There’s nothing like a bit of horror and creepiness to get
you through the winter months so Dark
Matter (2010) by Michelle Paver seemed the ideal reading material for a
dreary British January. Paver’s novel
(nominated for The Shirley Jackson Award) is set in 1937 and centres on Jack, a
working class boy who’s down on his luck and has lost his dream of becoming a
world class physicist. This is because
Jack is POOR. However, hope lands in the
shape of some Oxbridge chaps, all with names like Teddy and Algie and Gus. They are RICH. We know this because they say things like
“grand” instead of “okay”.
In an echo of Frankenstein
and the scientific pursuits of Walton, the lads all set off on an expedition to
the Arctic and to what is surely a fruitful environment for any spooky story -
24 hour darkness. And it is quite
creepy. You get a real sense of
claustrophobia as time runs out and the daylight disappears, plus we know that
something unwholesome is lurking around, biding its time.
But that’s all you get really. A sort of squelchy, cold creepiness. As soon as Jack sees the old bear baiting
pole I guessed what it had been used for.
And there are so many missed opportunities. What could have been a slow, menacing
possession was just a series of vaguely sinister events. The “revelation” barely caused me to blink
(or shudder).
I think it’s the voice I find most unconvincing. Paver narrates most of the story through Jack’s
journal and it’s here that it falls
apart a bit. I know we’ve established Jack
is POOR, but his language veers between clichéd examples of ’30s slang and
childishly simple sentences. Is this
Jack or Paver? Perhaps Paver hasn’t made
the jump from children’s to adult fiction as seamlessly as others thought.
And then we get to dog obsessions and thinly veiled
homo-eroticism. Jack talks about his
favourite husky like some dementedly twee eight year-old from an Enid Blyton
novel. I thought they were going to slap
each other on the back at one point and settle down to a spiffingly good tea
party with scones and lashings of ginger beer.
And guess what? Jack loves
Gus. But he can’t say it because he’s a
man you know. Stiff upper lip, what
what. But he loves him! He really does old chap! And do you know what? I think good old Gus might love him back
too! Damn that rotten, bloody
ghost. Dammit to hell!
Dark Matter is
great for atmosphere and does offer some genuinely disturbing moments. But it’s a disposable read that won’t be
keeping you up late at night, worrying about what’s hiding in the closet.
