Whiteout by R.S. Burnett is a pulse-stopping survival thriller that plunges readers into the cold, isolated world of Antarctica and refuses to let up. Taut with claustrophobic tension and charged with glacial realism, this novel seamlessly weaves together pulse-stopping action and a richly human story of survival, bereavement, and the human desire to survive.

Rachael Beckett, a glaciologist who has sacrificed everything (time with her family, included) to further her career, is left alone in the extreme Antarctic winter. When an emergency radio broadcast warns that a nuclear war could have destroyed civilization, Rachael is confronted with battling not only the environment, but also the paralyzing weight of doubt. Struggling to survive, the novel seamlessly moves back and forth between past and present, building a suspenseful story that leaves readers hanging.

Burnett's colorful prose makes the environment a living, breathing entity—a character in its own right—cold, cruel, and totally daunting in its enormity. Portraits of Rachael's daily survival in the novel are starkly real, forcing the reader along with her on the survival battleground. The suspenseful elements—the looming presence lurking unseen in the background—have a heart-racing shot of tension, but it is the emotional journey of Rachael that leaves Whiteout unforgettable.

Whiteout is a gripping, fast-paced thriller that keeps you guessing until the very last page. I had the chance to listen to the audiobook, and the combination of masterful storytelling and brilliant narration made for an immersive experience. It gave me the same chills as one of my favorite podcasts, White Out, and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat read!

Whiteout is an intense, claustrophobic thriller that masterfully blends survival horror with psychological tension. R.S. Burnett’s vivid descriptions of the Antarctic’s brutal landscape create an immersive sense of isolation and dread, while Rachael’s struggle for survival is both harrowing and deeply emotional. The slow-burn suspense builds effectively, though some sections drag as Rachael battles both the elements and her own unraveling mind. Billie Fulford Brown’s narration adds depth, perfectly capturing the protagonist’s fear, resilience, and uncertainty. While not without its slower moments, the gripping premise and eerie twists make this a compelling read for fans of atmospheric thrillers.

I will now and forever love dystopian fiction add that to a psychological thriller and you have an interesting ride. This book follows Rachael, a scientist who is tasked to the Antarctic in the winter, a time of total darkness and harsh weather. The team going down is surveying the area due to very large ice caps breaking off and you know world world-changing ice melt. Though the glaciers are breaking off already, the drilling for oil is causing this process to rapidly increase. The team needs to get the data over 5 months of winter to bring back to the politicians to stop drilling in the area. During this time Rachael winds up alone for months and is stuck in her head, trying to survive, and nothing good happens. Add to that, the only communication is a repeating broadcast from the British government that there were nuclear attacks on the country and this is automated and plays every 2 hours. Rachael doesn't know if her husband and child are alive if she is the last person in the world, or what is happening outside of her hut. As time goes by we have flashbacks from Rachael's life that lead to her being in Antarctica. Just as things look bad, they get worse and we travel farther into the rabbit hole of insanity.
I quite enjoyed the story and the ending was *chef's kiss*. I wasn't in love with Rachael as a person, her character made it hard to sympathize with as she was trying to survive. Though she was a scientist she didn't have the mind of a scientist and she is overall not a great human. However, I think her self-reflection has her realizing this. We know that there is a team of 4 that starts and we slowly find out what happened to the rest of the team as Rachael either learns about what happened or reflects on her past. The narration was good, I enjoyed her portrayal of the characters. Though I wasn't a fan of her man voices as much. The story is entertaining, not perfect, but it does give you a great sense of isolation, insanity, and what it might feel like as the sole person left in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a pretty good job. The story was interesting but the political aspect killed it for me. I’m sure this will be a favorite for some but this wasn’t the book for me.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration was very good. The book is narrated mostly through the eyes of Rachael. The storyline really kept my attention. I found it immersive and hard to put down. It was unsettling and unnerving. Despite there being an obvious natural and human threats, the author fully captures the more serious threat of human nature. The twist was a bit unexpected. My mind was going in a completely different direction. So, when it came along, I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, this was a good read. I love isolated and snowy settings, so this was the perfect read for me. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audioARC to preview.

This book was pretty dumb. I've read a significant amount of nonfiction and fiction set in extreme polar regions, and this read like someone who needed a dramatic setting and did no research. The FMC is so unconvincing that it's offensive. Rather than a cool polar thriller, this is a diatribe against Trump and the US--a view I'm sympathetic towards, but it was poorly executed in this book. Based on the book's synopsis, I was expecting and hoping for something like The Wall by Marlen Haushofer or--AS IT SAYS--The Martian by Andy Weir. But the nuclear disaster is vague, she's not alone or isolated, and there's very little science.

The audiobook isn't great. The narrator is overly emotion and unconvincing, but she didn't have much to work with, so who knows.

Audio arc from NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for an honest review.

For this book I rounded up to four stars. The ending was amazing as the twist was perfection and I didn’t see it coming. Getting to the twist was very long and drawn out and I wanted to give up so many times.
I think it also was a listen that felt a little too close to what is happening in real life with the President breaking treaties, the government being shady and the whole world being effected by global warming,

3.5 stars.

I'll start this by saying that I don't usually read distopian fiction because I find it too unrealistic, but this book had me wondering at times, if it was based on a true story. It really hit on many things that are happening right now in both political and environmental realms. I admit that I almost DNFed this one at about 25% in but decided to stay the course - and I'm glad I did. The pace and intensity picked up considerably toward the end.

As a die hard psychological thriller fan, I was looking for something different and this book hit the spot. It was a bit slow moving for a while and could likely have been considerably shorter to accomplish the author's mission. As a debut novel, it was not too bad and I will definitely keep my eye out for more from this author.

The audio narration was excellent and made the overall listening experience enjoyable. It was one of the reasons I stuck it out past 25%.

If you're a fan of distopian fiction that could potentially be reality and you're looking for some edge of your seat (toward the end of the book) action - this one needs to be on your TBR pile!

This just didn’t work that well for me. I usually love such a desolate setting. However, the story was just too predictable and the characters too unlikeable for the setting to make up the difference.

As high-concept premises go, I't hard to image a bigger attention grabber than this one! Though, despite the obvious thriller trappings, it's a very introspective novel. I suppose not entirely surprising when your protagonist is completely alone for much of the book. But Burnett does a good job adding details for verisimilitude, and with keeping readers guessing what's happening next.

It's not exactly an uplifting read, but I found it interesting and enjoyable.

Whiteout is a fantastic debut survival novel from R. S. Burnett that will stick with me for a while. Nearly every chapter ends on a cliffhanger, and the flashbacks to Rachael's home life provided needed context while keeping the reader wanting more. The characters felt well fleshed-out, and though I struggled to find the motivation behind actions at times, I still enjoyed the concept as a whole.

High points for me were the characters, setting and original story. The heavy-handed foreshadowing unfortunately made the reveal less impactful. I understand Rachael wasn't operating at 100% mental capacity at times, but the readers were! Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to following the author in the future.

First off I have to say that Billie Fulford Brown’s narration pulled me right into this story. And what a story it is. Imagine being a researcher in Antartica and receiving a radio transmission that nuclear war has occurred and you can’t get in contact with anyone. That’s exactly what has happened to Rachel Beckett. Alone in the unforgiving cold of Antarctic, cut off from everyone, not knowing what has become of her husband and child or the rest of humanity for that matter, and running low on supplies. Whiteout is an intense story of a woman struggling to survive. The right director could turn this into one heck of a movie. I’d like to thank Spotify Audiobooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review an advanced copy of the audio version of R.S. Burnett’s Whiteout.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Z5QKHU5TETBX/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Whiteout by R.S. Burnett follows Antarctic researcher Rachael Beckett after she joins an emergency research excursion, leaving behind her husband and young daughter. While at a remote in-field post, Beckett loses communication with her team. Then she receives over the radio an emergency BBC broadcast announcing that a nuclear incident has occurred, the extent of the damage is unknown, and individuals should remain indoors.

The setting is very claustrophobic due to it being so isolated and with such extreme conditions. I really felt like I was there with Rachel as she struggled to survive against increasingly difficult situations. The tension starts right from the very beginning of the book, and the explanation for the emergency mission felt way to plausible for comfort.

The book was intertwined with Rachel's internal personal struggle with her marriage and motherhood, which added some depth to the story, though it did feel a bit repetitive at times.

I had the audiobook arc of this book, which I found to overall be a good production. The narrator did well with her inflection and matching her reading to the intensity of the scenes. I believe it was a single narrator, but she did try to change her voice to differentiate the different characters.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good isolated thriller with a unique setting and intense, pulse-raising scenes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for the advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Wow this one threw me for a loop. I listened to the audiobook so I wish the chapters had ‘present’ or ‘past’ noted. This book gave me Dead of Winter vibes with the Arctic landscape. I liked how the backstory of why she was on the mission felt current. The ending felt rushed and I wish there was more information but it did stick with me.

I really enjoyed this thriller about a scientist in Antarctica trying to prevent a climate disaster and then learns she’s possibly one of the last survivors after a nuclear attack. The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job with the voices and keeping my attention.

There were a lot of political aspects that felt too realistic (eek) in the USA and they certainly heightened the tension for me. I was enthralled by the main character’s survival skills and found myself binging his story to see what happens next.

Some of the plot points were predictable to me and the main villain was a bit cartoonish but overall I really enjoyed the ride and would read more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, R.S. Burnett, and Spotify Audio for the audiobook. Narrated by Billie Fulford Brown, this was an engaging listen. I appreciated the political angle tied to climate change, which felt eerily relevant to current events. A gripping survival thriller set in the remote Arctic, it explores the lengths people will go to in order to protect science—and their secrets.

Whiteout is new from author R. S. Burnett and Spotify.

I'm often disappointed when a book is labeled as a thriller or suspense title and it misses the mark. But...I'm happy to say that Burnett's book is not one of those! Instead he had me staying up late listening for 'just one more' chapter.

Glaciologist Rachael is one of the last researchers left in the station in Antarctica. A radio message delivers unbelievable news... and... I'm going to let you discover what's next.

Rachel is a great lead character - she's clever, dogged and strong, mentally and physically. But the odds are against her - alone with dwindling resources.

Burnett does a great job with the setting. Nothing but snow, the unbelievable cold and the wrath of mother nature.

There's a number of 'Oh I didn't see that coming' that changes the storyline many times.

I chose to listen to Whiteout. I've said it before but I'll say it again. I find that I much myself more immersed in a tale. Thea was definitely the course with Whiteout. The narrator was award winning Billie Fulford Brown. She is a amazing reader! She speaks clearly and is easy to understand. She captures the fear, the anger and determination of Rachel. And what else follows. An excellent presentation and a great book.

And as the publisher says "perfect for fans of The Martian. I agree.

An interesting premise for a book, although the MC got on my nerves quite a bit. I felt like she was trying to prove a point that didn't even need to be proved, which got irritating. I kept listening for the plot, to see if they would save the world or not. I did feel like I was right there with the MC in Antarctica with the vivid descriptions of how she felt and the surroundings, I enjoyed hearing those things which added to the story and thrills. Funny thing is, I could actually see this happening smh The narration was great!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Audiobook crashes, so unable to listen, but expect this to be a good pick for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.