I read the book ‘Chasing Ghosts: An Arctic Adventure’ by the author Nicola Pierce and I really enjoyed it. My favourite genre of book is historical fiction and my favourite author is Michael Morpurgo so I was excited to read this book because I thought it would be interesting. It definitely is, and the best part about it is that it is based on real life events! That made the story even better for me.
The way this story is written is very unusual. It follows two different storylines that end up overlapping as the plot goes on. This means that we follow two different narrators through the story- Ann Coppin in Derry and Captain Crozier who is second-in-command on an Arctic expedition. I thought at first that I might find this a bit confusing, but the author writes each character’s chapters in a different way so I knew exactly what was happening. Ann’s story was my favourite because it was a little bit spooky and nerve-wracking, but I enjoyed the chapters about the expedition too and found them very exciting and sometimes sad.
I really liked that those chapters are written as though the reader is reading Captain Crozier’s private journal. Chasing Ghosts has an excellent plot and brings the two separate storylines together very cleverly. I finished the book in two days and was hooked from the very first chapter- I won’t give away any spoilers, but the book starts in a very shocking way that really surprised me! I wasn’t expecting it, but it definitely caught my attention and made me want to read on. The map drawn by illustrator Eoin O’Brien was a great help when I was picturing the path the Arctic expedition took.
Chasing Ghosts is a great book to read if you like adventure, history or ghost stories. I think the book is probably most suitable for 5th Class and up. It deals with things like sickness, injuries and the death of a small child which might be a bit upsetting for younger readers but they could maybe read it with an adult. In my opinion this is a thrilling book and I would definitely encourage everyone to read it if they get the chance! Nicola Pierce is an amazing author and I am excited to read more of her books.
By Miya, 5th Class, Presentation Primary School, Portarlington, Co. Laois.
“Chasing Ghosts – An Arctic Adventure” by Nicola Pierce, published by O’Brien Press, is now on sale for €8.99 (P/B).
Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher, O’Brien Press, free of charge to Seomra Ranga for the purposes of this review
