I won't lie: I found the first quarter of this book extremely boring and drawn out. But once the action picked up...Woah boy. I'll be holding this one up as an example of why I don't like to dnf.

This book had everything from body-horror corpses to surreal nightmare masquerades to mythical beasts to ripped out tongues to god complexes. And all the expected elements are also there: (suspicions of and paranoia around) cannibalism, the terror of a vast arctic desert, and more nautical descriptions than I ever thought possible. I had no interest in the Franklin expedition (or any exploratory expeditions tbh) prior to reading this but I had a blast combing through wikipedia to lign up fact (and scientific speculation) with this book's fiction
 
Recommended if you're looking for a slow-paced historical horror novel that explores the terror of vast, empty, hostile spaces and the evil that men do. 4.5 stars on SG rounded down to 4 on GR.