Horror Book Review: A Haunting in the Arctic | C. J. Cooke

C. J. Cooke’s latest atmospheric mystery, A Haunting in the Arctic, left me with chills. This haunting novel leans heavily towards horror. It’s not for the faint of heart, but those who like a dark, haunting story will find this gripping.

About the Book | A Haunting in the Arctic

A deserted shipwreck off the coast of Iceland holds terrors and dark secrets in this chilling horror novel from the author of The Lighthouse Witches.

The year is 1901, and Nicky is attacked, then wakes on board the Ormen, a whaling ship embarked on what could be its last voyage. With land still weeks away, it’s just her, the freezing ocean, and the crew – and they’re all owed something only she can give them…

Now, over one hundred years later, the wreck of the Ormen has washed up on the forbidding, remote coast of Iceland. It’s scheduled to be destroyed, but explorer Dominique feels an inexplicable pull to document its last days, even though those who have ventured onto the wreck before her have met uncanny ends.

Onboard the boat, Dominique will uncover a dark past riddled with lies, cruelty, and murder—and her discovery will change everything. Because she’ll soon realize she’s not alone. Something has walked the floors of the Ormen for almost a century. Something that craves revenge.

Review | A Haunting in the Arctic

I haven’t read anything that disturbed me to this extent in ages. The setting was atmospheric, and it was eerie seeing the ship in multiple timelines. It felt like the ship and the sea were a vortex pulling everyone into dark places who encountered them. The present timeline carried more of the classic horror elements—a ghostly presence seems to be hunting the people on the ship. The past timeline plays on the psychological terror of abuse and assault in a horrifying way. This book will make you feel something, particularly women and thinking about how little they were valued in 1901.

“The only thing worse than a ghost, after all, is madness allowed to gallop unchecked.”

If that line doesn’t sum up this dark and disturbing mystery, I don’t know what does! This is a hard book to review because it’s gripping and I found it to be a good book, but at the same time some content was disturbing, and I didn’t always enjoy reading it. I also couldn’t put it down, though. The book primarily occurs in two timelines, though there are sprinklings from other ones.

In 1901, a woman named Nicky is being kept as a prisoner on board a ship called the Ormen. She’s the daughter of the owner of the ship, and the last thing she remembers was being attacked in the park in her hometown of Dundee. She desperately wants to return to her husband, Allan. Instead, she is repeatedly assaulted by the men on the ship, with only a few respecting her and trying to treat her with kindness. Unfortunately, they are bound by the hierarchy on the ship and a justice system that sees the captain as the sole judge and the crew members as the executioners.

In 2023, a whaling ship that turns out to be the Ormen has washed ashore off the coast of Iceland. A young explorer named Dominique has found her way onto the wreck, determined to document the ship and discover what happened in it’s final days on her tiktok channel. The ship is set to be destroyed in several week’s time, leaving her very little time to document her findings. When another group of researchers show up, they agree to team up on their research and documentation.

C. J. Cooke has spoken before on memory and trauma influencing her stories, but here these themes are more prominent and unapologetic than I’ve seen before. This is a dark book that explores topics that may be triggering for some readers. It’s a dark and somber portrayal of human suffering. At the same time, these elements aren’t included for the shock factor. In fact, I would venture to say Cooke presents them with gravitas and a bluntness that lacks romanticism or voyeurism. These themes are integral to the story and the message the book sends readers.

This is a story about trauma, resilience, isolation, and survival. Nicky and Dominique are distinct characters living different stories but are bound by their imprisonment—whether psychological, physical, or both. The story is tense from start to finish, and the ending was exactly what the story needed for the reader to leave with any sense of closure to the strange and eerie events of the novel.

A haunting, atmospheric story with elegance and brutality in equal measure. The audiobook narrator brings the terror to life, and makes this a bingeable read.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Penguin Random House for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | C. J. Cooke

CJ Cooke, also known as Carolyn Jess-Cooke, grew up on a council estate in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the height of the Troubles. She started writing at the age of 7 and pestered publishers for many years with manuscripts typed on her grandparents’ old typewriter and cover notes written on pages ripped from school jotters. 

Since then, she has published 16 books in 23 languages and won numerous awards, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, a Tyrone Guthrie Prize, a K Blundell Award, and she has won a Northern Writer’s Award three times. In 2011, her debut novel, The Guardian Angel’s Journal, was published by Little, Brown. The novel was an international bestseller. Her second novel, The Boy Who Could See Demons (2012), is a cult classic. Her sixth novel, The Lighthouse Witches, was published in October 2021, and was an Indigo Book of the Month, an international bestseller, a New York Public Library Book of the Year and nominated for both an Edgar Award by Mystery Writers of America and an ITW Thriller Award in 2022. It is soon to be a major TV series produced by StudioCanal and The Picture Company. A Haunting in the Arctic is her latest novel and is published in October 2023.

CJ holds a BA (Hons), MA, and PhD from Queen’s University, Belfast, and commenced her academic career in 2005 as a Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sunderland. Shortly thereafter, she published four academic works in swift succession on Shakespearean Cinema and Film Sequels, before establishing her career as a poet, editor, and novelist.

CJ has four children and lives with her family in Glasgow, Scotland.