The White Darkness

The White Darkness
Geraldine McCaughrean
Harper Collins Publishers in 2005

Summary:
This book is about a girl named Sym who is obsessed with Antarctica and also Captain Titus Oats, who lived years earlier than her but is still "alive" in her mind. He is her best friend who she tells everything to. Her obsessed uncle Victor takes her to Antarctica to find "Symmes's Hole," presumably the center of the earth. Everything starts to go wrong when Uncle Victor does things that puts them in danger because he cares more for finding this hole and his theories than that they actually survive through it. Sym starts to learn secrets about her uncle and the whole expedition. Sym goes on this adventure through the cold and scary place of Antarctica where no one really knows where she is and she has to find a way to survive and escape from the crazy man who she knows as her uncle and find out who her real friends are as well.

Review:
This book took me awhile to get into. The first half kind of confused me because I didn't really know what was going on but then when I got farther into it, I was amazed at what was happening and how the author wrote this book. I love Sym because I feel like many people and young adults could relate to her and her personality. I love how she continually grew throughout the novel. She found out who she was and she figured out who her real friends are and it made her all the more stronger. The book was crazy as I got farther in- but in a good way. It took me by suprise so many times. Things just kept happening that I never expected to. I really liked this book and the character that Sym grew to be.

Cautionary Notes:
There was some swearing in this novel and some insinuation about certain things. Also, some people die in this novel. Death and profanity are a part of the book so if you don't like that at all, this would not be a good book to read.