McCaghrean, Geraldine. The white darkness

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The white darkness. HarperTempest, 2007 [978-0-06-089035-3//0-06-089035-5]

Sym is a smart girl who is obsessed with Antarctica and everything available. In fact she even imagines conversations with the on the explorers, Titus Oates. Even more obsessed than she is, is her Uncle who wants to find Symme’s Hole, an opening there to the center of the Earth. Her Uncle spends his life fortune arranging a trip to Antarctica with Stephanie so he can trick people into going on a ill-fated trip to find Symme’s Hole. I found the first three quarters of this 373 page book to be very slow reading but the excitement picks up when they get out on the ice and have a hard fight against the harsh elements. The conditions of their survival make the book worth reading but I found Sym’s imagining so many conversations with her long-dead explorer “friend” a little tedious. He becomes a little to real to her for my taste.