitely don’t think this is her best book (despite the beautiful cover) and I would recommend any other book of hers.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love a closed-room mystery - and what room is more closed than an Antarctic research station? The best bit about this novel is the setting, and the best writing is in service of describing the landscape and the atmosphere. These sections are scattered refreshingly throughout the whole book, and do not get tiresome in the way that some scene-setting does.

Sadly, the story that's set in this fantastic environment is ... lackluster. The characterisation is all over the place - having finished the novel, I still don't fully understand the motivation of the antagonist. "They're a psychopath" doesn't really cut it. The narrator is bafflingly mercurial, the 'where shall my suspicions fall next?' set pieces heavy and repetitive. This is very much a thriller by numbers, where the numbers can barely be bothered to shuffle into order.

Having said that, I did really like the pregnancy storyline - although it's heavy on the melodrama, I did get enjoyably caught up in the suspense.

My thanks to Hodder & Staughton and NetGalley for the ARC.

A spin on the classic whodunnit. This book literally gave me heart palpitations. I kept wondering what would happen. This is a great mystery. I highly recommend it.

The Dark is a really good read overall, atmospheric, chilling and the kind of claustrophobic setting that makes for a great thriller.

The writing is very good indeed at times actually making you shiver within the descriptive setting and the mystery element is very clever, a locked in set of suspects, a lot of twists and turns and very addictive.

I unfortunately had one huge (very subjective and personal) bugbear that prevented me being able to give a 5* review whilst also remaining honest. The main protagonist and her pill pushing obsession. Every page it felt like she was either swallowing pills, thinking about where her next pill was coming from, worrying about the pills, which of course makes her head fuzzy, unable to react sensibly which leads her to constantly berate herself which then well more pills. It drove me completely potty! And oh gosh haven't we been there and done that with oh so many psychological thrillers?

BUT that aside I can see why The Dark will and should do well. The chilly setting, the creepy ambience and the engaging story should please a majority of readers