A great book - I don't think I would have read it if I really believed it was just a ghost story, as I'm not really fond of those. I read it because it was about a mountain - a really, really good mountain, and I was interested in the historical mountaineering aspect.
And I though it was very good! I particularly rated the reactions to the comments of the even earlier explorers, who were, shall we say, 'of their time'. I'm glad things have changed.
The characters were believable, and well written. There were unexpected twists, which I always love, and i ended the book feeling quite satisfied. I do recommend this unusual book.

This is going to be a bit of a ramble of a write-up so, please bear with me!

In 1935, Stephen Pearce joins an mountain climbing expedition with his older brother, Kits. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain (and one of mountaineering's biggest killers). No one has scaled it before and the expedition is planning to following the footsteps of one of the mountain;'s most famous disasters, the 1907 Lyell Expedition, where five men lost their lives. Lyell survived and become a British hero when his memoir, Bloody But Unbowed was published.

But before Stephen is ready for the climb, he meets the only other survivor the 1907 expedition, who tries to warn him off. He hints of dark things on the mountain and that Lycell's account isn't as true as it appears as five men died, but other four were laid to rest...

As the expedition climbs up Kangchenjunga, Stephen is sure he's seeing thing out of the corner of his eye, hearing shouts of "Below!", and he's unsure whether it's the lack of oxygen and the mountain playing tricks, or if something dark and angry is on the mountain, and it's singled Stephen out...

I did like it, but it didn't exactly wow or chilled my blood the way I was expecting/hoping. Thin Air is a slow build of a ghost story and, while, that's ok to slowly, ever so slowly, I know Michelle Paver can write downright creepy and dark stuff as I am (slowly) reading Michelle's CHRONICLES OF THE ANCIENT DARKNESS series over the last few years (next book in the series I should be reading is Oath Breaker), so I was waiting for the creepy to hit the fan and me to go "Oh hell no!".

Thin Air, in theory, should have worked for me as a ghost story as, it wasn't full of jump-scare moments (something I hate and I can't do with in book, film or any other kinds of media. At times, my overactive imagination clings to those moments and it makes the next few days/nights a tad tricky). Like I said earlier, it's a slow build of creepiness. You know something is going to happen [the clue is in the title - Thin Air: A Ghost Story]. It's going to be on the atmosphere side and the tensions between the characters and the environment.

And I think this is where I felt a little meh over it. It's a slow build (slow yet insidious) and, in that time, I should have connected the characters. And I did, up to a point. They felt rounded and flawed, but I didn't care for any of them. At one point, very early on, I was waiting for something awful to happen to them all because they all were just being horrid.

I think the problem I had, barring the lack of connection to the characters, is that the title. Thin Air: a GHOST STORY. I worry that, if "A Ghost Story" wasn't in the title, I would be more open to suggestions and ideas? If, while audiobooking this, I would be thinking "Wait? Is it a ghost? The mountain? Is it the altitude sickness? A trick of the light? Is it sibling rivalry taking a dark turn of events? What is going on?! Why am I scared for these characters?"

The creep aspect of it is slow, subtle, but Oh so insidious. Once the rucksack makes an appears, things go pop a level! I can not remember the last time recently where I read a book and something as simple and ordinary took on the air of something so sinister as that rucksack! It comes into the story quite late, but it's appearance and presence adds an effective air of terror.

Maybe I should have audiobook this in autumn or winter, when the nights draw in... That's the plan when I FINALLY get round to reading Michelle's two other ghostly tales, Dark Matter and Wakenhyrst (Both physically on my TBR). Till that time, I'm going to try and get my a**e in gear and finish the Wolf Brother series! I'm hoping to get it finished/up to date by the end of the year, so if I haven't started getting a shift on by September, please shout at me!!!

Imagine it. It's a warm day in the middle of May. The sun is shining, the air is alive with the sounds of birds and insects alike. But you're huddled on the sofa, a verified block of ice. Shivering, jumping at the slightest of movements or sounds you aren't expecting, and have been transported to the snowy landscapes of the Himalayas. That, my friends, is what my experience of reading Thin Air was like.

I've been a long term fan of Michelle's, for over twelve years since Wolf Brother came out and started an obsession with worlds and words that just won't ever leave me (and I hope it doesn't!). I've always been more of a YA reader. Adult fiction doesn't normally do it for me, but I have authors that are auto-buys, or auto-reads, meaning I will get whatever they choose to publish, be it their masterpiece or a shopping list. And Michelle is right at the top of my auto-read list, so I read her first ghost story, Dark Matter, when it came out a few years ago. I had always hoped Michelle would do another ghost story because I think her writing lends to them so well. She just builds suspense so masterfully and has you absolutely rapt. So when I knew Thin Air was on the way I could not of been more excited. On a personal note the book came on a day when I was feeling particularly down, given the horrendous year I've had, and the proof came with a little note from Michelle herself who is a lovely lady and I hope to meet again some day as I have fond memories of meeting her when I was a teenager!

Anyway, back to the book. It's a chilling tale which will take you right to the deadly peaks of Kangchenjunga. Yes I had to google how to pronounce it. And no, I'm not ashamed! Ha!

It's chilling. Thrilling. And downright scary. From the get go I had chills running up and down my body. I had the shakes at one particular point and had to keep looking up to make sure that I was actually on my own. Such is the power of Michelle's story telling that I felt like there was an unwanted entity with me, watching me, plotting to take me down the way the ghost in the story does. When reading it you really feel the sense of isolation the characters are feeling. You can feel it build, and it almost feels like a physical reaction for you as the reader. You start to second guess things, start to try to think of a logical explanation, even when there isn't place for one. By the end of the book I really felt the paranoia set in and it made me wonder what I would be like in that sort of situation. I could hardly read it without losing my cool, I dread to think what I would be like.

It completely transported me away from the darkness of my own life and if even for a brief moment made me forget and drew me in so wholly that I was lost in this wonderful book, and that is something that seems to be very rare these days.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you enjoyed Michelle's previous ghost story, Dark Matter, you'll love this one. If you love anything supernatural, a bit scary, ghostly, then you'll enjoy it too. It's a fantastic read thats absorbing and totally paralysing. Beautifully, lyrically written. A five star read if ever there was one!

I loved this book, I purchased the audiobook after reading the arc. I loved the atmosphere created in this novel, you can really lose yourself in scenario’s and feel the sense of dread that plagues the main character. I have a bit of a thing for expedition ghost stories and this one and Paver's other novel 'Dark matter' didn't disappoint

Eerie and unsettling, Thin Air was exactly the book I was after! I love Michelle Paver's books and delighted this lived up to my expectations. Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

Michelle Paver wrote a superb ghost story in Dark Matter, an incredibly creepy novel set in the Arctic in the 1930s.
This novel, Thin Air, strikes a similar tone, only this time it details a fateful Himalayan expedition.
Paver beautifully invests the novel with an unsettling sense of isolation. The real strength of the writing - and the way it most succeeds as a ghost story - is the subtle and understated manner of the prose. The disturbing moments benefit from Paver's lack of melodrama. The writing is incredibly effective and there are scenes that chill the blood, even if read during the day. It isn't particularly bloody or violent, and, again, this works in the novel's favour.
If you are looking for a decent period ghost story, offering something very different, you'd do well to pick this up. Highly recommended.

In 1935 Dr. Stephen Pearce and his brother Kits are part of a five-man mission to climb the most dangerous mountain in the Himalayas, Kangchenjunga. Thirty years before, Sir Edmund Lyell led an ill-fated expedition up the same mountain: more than one man did not return, and the rest lost limbs to frostbite. “I don’t want to know what happened to them. It’s in the past. It has nothing to do with us,” Dr. Pearce tells himself, but from the start it feels like a bad omen that they, like Lyell’s party, are attempting the southwest approach; even the native porters are nervous. And as they climb, they fall prey to various medical and mental crises; hallucinations of ghostly figures on the crags are just as much of a danger as snow blindness.

This is pacey, readable historical fiction with a good sense of period and atmosphere. I enjoyed Pearce’s narration, and the one-upmanship type of relationship with his brother adds an interesting dimension to the expedition dynamics. However, I never submitted sufficiently to Paver’s spell to find anything particularly scary. I’ll try again with her other ghost story, Dark Matter, about an Arctic expedition from the same time period.

So this is a slightly disappointing one for me. I had wanted to read it cause I read a previous book by this author and the premise of this story seemed very different and I wanted to try it.
It's set up as a sort of account/diary entry of sorts of this expedition up one of the mightest mountains, in 1935, from the perspective of Stephan Pearce. I recently read a book that briefly had mountain climbing as a theme but this was the main story line and although I have no interest myself, I found myself quite interested to see what would happen and I began to like our main character enough to want to know how he got on. However, this was all on the basis of the ghost story line which I felt was very lack luster for myself unfortunately.
For me, it ended up being a story about mountain climbing with the tinge of a sinister air, based on a previous, specific failed attempt of this climb that seemed to haunt this expedition.
I think the story itself was well done, I just would have preferred to have had a higher level of eery, paranormal activity, which is what I was hoping for.
The authors' note clears up fact from fiction and was very helpful.
I did find this easy to read, in the sense that I could keep going and not feel the desire to stop, however there were so many unfamiliar words that stopped my flow (I presume popular of the time period and/or enviornment) and I was suffering in a haze of boredom at most times. Sadly, I feel that I was just reading because it was there, not for particular enjoyment, although it did get thrilling in the final 15%.

Overall, it wasn't very chilling, sort of compelling, not what I was expecting, but not a terrible read either.

Awesome read, full of atmosphere. Beautifully evocative descriptions, and lasts long in your memory. I will be looking for more from this author in future.

Dark Matter was one of my favourite contemporary ghost stories. I remember reading it and feeling a shiver of terror up my spine. Her writing is tense, and Thin Air is riveting.

A slim book that would be perfect for a Christmas Eve old fashioned ghost story reading, this story features a mountain climbing expedition between two rival brothers and their associates. They are following in the (ultimately tragic) footsteps of a legendary explorer and aim to conquer this particular mountain in the Himalayas for the first time in history. The cold, hunger, isolation and yes, boredom, wear on all the members of the team and shadows (metaphorical and actual) start appearing, perhaps to lure them into danger...
I loved this and will read all future efforts from Paver. For fans of Susan Hill's ghost stories.

In 1935 the summit of Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas remained unreached. Stephen Pearce joins his brother, Kits, as the expedition’s medic as they follow in the footsteps of Lyell’s disastrous 1907 attempt. But on the eve of their descent, the only other survivor warns Stephen off the route with what he dismisses as superstitious claptrap. Five men lost their lives but only four were laid to rest…

I started off thinking what a bunch of arrogant, privileged men, thinking the world belongs to them and dismissing the local people. Good riddance to them when something horrible happens! It is written in the manner of a 1930s account and the attitudes are sadly very of the time. There's a bit of a tendency to apply modern values to historical fiction to make it more palatable but all that's doing is pretending things never happened. So yes, they are racist and completely disrespectful of local culture, and this may mean it's not for you. But our narrator does start to see the Sherpas as people, at least more than his companions.

There's a lot of detail about their climb, it would be a fantastic book for someone who loves mountaineering and a lot of the less supernatural elements are taken from real expeditions of the time. I can imagine how easy it is for the brain to play tricks on you from the remote surroundings and harsh weather to the effects of altitude sickness. Just like in Dark Matter, it's an excellent subject to base a ghost story on; it would be easy to argue the men are driven mad by their situation.

The horror aspect of it is subtle, but insidious. I don’t think a rucksack has ever been so sinister! It’s a slow build but a lot more effective than trying to do too much. Not one to read more a climb or camping trip.

The brothers have worshipped Lyell since childhood, with his memoir describing his seemingly selfless act of bringing the bodies of the fallen down the mountain. Yet Stephen’s hero was far from perfect and whilst Kits might not want to think otherwise, Stephen’s devotion starts to wane as he gets closer to the truth. There is a lot of sibling rivalry between them, Kits always trying to belittle his younger brother.

I found this a really intriguing novel.
The premises is that a group of mountaineers are planning to climb Mount Kanchenjunga (a real mountain) in the footsteps of an earlier climb where all but two of the climbers died. One of the men has an uneasy feeling about what they are going to find on the mountain and this paranoia becomes more marked throughout the novel.
This could be seen as a mild horror story.