Thin Air: The most chilling and compelling ghost story of the year

Product Information

Michelle Paver writes about ghastly goings on in on a trek to Mount Kangchenjunga with dextrous flair, flipping between thrilling descriptions of traversing glacial landscapes and chilling revelations of tormented souls.

The Radio 2 Book Club - Thin Air by Michelle Paver - BBC

All mountains are killers, but ours is worse than most," says Stephen, the protagonist of Thin Air as he climbs Kangchenjunga, the sacred mountain in the Himalayas. It’s a hypothesis, and it makes me feel slightly better. I’ve put a frame around the wrongness. I’ve contained it.” Thin Air is an interesting book about a group that decides to climb Kangchenjunga in India. I was quite fascinated with the books premise. Horror stories that take place in isolated places are great and I was quite looking forward to being swept off my feet. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. I liked the story, but I didn't love it. There were interesting moments, but I just felt that I never really connected with either Stephen Pearce or his fellow travelers. I liked the idea that one of the men from the previous expedition was left behind and that Stephen Pearce felt haunted. But, it just never got really interesting.

I had a good time. That's pretty much all. It has brotherly angst, a fight against the elements, tragedy, pettiness, and above all, really great foreshadowing. Most of my enjoyment came from trying to find out what Kind of ghost story it would become, and when I learned, I was mightily pleased. Nuff Said about that. This book is guaranteed to give you chills! Don't read it just before going to bed... * MARTIN BELCHER blog * I could feel the chilly winds and the cold in this one and the eerie feel of the mountain really comes to life in her vivid writing.

Thin Air by Michelle Paver review – Touching the Void meets

I was not disappointed again - the writing flowing and she really sets the tension and when it comes it is terrifying. 'Thin air' is set in 1935 and is about a group of English men climbing the Kanchenjunga a sacred mountain in the Himalayas. The descriptions of how the men and their Sherpa's set off and built their camps as they begin their assent is well written - the attention to detail is particularly fascinating. A riveting read that I couldn't put down - but on a note of caution it's best to read with all the lights on! My second trip on one of Michelle Paver’s icy cold ghost stories, the first being Dark Matter. I loved that one, and this one proved to be just as good. No moral relativism here, but lots of action, great characters and a nice big mountainous metaphor rearing above it all. Just fantastic.” Michelle Paver climbs the heights with a tale of horrors… stark and gnawing tale of horrors lurking at the limits of human endurance and beyond. If you enjoyed Dark Matter, you won’t be disappointed this follow-up” Once more we are in a cold, secluded, location, the Hilamayas instead of the Arctic. At first glance, this is quite similar to her previous story but the feel is quite different. I would guess that this kind of tale requires a remote and dangerous setting, somewhere secluded and cut off the real world. Kangchenjunga, as well as other mountains, are places of wonder, where the immense scale becomes alien, and where euphoria morphs with desolation. Additionally, opting for the 1930s golden era of mountain climbing adds somehow that fashionable 'old' feel to it.Michelle Paver was born in central Africa, but came to England as a child. After gaining a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, she became a partner in a city law firm, but eventually gave that up to write full-time. Didn't find this book scary at all so I would not classify it as horror for me, but it was a pretty good adventure/mystery mountain climbing story. The writing style was hard to follow at first, but became easier as the book progressed. Though the author did her research, the story seemed rushed and didn't set me on edge. Ending was somewhat predictable. This is a tense, atmospheric novel set in India in the 1930s. An expedition set on the way to a mountain that claimed many before. The story is told from the viewpoint of Stephen, who is a doctor and the younger brother of the group leader Kits. The novel starts in a soul very likely to Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 days but as Stephen meets with an ex-mountaineer that had climbed the killer in the past, we immediately get the picture- this is no happy adventure...Something terrible awaits on the mountain. Thin Air: A Ghost Story fitted the bill perfectly for me, this is more the the sort of story that is eerie and chilling and unsettling as opposed to scary.