Is it a cliché to say 'this book is creepy as hell and kept me up all night?' Yes, Does that make it any less true of Ally Wilkes' stunningly atmospheric, creeping-dread-filled debut All The White Spaces? Absolutely not! It's almost 2am here and I am exhausted, having spent night after night telling myself I'd read 'just a chapter or two' before bed, only to look up and discover it's almost 3am. Beautifully crafted horror with a compelling cast of characters, a chillingly vivid setting and a plot that grips you, vice-like, and pulls your mind on a terrifying journey will do that, though, won't it?

Set just after World War II, All the White Spaces follows Jonathan Morgan - a young trans man still reeling from the loss of his two beloved older brothers, In an attempt to honour his brothers' memory - and to find his own way outside of his parents' expectations -, Jonathan convinces family friend Harry to help him stows away on an Antarctic expedition, led by his brothers' hero Lord Randall. But, of course, disaster strikes and the crew find themselves stranded in the vast, frozen no man's land, with no hope of rescue, dwindling supplies and - soon enough - a very dwindling number of men. Because there's something ghost-like lurking beneath the Aurora Borealis and, under its influence, there's no telling who Jonathan can trust. Not even himself...

I was utterly absorbed remarkable historical horror - which somehow manages to tackles themes of grief, family, gender identity and the vey real gruesomeness of war, all while creating an atmosphere of slow-burning dread which build to a fast-paced and nightmarish climax in the final chapters, Jonathan's distress over the loss of his brothers is more than a catalyst for adventure - it hangs over every scene, genuine and increasingly heart-wrenching as the horror builds.

I absolutely adored this book although, maybe, don't read it too late at night (or actually do, it doesn't matter.. It's going to keep you awake either way).

There were elements of this book that I really enjoyed particularly in the first half of the book ,I loved the fact that the narrator of the story was a trans man which at the time the book was set just after the First World War was very unusual .Their difficulties accepting life as an Edwardian woman was described beautifully .Growing up with 2 older adored male siblings being lost in the final stages of war just when it seemed they were safe and coming home it was clear from the start that Jo was struggling
I loved the early descriptions of the boat journey down to the Antarctic with a male family friend .The scene is set for something not being quite right with the trip early on
Once in the Antarctic and suffering from i cold isolation and the other worldly southern lights of the aurora borealis the book is at times terrifying and exciting
My one negative comment was that I felt the spooky second 2/3 of the book was a bit repetitive.I usually read is book in one setting but I felt I needed to put this one down and come back to it to appreciate it fully .I personally would have liked less of this part of the book and would have enjoyed it more
I loved the section in the ice crevice very scary and sad

An Antarctic expedition, at the close of the first world war, goes horrifically awry and untold horrors are revealed in this historical horror novel.

I appreciated how slow the horrifying elements this contained were to appear and how the reader was intimately introduced to the characters and this world first. I felt I understood ship life, the placement for each individual, and their interpersonal relationships well enough so that any initial confusion was waylaid long before the insidious elements were drip-fed into the novel.

I also highly appreciated all that occurring between and around each scene that was presented to the reader. Much was inferred about cultural and societal expectations, largely regarding gender, and many struggles were faced by these characters when they refused to be defined by these narrow margins or packaged into these tight boxes. I thought the author focused on these with a grace and sensitivity that never overshadowed the suffering of these character's historical counterparts and allowed their true selves to shine through from the confines of time and these pages.

Absolutely adored this! All The White Spaces is dark, chilling, and wonderfully creepy. Jonathan is a brilliant protagonist who wrapped me completely into his story and his doomed Antarctic adventure; highly recommended.

Wow - put ALL THE WHITE SPACES on your list of next must reads. Truly terrifying! I felt every rising wave and howl of the Antarctic wind. Jonathan is one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve read in ages. Ally does a brilliant job of combining fascinating historic detail with paranormal dread, a truly horrifying monster and a captivating cast of characters.

There are certain places that get used as settings for horror a lot that feel overused, the old abandoned house, the spooky cemetery, the lifeless asylum. Whilst these kinds of places have become a staple of the genre they can often feel difficult to use as there's often a very obvious solution to getting away from the horrors found within; just run away somewhere safe. This is why the places where you can't just run away, for me at least, make for the scarier stories. The depths of the ocean, the vastness of the jungle, and the cold isolation of the Antarctica. When there's nowhere for you to go to get away from the horror, the story becomes so much scarier.

All The White Spaces seems to understand this, as it has all but a handful of scenes at the beginning of the book set in the cold, desolate frozen south, isolating our cast of characters in a place where even the weather is out to kill them.

The story follows Jonathan Morgan, a young trans man whose life is forever changed when he and his parents get the news that his two older brothers, currently away fighting in World War One, aren't coming home ever again. Still forced to hide who he really is, and facing the prospect of being sent to a finishing school to teach him to become a 'proper' young lady, Jonathan reaches out to his friend, and friend of his lost brothers, Harry Cooper to help him.

Together Jonathan and Harry make their way across the world, aiming to meet up with and join the latest Antarctic expedition of the legendary explorer James 'Australis' Randall. Jonathan grew up watching his brothers idolise Randall, always dreaming of joining him on one of his journeys south. Feeling lost in the world, desperate to become his true self, and wanting to feel closer to his brothers, Jonathan decides that sneaking onto the expedition will help him.

Several days into the journey Jonathan is discovered hiding on the ship, and thanks to an impassioned defence, gets the chance to prove himself to the crew. Now he has to show them that he's a capable young man, ready to face the harsh reality of a trip into the darkness of an Antarctic winter. And whilst he does well, winning over the crew and feeling like he's who he's always meant to be, strange things begin to happen on the ship as they journey ever southward. When disaster strikes and the crew is forced to abandon their ship, heading out into the frozen wilderness, things get even worse.

Finding shelter from the oncoming darkness and the bitter cold, the men of the expedition begin to experience strange things; seeing odd figures in the darkness, and hearing the whispers of the dead. Now it's not just the cold and dark of Antarctica that they have to worry about as they desperately try to last out the months of blackness ahead of them.

I'm going to say this straight away, as it's pretty relevant to the review; All The White Spaces is creepy as hell. The atmosphere and slow burn building of tension really make this a scary read. Ally Wilkes does and amazing job at making everything feel like it could be leading to something horrific and haunting; even the most mundane scenes take on a sinister edge. I don't know how they do it, but their ability to make me afraid even when nothing is happening is wonderful. This is a book that's just shy of 600 pages long, one that I thought was going to take me several days to read; but because of how frightening it was, because of how I desperately wanted to find out what was coming next, I ended up devouring in two days.

I think one of the things that kept me reading long after I should have gone to bed was just how well Wilkes crafted their characters. Jonathan is our lead, and the person we spend the most time with, and I very quickly felt that I understood who he was and what was driving him. When we first meet him he's a young man having to hide who he is because he knows that his family wouldn't approve or understand. He hates the way people treat him, the life that's expected of him, and how his entire future is out of his control.

His plan to travel across the world and join a dangerous expedition into the harshness of the Antarctic might seem like a bold, even dangerous decision, but I get it. I completely understand it. He wants to prove to himself, and the world, that he really does know who he is. He's witnessed young men going off to war, proving themselves in the harshest and most awful circumstances; yet he's been unable to do so. So when he finally gets the chance to be himself of course he'd feel like he needs to prove he's just as strong, brave, and capable as everyone else; and this expedition is just the way to do so. The fact that he also feels like it'll help him get closer to his dead brothers is a bonus for him; and whilst he might tell people it's the main reason for his decision I don't think it's the only one.

Harry, Jonathan's only real friend when the book begins, is a complex figure. He lied about his age to go off to war, and has come back a very different person. He wrote to Jonathan whilst he was away, sharing the true horrors and the awful reality of what happened. Whilst Jonathan has still to some degree romanticised what it must have been like Harry has definitely had his life changed by it; having seen some of the worst humanity has to offer. He's been through hell once before, he doesn't really want to have to do so again; yet is willing to do so in order to help and protect Jonathan. Because of this, their friendship is really put to the test, and Harry's sanity is sorely tested when horrors begin to surround them.

Another character who's given a great deal of focus is James Tarlington, the chief science officer on the expedition. For someone with such a lofty title, Tarlington is not the kind of person you'd expect to find in that position. Not only is he fairly young and inexperienced, he's also fresh out of prison for being a conscientious observer. Being on a ship filled with people who fought in the war makes Tarlington a figure fit for derision, hatred, and open hostility. He's bullied by many on the expedition, and made to feel like less of a man. Because of this, and thanks to people automatically blaming him whenever stuff starts to go wrong for the journey, he becomes a character who you're never quite sure if you should trust or not. You begin to wonder if he might actually be out to ruin the expedition, to harm the crew, or perhaps because of the way everyone sees him you've begun to buy into the same hostility and irrational hatred that the crew are spreading. Over the course of the book I found my opinion of Tarlington shifting a lot, and he quickly became one of my favourite characters because of how much he challenged me, and because of the complex nature of my feelings towards him.

Whilst the rest of the expedition don't get the same degree of focus as these characters there is a lot of time to get to know a lot of them, and several characters have moments where they really get to shine. Randall is quickly established as something of a force of nature, a man who's become something of a myth. he uses this status, as well as his years of experience to command respect amongst his men; something that begins to fall apart once the horrors waiting for them begin their manipulations. Liam Clarke, Randall's second in command, is a more level headed man than Randall, one who's been out on the ice countless times before and knows how to keep things together. But his relationship with Randall, and his position within the expedition get pushed to breaking point over the course of the book. I also really liked Robert Macready, the cook, who proved to be a warmhearted man with a lot of wisdom and care to give out. I was also left wondering if his name was a nod to the character from The Thing, one of the best Antarctic horror stories.

With a strong and interesting cast of characters to play with Wilkes could have easily crafted a compelling story or survival and adversity with them. They could have told the story of these people and their struggle to survive the winter and it would have been engrossing enough. However, they also decided to add horror into the mix, and the quiet way that they did this was so much better than what I was expecting. In other horror stories set in frozen locations there tend to be physical threats for the heroes to contend with. There's the titular creature in The Thing, Tuunbaq the spirit bear in The Terror, and In The Mountains of Madness have the Elder Things. As such, I was waiting for some kind of creature to turn up in All The White Spaces.

Whilst I can't for certain tell you what is behind the horrific events that take place in this book (something that I love) I'm pretty sure I can say that it's not a monster. Ghosts, a force of evil, the spirit of Antarctica itself? I don't know what it is, but it's not something that our heroes can physically fight, and that, along with how it haunts and torments people, make it all the more frightening.

There are some moments of overt horror, shadowy figures standing watch, as well as some truly awful moments of body horror thanks to the harsh reality of surviving in such an environment, but for the most part the real terror of All The White Spaces is built up in nothing happening. It's the slow accumulation of unease, of the mounting tension of waiting for something terrible to appear that makes the book so effecting. It gets under your skin and keeps you on edge as Jonathan and the others keep a wary watch on the darkness around them, knowing that something's out there, watching them, but that they're unable to do anything about that makes this such a scary read.

There's one thing I want to talk about, but as it's something of a spoiler I'm going to give a warning here. So, if you've not read the book yet and don't want to know please skip on to the next paragraph. One of the things that I was expecting to happen in this story was for Jonathan's status as a trans man to come up at some point. I was waiting for some scene to happen where someone on the expedition discovered the truth of who Jonathan is and for things to suddenly go wrong for him. I thought that he'd be challenged in his identity, for all of the hard work he'd done to prove himself would go out the window, and he'd suddenly be having to defend himself from a group of desperate men who suddenly see him as a woman. But this never happened. Ally Wilkes didn't craft a story around Jonathan's trans status, and I absolutely loved that. I loved that he never had to face the awfulness of being outed, that he never had his validity of a man denied to him. It would have been easy to go down that route, to use the horror of that situation to make things even worse for him, but it would have felt too awful. As such, the scene where Jonathan does try to explain who he is to one of the members of the expedition that person doesn't seem to care. He doesn't want to know more, and doesn't want Jonathan to tell him anything he's not comfortable revealing. And most importantly, he doesn't see Jonathan as any less of a man after it. For me, that's the perfect way to tell a trans story in this kind of scenario.

All The White Spaces is a huge book, filled with tension, adventure, and horror. It conveys both the wonder and the terror that come with a place as isolated and dangerous as Antarctica. It has a wonderful cast of engaging and interesting characters who you come to care for and want to see make it to the end. This is the kind of smart and frightening story that I want to see more of. It deserves to be given the same kind of praise and adoration as the other big horror stories I've mentioned in this article. It should be a book that gets adapted to screens. Hopefully one day, when people are talking about their favourite horror stories set in cold, frozen environments it'll be included alongside the greats like The Thing, The Terror, and In The Mountains of Madness.

Rating: 3.75/5 stars

Ally Wilkes debut novel brought some genuine shivers to my spine, and they weren’t just because of the vivid Arctic setting…

Set in the twilight years following World War II, All the White Spaces is an Arctic, historical horror novel with a more modern-gothic twist. We follow Jonathan, a trans young man who stows away on an Antarctic expedition, in order to prove his rightful worth in the world of men. As a horrible disaster leaves the crew stranded ashore during the Arctic winter, with little means for survival and no hope of rescue. The men travel inland in hopes of finding refuge, but soon find themselves in the never-ending unmapped white-lands, where everything feels eerily wrong. In the Polar night, lit only by the chilling lights of the Aurora Borealis overhead, they soon realise they might not be as alone as they initially thought.

It’s not hard to see why this novel worked so well for me. I’m a sucker for modern-gothic horror with troubled characters who must face their personal ghosts and trauma’s. I’m also a sucker for all things set in the Arctic, so combining these two was a match made in heaven.
All The White Spaces delivers on all of these points: it’s highly atmospheric, claustrophobic and genuinely nightmarish at times. The combination of a supernatural threat, with the very real horrors of survival, isolation and war trauma, make for a powerful contrast that drives home both sides. Although the plot was slow to get started, and I have to admit that I was bored during the first 20% or so, the characters and their faiths really began to grow on my throughout. With a story that is, in its purest form quite reminiscent of the likes of The Terror and Who Goes There?, it’s the characters and especially the inclusion of a trans protagonist against a historical setting, that set this book apart from the crowd.
A few minor points of critique keep this novel from being a full 5-star experience for me. The pacing throughout the first half could’ve been improved, shortening the introduction a bit, to match the latter half better. I also found some of the dialogue to be a little clunky, but not to the point where it was bothersome.

Overall, an impressive and bone-chilling debut by an author whom interests and style seem right up my alley.

All the White Spaces is set for release on January 25th in UK and Europe, and March 22nd for American markets. Many thanks to Titan Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overwritten and Overlong

I really wished I could have liked this more. I was intrigued by the ‘if you liked’ references to Michelle Paver and to Phillip Pullman, both of which I liked enormously.

I should have loved this, having a fascination for cold, lonely places (from my sofa) where I can spook myself with the immense and indifferent to man, frozen landscapes.

I have found Paver’s books in such territory particularly heart stopping, beautiful and terrifying. Also Georgina Harding has successfully left me in the isolation of such a landscape.

Unfortunately, I could never quite believe in Wilkes’ central character, and so never got taken into their experience of a post First World War doomed exploration of the Antarctic

There were a huge number of not always well fleshed out characters aboard the ship at the start, so it was hard to keep track of who was who.

I began to seriously lose interest when a particular dramatic event happened aboard ship. Writing got overdone with an annoying overuse of italics for emphasis. And a lot of hissing. People, ice, animals, air, water, hissed and hissing was an overworked verb, employed again and again, throughout this book

I think this needed some rather savage editing – there was too much of the same thing happening over and over and over again, with each repetition of ghostly visitation, aurora borealis events, howling and escaping dogs and the like, losing intensity, for me.

This had a lot of shocks – but what it needed was suspense

I’m sorry not to be able to be enthusiastic – I think a better book would have existed with quite a bit of pruning back, and some hard editing. Less would have been a lot more

Danger on ice ★★★★☆

Mourning the loss of his two brothers in the First World War, Jonathan fulfills their dream of going South by stowing away on an Antarctic expedition with his brothers' hero. Finally able to live in his true form - rather than the woman he was born as - Jonathan must earn his place amongst Randall's crew.

With only family friend Harry on his side and the winter ice threatening to trap them, Jonathan's adventure is much more than he bargained for. Then disaster strikes and the crew must winter over at at Expedition Point, a place where something evil is waiting....

Jonathan is a well rounded and brave character and we find ourselves rooting for him to make it to the Antarctic and also to finally be able to embrace his identity as a man. The dynamic between the wider group is tense and we get a real sense of them all as people and of their secrets and fears.

The sense of foreboding as the expedition is forced to make camp for winter curdles into mystery and fear as the men are picked off one by one by the ghosts that call to them from beyond the mist. Like the expedition before them, nobody will escape the ice.

For fans of Dark Matter by Michelle Paver and The Terror by Dan Simmons.

A vivid ghost story explores identity and gender set against the backdrop of the golden age of polar exploration.

Accomplished prose conjures up rich imagery that transports us to the end of the First World War. We meet Jonathan. Assigned female at birth, he faces challenges to behave in a certain way and his choices are constrained by his family's expectations. But when a telegram arrives and declares his brothers dead, Jonathan decides to run away. Free of those limitations, he is able to live as his true self and find his own adventures.

At times reminiscent of The Terror by Dan Simmons for its polar landscape and cruel icy conditions, we are plunged into Jonathan’s perilous life on board the Fortitude as he joins the crew’s Antarctic expedition.

The tension builds steadily throughout the narrative, escalating into a harrowing tale of survival and betrayal. But how real are the ghosts that surround them? This is an intelligent twist on the locked room trope that is currently in favour.

A compelling and at times brutal story..

All The White Spaces is a historical horror story about isolation, selfhood, and the impacts of the First World War, as a young man sneaks onto an Antarctic adventure. Jonathan Morgan stows away on the ship of famous adventurer James 'Australis' Randall, hoping to chase the Antarctic dreams of his two older brothers who died in the war. With the support of family friend Harry, he has to prove himself amongst the ship's men, but as they reach their destination and disaster strikes, the crew find themselves fighting to survive the Antarctic winter in a place that seems beyond all maps, and fighting against a force that wants them dead.

Historical adventure isn't a genre I would usually read, but the horror elements and trans man protagonist drew me in, and I'm glad they did. This was an incredibly eerie read, deeply immersive and haunted not only by a supernatural force and Antarctic isolation, but the profound impact of the First World War upon those who survived it. Split into sections based on the expedition, the novel starts slowly, building up a picture of the characters and the plans before things start to go very wrong. I did find it hard to keep up with the large cast of characters early on, maybe because this isn't the sort of narrative I'd usually read, but I managed to keep up enough to still enjoy it, and slowly some of the main characters became apparent.

The horror is a clever combination of the mind and some kind of supernatural force, with ambiguity around what exactly is going on, and it really captures a terrifying sense of whether people are being driven mad by the situation or whether something is out there after them. There's also a lot about masculinity in the book, not only through Jonathan getting to live as the gender he is, but in the ways all of the characters deal with different things, like reputation and betrayal, as well as emotion.

Set in a horrifyingly harsh landscape, All The White Spaces explores human nature whilst providing a tense, slowly-unfolding story of a fight for survival against something unknowable.

This gave me the chills in the best possible way. A brilliantly-written historical horror story set in the aftermath of war and the freezing darkness of Antarctica. Reminded me of Michelle Paver and Dan Simmons’ The Terror.

There were times when I struggled with this book,but then something would draw me back in,and I'd be invested in the crew again.
Some beautiful descriptions of the landscapes,but I think it was the central relationship that never rang true for me.