All the White Spaces

A Novel

By: Ally Wilkes

Narrated by: Scott Turner Schofield

A Bram Stoker Award nominee

“Some of the best survival horror we’ve read in years, with a uniquely menacing adversary at its heart.” —Vulture, The Best Horror Novels of 2022

“Epic.” —Esquire, The 22 Best Horror Books of 2022

Something deadly and mysterious stalks the members of an isolated polar expedition in this haunting and spellbinding historical horror novel, perfect for fans of Dan Simmons’s The Terror and Alma Katsu’s The Hunger.

In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men. Aboard the expeditionary ship of his hero, the world-famous explorer James “Australis” Randall, Jonathan may live as his true self—and true gender—and have the adventures he has always been denied. But not all is smooth sailing: the war casts its long shadow over them all, and grief, guilt, and mistrust skulk among the explorers.

When disaster strikes in Antarctica’s frozen Weddell Sea, the men must take to the land and overwinter somewhere which immediately seems both eerie and wrong; a place not marked on any of their part-drawn maps of the vast white continent. Now completely isolated, Randall’s expedition has no ability to contact the outside world. And no one is coming to rescue them.

In the freezing darkness of the Polar night, where the aurora creeps across the sky, something terrible has been waiting to lure them out into its deadly landscape…

As the harsh Antarctic winter descends, this supernatural force will prey on their deepest desires and deepest fears to pick them off one by one. It is up to Jonathan to overcome his own ghosts before he and the expedition are utterly destroyed.

©2022 Ally Wilkes. All rights reserved (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Decent book, Terrible narration

I thought the premise of this story was really unique and the characters felt fully fleshed out & authentic, but the third act was aimless & missing a satisfying conclusion.
Plus the narrator's soft monotone voice put me to sleep.

Masterful suspense

Throughly enjoyed this book and performance. I love learning about the golden age of arctic and Antarctic exploration, and those novel was set wonderfully in that time.
It is absolutely a 5 star performance, but the audio was extremely quite sometimes. Which I feel is a production choice.

Where was the editor?

I usually don’t buy into negative reviews of books because there are so many books I love that had their fair share of negative reviews; had I followed those reviews, I wouldn’t know some of my favs! This one, however… eh. It’s as if the author originally wrote various chapters and then folded in the story from those chapters as she fleshed out the book — but then forgot to edit out all of the repetitive pieces that get started over. And over. And OVER. Again. There were so many times during the final 3 hours of the book that I thought to myself, “Where was the editor on this project?? Why is this information being drilled into us so hard? Is it supposed to be? Or did this information just accidentally get left in after being written somewhere else?” It truly felt at times like I was Re-listening to a chapter — only to find that, no, I was still forging ahead in this slooooooooooooooow burn of a book that just kind of… flickers out. Sorry, but this book doesn’t hold a candle to The Terror or Dark Matter (similar themes).

Read before listening

I write this with the intentions of not dislike or hate, but rather drab, and sometimes intolerable. The voice acting is awfully droll and the story is slow scrolling. It feels like a long speech of poetry. Beautifully written, and not exactly tied up in a little bow. While some parts use heavy description, and paint a wonderful picture of tragedy, other parts are very hard to imagine leaving almost too much to the imagination. To be called horror is a long stretch in my opinion. For a first novel I anticipate what comes next for the author. Read the book on your own first before listening to the audio version. ****SPOILER ALERT KIND OF

( It sort of seems like an odd cliff hanger, where the story really didn’t provide an ending too spectacular, nor too devastating.)

Simply Amazing

This book was amazing from start to finish. Ally Wilkes wrote a story that had me on edge the entire time. She created characters that I formed attachments to and was worried about what would happen with them. The mix of paranormal terror and straight up paranoia between expedition members was perfect. Truly can’t recommend this title enough for anyone who loves horror and Arctic exploration.

Well read, entertaining, but misses a few beats.

Overall a good story. The character is believable and relatable. The setting feels dynamic and real, but midway into the book it just feels like a tedious day-to-day with a hint of spookyness until the final chapters. It keeps you guessing if its supernatural or psychological horror, but in a way that makes you question if the writer knew what they wanted out of this setting. Its a solid story overall, but loses a bit of points for dropping the ball on some potentially great narrative elements and an ending that doesn't dedicate enough to what its trying to say.
I will also add, that as a trans person, the narrative of getting to live life as the person you see yourself as is very present and strong in this book.

I really wanted to love this one...

This book was so slow. I felt like I would never reach the end. I really liked the premise, but the execution was not it for me.

Great Book

This is the third polar expedition book I’ve listened too. All have been good. Great cold winter story.

Slow burn & interesting

If you enjoy expedition tales, this one should not disappoint. It was a bit longer than it needed to be. The most difficult part of this was actually the narration. All of the details seemed to be whispered, while the dialogue was loud and clear, which made it frustrating to listen to because parts are hard to hear, and then the dialogue was too loud.

Thought Provoking and Excellent

Excellent writing combining war, identity, horror and arctic exploration in a spellbinding story. And absolutely solid narration captures it perfectly.