Thank you Brilliance Publishing | Brilliance Audio for allowing me to audibly read and review Bitter Passage by Colin Mills on NetGalley.

Narrated by Steve West

Stars: 2.5

Too many lists of details: dates, times, and names.

The book never took off for me. The deluge of historical information listed would have been better if told in a story fashion. This is written academically. I love Arctic Expeditions, unfortunately this doesn't work. It may be what you need.

I did enjoy the narrator.

This is a lovely piece of writing, but I struggle a lot with books where a fictional version is decidedly less exciting than the dozens of nonfiction accounts that exist.

I guess I just wonder why this book exists, when we have loads of faithful accounts of real polar disasters and rescues that are far more successful at keeping the reader on the edge of their seat.

It’s a subject that has lent itself well to fiction in many instances, but doesn’t need to be fictionalized to be exciting, so if we’re not adding to either the thrill or the sense of place of it all, there doesn’t seem touch point.

If you just can’t get enough of polar disaster fiction, this is at least well written and atmospheric, and the author has done a very good job of trying to be authentic. But I was expecting something both more exciting and more imaginative, and I didn’t get either.

very very slow to the point I had to DNF. I was very lost the first few chapters and it just couldn't hold my attention. I think the narrator was a good choice for the book itself but it still wasn't enough to keep my attention

This book was incredibly difficult to get through due to how boring the narration and plot were. Then when you get to more action, the payoff didn’t feel worth the boredom of the first two-thirds.

A horror/thriller about an Arctic expedition? Sign me up. I loved some much about this book. I thought the plot, story, and pacing was very well done for the most part.

Read this after the Terror, and it was a good follow up. Not as good as the terror, but I liked it. The characters weren't as interesting and some of their internal journey was a little fast. I also didn't like how whenever they came across someone from Franklin's crew, they were within a day or two of dying. Meh.

The horror of the arctic and cold and starvation were well done, though.

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook and the narrator had a pleasant voice. There was a great deal of tension and the conflict throughout this story. I eas on the edge of my seat I liked the concept of survival, but I could have done with out the gore. Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

A wonderful audiobook that really brought out the best parts of the book. The narrator did an excellent job in highlighting the tensions and the conflicts. This story really did make my heart race. It was a perfect winter read, full of survival horror goodness.

Bitter Passage by Colin Mills is one of those books that sticks with you long after you’ve read the last page. It’s not a fast-paced adventure—if anything, it’s slow and deeply reflective, which works perfectly for the setting. The harsh Arctic landscape mirrors the internal struggles of the characters, and the story is less about survival in the physical sense and more about the mental toll of isolation and ambition. It’s beautifully written and atmospheric, but definitely a more introspective read. If you’re in the mood for something thought-provoking and a little haunting, this is worth picking up.

I really enjoyed this book although I will say it was a bit gruesome at times. It took to about 25-30% of the story to really get started, I felt that in the beginning it was hard to keep track of the characters, but that also got easier at around the 25% mark. What these men went through was extremely difficult. I never really thought of Arctic exploration in our history so I’m glad that I read this book to learn more about it. It was well written and once you really got into it, you wanted to keep going to find the outcome.

Thank you NetGalley and Brilliance Audio for an audio galley to read and review voluntarily.

First, the narrator is incredible. Steve West has a great masculine voice for the main characters that was a pleasure to listen to, but he did women, sick voices, mean voices all soooo well. He was able to differentiate between similar characters so well that it was easy to follow the narrative switches. However, he is a little breathy and was rather fast so instead of my usual 2x speed I listened at 1.75x.

The novel itself is a character driven dark adventure. I'm a fan of arctic exploration nonfiction as well as inspired novels such as this one. I was bitterly disappointed by the pathetic, half baked story Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes, but this one by Colin Mills made up for it!

The two main characters have found themselves on the same quest but with different motivations and end goals. They are each haunted by different struggles, familial burdens, and temptations. And so the novel follows how they chafe against each other, the strange ways they encourage the other, and how they must band together to fight the horrors of the Arctic that arise.

This would be a fascinating group read. There are religious themes, social issues such as the influence of war/peace and classism and the purpose of exploration, and really neat blending of truth and fiction.

The writing itself is beautiful and polished. Easy to follow action sequences, descriptive passages woven into dialogue and introspection that left no room for boredom. And scattered poignant lines that made me pause the book to soak in the prose.

I recommend this especially to lovers of the genre in nonfiction and fiction alike. Horror readers could love this too despite its lack of monsters or ghosts for all the real horror inherent to their choices.

Maybe it was just me but this book was just a No! I tried so hard to like it but i just couldn't it was sooo slow! I try soo hard not to DNF a book but this one i couldn't help! I got to 50% and just couldn't take it anymore