Whiteout
A Thriller
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A researcher stranded in Antarctica receives a radio message that a nuclear war has broken out in this claustrophobic survival thriller, perfect for fans of The Martian, The Last Murder at the End of the World and Breathless.
It’s been four months since glaciologist Rachael Beckett left her husband and daughter to join an urgent research trip to a remote field station deep in the Antarctic. But after losing all communication with her crew at base camp, she’s trapped and alone – and running out of supplies. The only information she has about what’s gone so catastrophically wrong is an emergency radio broadcast playing on a loop: a nuclear war has broken out, and Rachael might be the last survivor on Earth.
Abandoned and starving, all she has left is a fierce determination to stay alive in the extreme cold and perpetual darkness of the polar winter. The research she’s gathered about catastrophic climate damage means she holds the fate of the continent and the world in her grasp…if there’s even a world left to save.
Struggling with loneliness and grief over the unknown fate of her family back home, Rachael knows both her life and her sanity balance on a knife edge. As she battles to stay alive in unimaginable conditions, she soon discovers she’s not completely alone in the dark and cold–but she might wish she was…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Debut author Burnett squanders a strong premise in this tense but ultimately disappointing thriller. At the outset, British glaciologist Rachael Beckett has been alone in Antarctica for nearly two months. She left her husband and young daughter in the U.K. to embark on a research trip organized by her colleague, Guy Barnard, who hoped to survey the thickness of Antarctica's ice shelves as a chunk the size of Wales prepares to break off. Initially, Rachael believed the group's biggest obstacle would be corporate interference, since the research was to be used to help bring an end to commercial drilling on the continent. Soon after arriving, though, she was separated from the rest of her team and trapped in a remote hut. Ever since, she's been alone, listening to radio reports that nuclear weapons have hit London. Unable to reach her colleagues or family, Rachael fears she may be among the last people alive on Earth. Nevertheless, she attempts to complete her research, often hallucinating conversations with her loved ones in the process. The opening chapters drop readers into a gripping, claustrophobic scenario, but it's not long before cliché creeps in, with the late-breaking explanation for Rachael's plight deflating the initial intrigue with a whimper. Though Burnett shows promise, this fails to stick the landing.
Customer Reviews
Awesome!
Just finished this unbelievable thriller! From the first moment I started this novel, I could not put it down. Extremely well written and suspenseful with characters fully drawn out. The pace is driven as hard as a blizzard 🥶 and the ending was perfect!