The White Darkness - Geraldine McCaughrean

Before I review this book, I'm going to briefly talk about Buffy for a moment (as a spoiler space for at least one of my readers whom I know is waiting to read this book !). I've just started watching season 3 - which is a relief since I hate the second half of season 2 (insofar as I hate what Angelus does !). I had forgotten, though, just how much humour there is in Buffy. Giles' shocked reaction to Ghost-Willow walking through the wall in "Halloween" for example (all his catalogue cards flying in the air). Giles' comment to Buffy in "Phases": "Let's not jump to any conclusions" and Buffy's, "I didn't jump. I took a tiny step and there conclusions were."

One thing I noticed in "Phases" which annoys me every single time I watch it - Buffy and Giles are in the library where Giles is loading up the tranquiliser gun and when the camera is looking at Giles from one angle he has his glasses off still (having just taken them off), but from the other camera angle he has them on ! What's that all about ? The other thing I've noticed in the Angel/Buffy sword fight at the end of "Becoming Part 2" is that it's quite clear that David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar are not fighting in the distance shots - it's particularly noticeable in the case of David Boreanaz because his stunt double has his hair styled very differently !

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You may remember that in December I shared Brandon Robshaw's review of Geraldine McCaughrean's The White Darkness, which is the story of Symone Wates, a 14-year-old girl, who is regarded as a dork at school, and whose best friend is the long-dead Captain Oates. She goes on a trip to Paris with her "Uncle" Victor (Victor is in fact her father's business partner) and then he takes her off on a madcap expedition to the South Pole, and it seems likely she'll share the fate of Oates and his comrades. This is very much a thriller and throughout McCaughrean gives clues to events in Sym's past that she recalls, clues that prove that Sym's recollections are not always accurate.

McCaughrean's writing is every bit as intense and insistent as Robshaw reported, and the book is definitely a page-turner, but as the conditions in which Sym finds herself grow worse, I found myself turning the pages with a sense of dreadful expectation of the worst happening, even though the tale is told from Sym's point of view. Robshaw wrote that "The White Darkness is as good as it gets" and he didn't lie ! I was completely gripped and I defy you to read it without also being gripped by the suspense.

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There is a spoilerish review of The White Darkness over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone.