i dnf’d this at around 50% because i wasn’t really getting much out of it :/ still, the narration was pretty solid, and i do think that there is an audience out there for it.

I wanted to love this book after reading a fiction book about a similar expedition. Sadly, this dragged on a bit for me and I found myself skipping parts. I’m sure the target audience is out there somewhere but I struggled with this one!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC of Bitter Passage by Colin Mills. I have read both fiction and nonfiction books about the HMS Terror and their exploration to the Arctic. It is a tragic and scary story as well as just awe inspiring of what they went through. Bitter Passage is a fiction story of explorers who go to find the Terror and rescue them. It is realistic in its telling as well as horrifying. It brings to life both real and fictionalized characters as well as rhetoric horrors they went through.

After reading the Wager, I had a feeling where this was going to go.

I mean what could go wrong on an arctic rescue mission in the 1800s.

Trigger Warnings for Cannibalism, though not in great detail.

Spoiler Alert there is still no such thing as the Northwest Passage

3.5 ⭐️

Although a very interesting subject, the pacing of this book was unfortunately too slow for me.

I found the characters very difficult to connect with and their development fairly surface-level. I also found the descriptions of the landscape fairly basic and found it very difficult to envisage.

Overall, not for me I’m afraid.

It was a new kind of reading for me as I don't know a lot about those discovery stories. And although I did learn a lot about the hardship of those maritimes expeditions, I found the book a little long and repetitive. Thank you Lake Union Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I found this a difficult book to read, the pacing was very slow and I didn't really connect with the characters. I was interested in reading this book to understand more about polar exploration but I found the descriptions of the landscape a bit lacking, it felt like I was only getting tiny glimpses of little specific bits. I spent a lot of time googling pictures of this area to try to ground my reading a bit more but I still found it very difficult. Which is a shame as this is a story so intrinsically linked to its location.

I thought the look into the extremes of the human psyche was interesting but I think I'd found them so unlikeable early on that I struggled to really empathise with them.

The historical research for this book seemed good, it is a book firmly rooted in the time period it is portraying. I don't know if this is just because I read the ARC e-book, but it would have been nice to have had a glossary of terms that are unusual to a modern reader, for example the use of the term "esquimaux", where a modern reader might be more familiar with "Eskimo" or "Inuit".

I think this would be a great book for those who are already very familiar with the time period and location but less so for a relative beginner to polar exploration.

Thank you to Colin Mills and NetGalley for the ARC.

Bitter Passage - ⭐️⭐️

Another Netgallery ARC read!

I don't usually like giving book ratings below 3 but I personally did not enjoy this book at all. I loved the history side of it but besides that, it's such a slow & boring read in my opinion. There's not very much "fun" detail to plot. It's pretty bland really.

I definitely can see how this many be someone's kinda read but it isn't mine unfortunately and that's ok. I'd still highly recommend checking this book out when it hits shelves in December.
But besides that I don't know what else to say... please don't let my review stop you from reading it, you may actually enjoy it!

NetGalley ARC given in exchange for honest review!

Historical books aren’t really the most interesting to me; however, this book wasn’t what I thought it would be! I throughly enjoyed the storyline of Sir John and his me. How he got to the artic; how trying to locate him and his men led to some contradictions. Quick read and definitely something different from my normal books!

I want to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this wonderful book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

5 stars

This book introduces the reader to Lieutenant Frederick Robinson and Assistant Surgeon Edward Adams as the main protagonists in his story. Based on actual historical events, Colin Mills takes literary license to create a wonderful description of the true hardships of Arctic exploration.

Sir John Franklin, leader of the Franklin Expedition of 1845, has not returned from his mission to find the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. There was much concern at home in Britain. In 1849, an expedition was put together to go to the Arctic to locate Sir John and his men.

Arriving at an Arctic shore, the two ships’ men split into three search parties. Lieutenant Robinson and Dr. Adams and a few other men set out on their journey across the ice. Their sojourn is filled with hardship, desolation, depression and, oddly enough, hope. Dr. Adams is devoutly religious. He arranges prayer meetings with the men. This irritates Robinson, who is a stark realist. Adams was raised on stories of Franklins’ travels and heroism. He dreams of finding him; of meeting him, of speaking to him. Robinson, on the other hand, dreams only of the fame and honor he would attain if he found Franklin. He feels he has been a Lieutenant far too long. He wants a Captaincy.

These contradictory goals cause tension between the men. As their conditions grow more harsh, the tension increases. Their adventurous search grows more dangerous. Robinson grows short-tempered and tragedy occurs. A wall forms between Robinson and Adams.

Mr. Mills draws a stark picture of the harshness, starvation, scurvy, and the deteriorating relationships between the men. He outlines the violence that exists when men become disillusioned and starved. He details the mens’ run-ins with various wildlife in the Arctic. I am fascinated by polar explorations. I have read many, many books about the men who went on the expeditions. This is a very good novel, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the subject.

I want to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this wonderful book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

I described this book to my friend as "major Captain Robert Walton from Frankensteincore", which honestly is the most accurate description of this book I can give. Bitter Passage is reminiscent of the bleak, nihilistic tones of Frankenstein, and an excellent read for anyone interested in moral degradation of humans.

While I found the first ~30% of this book rather slow with indistinct characterisation, it grew on me the further Mills explored spiralling humanity and the futility of it all. This isn't a book I think I would usually read, but it was striking and contemplative, and something I would definitely recommend to any lover of the classics. 4/5 stars.

I DO like a story set in the olden days (pretechnology) in the Arctic.
A place that is bleak and beautiful.
This one captures it all, the wild location, the hopelessness, the reliant on others, whilst at times being every man for himself.
The insane wildlife.
A great read.