Atmospheric and surreal. I loved the setting for this one and highly recommend it for those looking for an ethereal experience.

"This is a place that was simply not designed for humans to exist in."

Whiteout by R.S. Burnett is a chilling, gripping, atmospheric thriller. It's well written and very easy to read and follow. I read this in less than twenty-four hours.

The book is narrated mostly through the eyes of Rachael(our FMC). Throughout the book, I found myself unable to relate to her character. I found her extremely unlikeable and a lot of her decisions were downright foolish. Due to that fact, I found it hard to conjure up any form of sympathy for her character.

What really kept my attention was the storyline. I found it immersive and hard to put down. It was unsettling and unnerving. Despite there being an obvious human threat, the author fully captures the more serious threat of human nature. Skillfully through the use of words, the author was able to convey just what these characters were up against.

The twist was a bit unexpected. My mind was going in a completely different direction. So, when it came along, I was pleasantly surprised.
Overall, this was a good read. I love isolated and snowy settings so this was the perfect read for me. I would've enjoyed it more if I liked Rachael's character.

Thank you to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and R.S Burnett, for my y eARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Pub Date: February 13th.

The world is ending and Rachael Beckett ventures to a remote field station deep in the Antarctic to help stop it. She leaves behind her husband, her new baby girl, and the rest of humanity and does not know what, if any, of them will still be there when she, hopefully, returns.

This proved a far more harrowing tale than anticipated. I had thought it to be a tense, fast-paced and action-packed survival thriller when instead it was more introspective and personal. I still devoured this, despite it not being exactly suited to my reading tastes and found it proof that is is worthwhile extending your boundaries on occasion for the wonders that you will find.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book the whole way through! It was a unique story and it was fast paced and really immersed you into what was going on. I am so impressed that this is a debut novel, I will be looking out for their next one!
I am a huge fan of books taking place in sub-zero environments and also ones which have a lot of survival elements and any mention of nuclear fallout so this book had a lot of what I love!
I can honestly say I don't particularly agree with some decisions the main character takes when deciding to go on this trip in the first place, but I do understand her choices and it made her emotional journey just as interesting as the rest of what was happening to her.

Rachael is an experienced Antarctic researcher who is persuaded to join a winter expedition there. Her husband is not in favour and there are certainly dangers with a winter trip; the weather and the constant darkness will be a challenge. In the end she leaves her husband and very young daughter as the purpose of the expedition is environmental. It aims to get information about the instability of the ice sheets because of mining tests. The mining may well be permitted unless her works underpins the undesirability of mining there.

It quickly becomes apparently that the expedition is a somewhat unconventionally one though for the best of reasons. The narrative is solely Rachael's effectively however it does go back in time as well as covering current event in Antarctica. She recalls conversations with her husband prior to leaving. However it's fair to say that current event are all consuming. Some four months into the trip she is isolated in a small pod miles from anywhere and can no longer contact the outside world at all. The only thing she can get is a regular announcement on the BBC world service stating that nuclear war has broken out…

We find out early on that she has activated an emergency beacon with no results and that her sat phone no longer gets any satellites. And then it gets worse…!! This is no complaint but Rachael's "luck" is pretty awful really. The balance of pace, tension and reflection in this story was extremely good for me. It really is an "edge of your seat" read (if you are happy with suspending your belief in any sort of reality). It kept me reading in a way few books really do. I don't feel I can say more without detracting from a reader's experience of a pretty good thriller.

Whiteout by R.S. Burnett

I liked the metaphor of this book , Rachel stuck alone in a snowy world , and a nuclear bomb gone off in the world wiping out a lot of it .
I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it , but I did.

I was drawn in initially by the Antarctic setting of Whiteout, the debut thriller by RS Burnett, but it has a lot more going for it as well. We start with Rachael, a glaciologist stranded alone near the South Pole whose only contact with the outside world is now a chilling message from the BBC announcing the outbreak of nuclear war. But as the timeline cuts between past and present, we also learn that Rachael had a vital reason for embarking upon this research trip in the first place; covert American drilling for oil is exacerbating cracks in the Ross Ice Shelf, and if substantial amounts of it break from the continent, sea levels will swiftly rise globally to unsurvivable levels (not sure how the drilling plot here holds up, but it's certainly true that if the full Ross Ice Shelf was to disintegrate, sea levels could rise by FIFTEEN METRES). Rachael is collecting data to show the terrible impact of this drilling and to get US senators to vote against further drilling before it's too late. This is a cracking motivation, but I couldn't really get into this thriller until I was about halfway through. The dual timeline really didn't work for me - I found it distracting, interfering with the story's momentum rather than driving it on. I'd have been tempted to have a prologue with the nuclear broadcast and then tell the story in chronological order, as, as soon as the two timelines come together, this becomes gripping. Whiteout is also very obviously a story with a female protagonist written by a man (I guessed without checking the author's sex); there are no terrible gaffes, but there's something about the emotional register that tipped me off. Honestly, I'd have been happier with a male protagonist, as this always feels like a bit of a cheap trick to appeal to a female readership. Overall, I enjoyed Whiteout, but I wish I had been able to get into it more quickly. 3.5 stars.

A Wartime Broadcasting Service from the BBC in London sets the scene. Nuclear weapons have damaged infrastructure and communications, casualties are high and people are advised to stay in their homes. The threat from radioactive fallout is high do not leave your home.

The broadcast is picked up by lone British research scientist Rachael Beckett in the Antarctic, monitoring and measuring the ice shelf. Its now thirty-six days since she last had contact with her base station when they advised of a mysterious illness spreading amongst the team and since then the only thing her radio has picked up is the announcement, the dull monotone voice repeating the same message every two hours, never changing, never updated but always there.

An expedition that was beset with problems from the moment long time friend and boss Guy mentioned it to her, a husband who didn't want her to go and a daughter she didn't want to leave. Now she's on her own, running out of supplies and running out of options.

This novel chilled, thrilled and willed me to keep reading. It had great characters, atmosphere in bucketloads and a good plot. Simply stunning.

I do enjoy a book set in that impossible snowy landscape, battling the elements.
This one took me a while to get into, just nothing really grabbed me, until it did.
Then it was full steam ahead,with some great plot developments, and almost edge of your seat stuff.
Glad I stuck with it, especially for those last few lines.

This was a great read. The source matter of climate change is really relevant for today’s readers. It was fast paced and twisty. Really enjoyed it.

Rachael sits alone in her Arctic home, an insulated tent like structure, listening to the broadcast from London “…This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted and the number of the casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known.” It repeats every two hours. When she left for this five month long mission, planned to convince world leaders that the damage from climate change had to be dealt with immediately, she left behind an unhappy husband and a 15 month old daughter. Now she fears they are dead with the rest of the world in a nuclear holocaust. No one answers the stations near her. Is she the last person alive?

Disaster after disaster follow Rachael. First her tent burns down. Then she begins the long walk to the nearest station, hoping to find the two surviving members of this ill planned winter mission. She must survive a blinding blizzard, hidden crevasses where one missed step leads to instant death, starvation and more. Even rescue comes with danger.

Whiteout is Rachael’s story. Physically, she fights to survive an unforgiving climate. Emotionally, she thinks about her marriage and possible divorce. Why has she pushed her husband away? The answers come but are they too late?

Whiteout is impossible to put down. Its’s a mystery and a thriller where the enemy is nature itself. The larger story of drilling for oil in the Arctic regions, global warming, and climate control is the reason for Rachael’s mission and the disasters that follow. Whiteout is well written and totally unique. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and R.S. Burnett for this ARC.

Despite being immediately drawn in by the synopsis of this book, I was a little apprehensive going into this one. Whiteout tells the story of Rachael, who is on an expedition to Antarctica to gather data which she hopes will prove to American law makers, including the President (a Trump-like figure), that global warming is coming quicker than anticipated. The melting of the ice caps in Antarctica has the potential to affect sea levels in an unprecedented way and Rachael, along with her boss, Guy, are determined to make the world take notice.

Unfortunately, soon after the expedition starts, things take a turn for the worse. Illness, call offs, and worse than imagined weather phenomena, mean that Rachael becomes isolated and has only the BBC World Service for company - a service which has just announced a nuclear attack in the UK where Rachael has left behind her husband and young daughter.

As I say, I was immediately gripped by the premise of this story but I was worried that this could develop into a woman wandering around in the cold for hours, days, weeks and could become a little repetitive and boring. However, I need not have worried. Although the story is told largely in the present day, we have flashbacks as to why Rachael wanted to go on the expedition, her life at home etc. and the book, as well as being a thrilling, twisty page-turner, also deals with themes of marriage, motherhood, women in work and the battle between being a mother or a worker.

The other really positive thing is the book is just under 300 pages. I think anything longer could have risked becoming a drag, given there are only a handful of characters in the book and it takes place mainly in one setting but the relatively short novel keeps you intrigued until a brilliant conclusion.

A debut novel which shows great promise and an author I will definitely keep an eye out for in the future

I loved the sound of this book, but unfortunately I just didn't connect with it or the main character. I found it to be hard going and I struggled to read it. I hope it is just me and other readers will enjoy it more.