Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4/5
For the end of October, I wanted to immerse myself in a good ghost story. Thin Air had been in my library for a while and, being by one of my favourite authors, I decided to give it a listen. The reward was a classically style adventure ghost story with building dread and a cumulative understanding of what had happened in the past.
- The setting of this book was insane, from starting in Darjeeling to the trek up Kangchenjunga to returning to the normalcy of depression era London, you felt where you were. The descriptions were beautiful, hauntingly accurate and full of wonder.
- The characters were everything you'd expect from an early 20th century adventure novel. A bunch of spritely chaps who went to good schools decide to scale a previous unscalable mountain with the usual level of British camaraderie. The one difference to these novels that I did enjoy was that the native porters employed for the expedition were treated as humans by the narrator and not humanoid pack mules. It could have been better but considering the attitudes of the time period being covered and the racist precedent in similar literature, Thin Air did very well.
- The ghost story was wonderfully creepy. I'm not entirely sure all of it made sense but it made me feel dread and fear for our characters high up in the mountains. It is built slowly and carefully, stepping up the tension well.
If you like a good adventure with a tense, supernatural element, you could do so much worse than Thin Air. I would recommend to those who want a short and creepy story set within the real world.
For the end of October, I wanted to immerse myself in a good ghost story. Thin Air had been in my library for a while and, being by one of my favourite authors, I decided to give it a listen. The reward was a classically style adventure ghost story with building dread and a cumulative understanding of what had happened in the past.
- The setting of this book was insane, from starting in Darjeeling to the trek up Kangchenjunga to returning to the normalcy of depression era London, you felt where you were. The descriptions were beautiful, hauntingly accurate and full of wonder.
- The characters were everything you'd expect from an early 20th century adventure novel. A bunch of spritely chaps who went to good schools decide to scale a previous unscalable mountain with the usual level of British camaraderie. The one difference to these novels that I did enjoy was that the native porters employed for the expedition were treated as humans by the narrator and not humanoid pack mules. It could have been better but considering the attitudes of the time period being covered and the racist precedent in similar literature, Thin Air did very well.
- The ghost story was wonderfully creepy. I'm not entirely sure all of it made sense but it made me feel dread and fear for our characters high up in the mountains. It is built slowly and carefully, stepping up the tension well.
If you like a good adventure with a tense, supernatural element, you could do so much worse than Thin Air. I would recommend to those who want a short and creepy story set within the real world.