Thin Air by Michelle Paver

Publisher – Orion

Published – Out Now

Price – £9.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook

The Himalayas, 1935.

Kangchenjunga. The sacred mountain. Biggest killer of them all.

Five Englishmen set out to conquer it. But courage can only take them so far. And the higher they climb, the darker it gets.

Humans have a capacity to take risks. Some say it is part of our inherent desire to push things. If we succeed we learn something, gain something and a sense of achievement. If we fail though and we can be feeling disappointed; lose everything though and if you’re very very unlucky you will lose your life. In Michelle Paver’s entertaining historical horror novel Thin Air we follow a team of adventurers try something never done before but find waiting them something monstrous.

In 1935 Kangchenjunga is one of the Himalayas yet to be conquered mountains. In 1905 there was a celebrated British Expedition that fell into the category of noble disaster with the deaths of many of the. Many others too have failed and now Stephen has been recruited as a late replacement medic for his brother Kit’s new attempt. But soon Stephen feels his group is not alone on the mountain and the past may be haunting him in more ways than one.

Now I enjoyed this tale but it perhaps for regular horror fans may offer exactly what you expect. Paver works very hard to give us a sense of the period ad Stephen as we hear his take on what happened to the group. We get the sense of the British adventurers who after WW1 seek a new adventure, fame and a chance to make history. Also though we see the arrogance of a group who seek themselves as special and arguably entitled to the world and dismiss that the group is heavily reliant on the sherpas and local knowledge. They seek adventure and take risks but they’re very sure they can do it – they’re English by jove. But there is a sense of foreboding that Paver steadily increases – this is a world of sudden white-outs, avalanches and one where sound and vision can be disrupted or perhaps influenced. Things get we rider the higher they ascend and we know trouble awaits.

My issue though is we really really know trouble awaits. While this is a fairly short novel it feels from the off a classic ghost story. While that definitely works there is a feeling of things following the clasci beats – omens, secrets, omens, secrets, and then hauntings. I enjoyed the story but there are very few surprises as this story does what you expect it to and that slightly takes the edge off the horror – its more a comfortable traditional story. A comfortable spooky read but one that may not perhaps have you reaching for the cushion.