Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy. I really loved the book and its characters. I can see that the author spent a long time on worldbuilding and forming 3 dimensional characters. This was already on my wish-list for the year, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. I loved the read and can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

I did struggle to finish this book because it’s really not my genre, but I do appreciate how the characters developed and the climate change background was interesting.

An atmospheric exploration of grief and guilt

Set in a very near future, on tech billionaire Sky's ship to the Antarctic is Ivy Cunningham, long-term journalistic thorn in his side, on her third trip to the White Continent. As the billionaire's staff confide in Ivy, see to her every comfort and threaten her in turn, who will she trust? What story will she write? And how does it all connect with her own shattered past?

For about 90% of the book, I was drawn in by Hale's intoxicating descriptions of the Antarctic, of Ivy's own journeys there, the historic adventurers, and the sailing that the book recounts. Around all these are threaded Ivy's fifty year rise as a journalist and climate activist, the tension between the causes she espouses and her own fame; and her up-and-down relationships with her family, her wife Bree, their son Ross, their granddaughter Keira. The steady dance between these timelines is deftly handled, but with an opacity that adds nothing to the overall themes or texture of the book. The things that are only alluded to aren't that interesting, so even though I made the effort to connect the dots, I felt no narrative reward at all.

The science fiction elements are light but inconsistent, rendering the book into a morality tale rather than an exploration of one woman as a proxy for the world. The ending rushes in like a sledgehammer, and adds nothing to what the rest of the book has to say about tech billionaires, about fame and manipulation, about guilt and innocence and revenge and self-recrimination. Plenty of surface, little of substance: the exact opposite of an iceberg.

The Edge Of Solitude by Katie Hale is a thrilling and thought-provoking novel that captivated me from the start. The story follows a ship’s journey to Antarctica, led by Sky, a billionaire with a bold plan to save the region. On board is Ivy Cunningham, a fallen environmental activist hoping to restore her reputation and repair her relationship with her son.

The author does a great job of blending the adventure with deeper themes like climate change and the tough choices we face. Ivy’s struggle and her interactions with the other passengers are well-written, showing the conflict between ambition and doing what’s right.

“The Edge of Solitude” is both exciting and thought-provoking. I found it gripping and engaging, and I enjoyed every moment of it. If you’re looking for a book that combines adventure with meaningful questions about our world, this is a great choice.

Thank You @Netgalley and @canongatebooks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First things first, I absolutely loved this book! It was very readable and accessible with some beautiful poetic lines (Katie Hale being a poet as well) that showed up at just the right moments without overwhelming the prose. And the main character! Ivy is an older queer woman who already has at least 50 years of environmental activism behind her and she is the future of the teenagers who are fighting for environmental justice in our reality right now.
The setting of this novel is really interesting and it was the big part of why I felt so engaged with it. Even though it mostly reads like contemporary fiction, it is set in near future, lending it sci-fi elements but in a very accessible way - it’s not “heavy” sci-fi, it’s more a speculative fiction that goes a little further. The present time in the novel quickly reveals to be a future where the events following environmental collapse have already been happening for some time. Snippets from Ivy’s past hint at what the humanity had to deal with. The environmental events aren’t the main focus though, it is a backdrop to what ordinary people have to go through and how it shapes their values and actions.
Majority of the story is happening on a ship heading to Antarctica and it is brilliant how with a very small cast and constraints of the physical space it is truly engaging and even gripping. I found this novel to have perfectly timed reveal of information trickling at just the perfect intervals always making it hard to put the book down (and go to sleep). In essence it is a story about choices and morality but it is set against a fascinating background of the passage to Antarctica, the Ocean, the rough cold and rough future.

Thank you to Canongate and NetGalley for the eARC!

‘The Edge is Solitude’ is in part a warning against climate change. (Here, as in real life, there’s a plan B). Environmental activist and journalist Ivy Cunningham has been trying to fight it for decades. But at what cost? Here’s where it gets interesting.

On the one hand, this is a thought provoking, well researched and engrossing novel about Antarctica, environmental activism and ambition. On the other hand, it’s a book about family, love, guilt and loneliness. And (thank god) nothing is as black-and-white as it seems. I really enjoyed reading this.

Thank you Canongate and Netgalley UK for the ARC

The Edge of Solitude is about loss. Loss of ice and loss of family.
The focus of the story is climate activist and author, Ivy.
She is on a ship in the Antarctic with a small crew and a billionaire, who is looking to use technology to reintroduce the ice sheet.
Set in the near future with technological improvements that seem plausible or already on the fringe, this book is not so much about climate change but about the toll that campaigning has taken on one individual and their relationships. After having a child, she left the mother and her wife Bree to protest and protect the planet. Being apart meant a breakdown in the relationship and a separation from family when illness and death are perceived to be less important.
Solitude and loss are brilliantly conveyed but this produces a vacuum in the narrative whereby little happens but ennui in the reader. Glacial in its momentum, unfortunately this reader gave up after halfway.