Dark Matter, by Michelle Paver

Dark Matter, by Michelle Paver

Michelle Paver got the idea of writing a ghost story after touring Svalbard; an isolated archipelago in the Arctic ocean. She writes: ‘It was summer so there was this endless rather eerie light [...] What most impressed me was the peculiar unnerving stillness of the place [...] It was as if all the land was watching.’ It appears the Arctic still has its mystery, and remains the last great wilderness of the world. As result it is the perfect place for a gothic tale.

The story follows Jack, a lonely man in London, living on the edges of society. Somehow he manages to secure a place on an Arctic expedition, and its just what he needs in order to get his life back on track. The landscape is beautiful and desolate in equal pitch. Most of all it is empty. After succumbing to illness, one by one his companions choose to leave, and Jack is left to salvage the mission alone. Or so he thinks, for there is someone else lurking on the island: ‘Twilight came [...] when I saw a man standing in front of the cabin [...] round cap, and ragged boots [...] he turned to face me a dark figure against the glare.’ As endless winter sets in and with it, days a of perpetual darkness, Jack descends into insanity, as he struggles to contend with the entity wandering out in the snow. 

I wish I could have liked this story more! On a superficial level it was good, with gothic descriptions, intriguing questions, and pot-boiler tension; it seemed to have all the right ingredients, but for me, it just didn’t work. The hero of the story Jack, didn’t strike me as a particularly interesting. Indeed, he was often unlikeable, because of his downright petulant and aggressive attitude. He can be found saying such things as: ‘I wanted to smash their smug faces,’ or ‘I’ll smash your face in,’ among his other complaints. Beside this, the gothic motifs and themes, despite being understated, remained too obvious and cliche for me. Ghosts haunt on Halloween and fittingly in the Artic ‘tomorrow was the 31st of October.’ Jack notes of the entity, ‘I knew with some ancient part of me, it wasn’t alive,’ ‘rage. Close. Coming for me.’ ‘Intense unwavering, malign. Such malevolence. No mercy.’ Finally there were several questions that were asked in the book, but not answered in any depth. For example, the best horror stories, leave the reader wondering whether the ghost is real, or a product of a disturbed mind. This was hinted at, in Dark Matter, but never truly answered. For me the whole book was too linear and lacked depth. As a result it was largely forgettable. 

What did shine through was the attention to detail. The evocative and precise language which depicts the beautiful landscape of the Arctic:

‘A fierce sun, blazed in the sky astonishing blue [...] dazzling snow capped mountains enclosed a wide bay dotted with icebergs. The water was a still as glass [...] tall cliffs the colour of dried blood [...] shining pavements of pewter rock.’

 The novel, also had that unputdownable feel, keeping the readers in suspense as we follow the hero as he descends into madness. Finally, the ghost itself, was an eerie creation, and like all good stories, appears on the backdrop of Norwegian legends and folklore. Overall though, Dark Matter, was a little too ordinary and obvious for me. Maybe I’m too old for ghost stories :(