Not only did this book feel very much like her other book, All the White Spaces, this book also reminded me of The Terror by Dan Simmons. As both of her books have taken place on a ship trapped in the unforgiving cold, I hope that her next book goes in a different direction.

I enjoy Wilkes writing and thought she excelled at creating atmosphere and with Day's inner turmoil. The downside was that this book felt longer than 400 pages as there are some slower parts.

A 5 star read, this is a genuine pleasure to read-which sounds odd as it is about isolation, grief, suffering, and much, much more besides..-and so immersive it's insane. My poor kids were grateful of the break of me talking, but quickly became fed up of me yelling 'where is my book?!' 50 times a day because I could not put it down, then spent the next frantic half an hour looking for it when I had feed them or do other grownup stuff.

Ally Wilkes takes a horror story of exploration gone hideously, horribly, wrong, a feat of hubris shot to shreds, manly men doing manly things, and creates a moving, pathos threaded narrative of love, loss and grief.

All is frozen there, in the ice, waiting for Day to return and claim it.

He is a walking emblem on his return to 'civilization' of man gone wrong, a living example of what not to do to uphold the British Empire and it's patriarchal constructs. Tormented, internally and externally by being literally frozen out of his profession, he wanders like an albatross, shunned and reviled by society.

Until they need him.

With no regard to his personal suffering, and to be used as a redemptive arc by his employers, he is asked to set sail once more, to retake his fateful journey in the hopes of finding another surviving crew member who has gone missing .

There is so much depth and resonance in the tale of William Day, who has been thrust into a riole he was uniquely unqualified to take, by dint of the deaths of those who outranked him.

Has he harpooned this redemptive voyage by bringing along the wife of the missing sailor, herself a psychic, and her enigmatic native companion , Qila?

Will he be able to claim back his name, and his identity that he fears lost along with the dead who he carries with him?

This extraordinary voyage of a man to the heart of himself , his masculinity, his identity, is truly wonderful, as well as horrific. It drives such a wedge into your conscious that it is impossible to shake.

I really loved the motif of cannibalism as an act of self destruction and toxic self loathing for not being like other men, especially as it applies to gender non conformity which would not have been recognised, nor talked about in this era.

Please PLEASE read this book, preferably like I did, swaddled in a huge patchwork quilt with the biggest mug of coffee.

Once you set sail on the Reckoning, and sister ship the Louisa, you won't be turning back.

"Where the Dead Wait" caters to fans of historical fiction, immersing readers in the 1800s aboard a ship with authentic terminology and language. While the book is overly descriptive in places and lacks substantial gruesomeness until later, it explores survivor's guilt well.

The plot follows the main character, William, through two timelines—initially, a polar expedition with harrowing survival circumstances and later, haunted by ghosts and battling survivor's guilt. The well-researched polar expeditions lean toward historical genres, yet the book retains chilling gothic elements and includes some gruesome scenes. Despite well-researched historical elements, the book may feel like a dense textbook for some readers, particularly those seeking deeper character connections.

"Where the Dead Wait" poses the question, "How do you escape a haunted house, when both the ghost and the house are you?" The inclusion of seances and ghosts adds a supernatural touch to this slow, creeping gothic horror novel, potentially appealing to readers who appreciate a unique blend of history and the supernatural.

Ultimately, I lost interest in this book but I think for the right person this could be a great read.

Ally Wilkes’s All the White Spaces was one of my favourite reads of 2022 so Where the Dead Wait was one of my most anticipated releases for 2024. The story follows William Day who is haunted by a failed expedition to the Arctic. Hailed in the papers as a cannibal and murderer, his reputation has never recovered. Thirteen years since the failed expedition, Day’s second in command Jesse Stevens has gone missing on another voyage in the Arctic. Day sees his chance to restore his reputation but will he be able to face the ghosts of his past?

I was completely and utterly captivated by this book. Wilkes has such a compelling writing style and I was immediately sucked in. This is the sort of book that will have you staying up long past your bedtime because you just have to know how it is going to happen. Wilkes is a master at creating a tense, unsettling atmosphere and I loved the way that continued to grow as the story progressed. Much like All the White Spaces this story has plenty of dark, shivery, creeping moments that will send a shiver up your spine and leave you on the edge of your seat.

Where the Dead Wait is a slower-paced read, which perfectly allows the tension to build. Wilkes does a brilliant job of bringing the sights and sounds of the Arctic as well as life on board a ship to life. The story feels so detailed and the time period well researched that I almost felt like I was there. This is an incredibly well-executed story full of complex, fascinating characters that explores the depths of the human psyche.

Where the Dead Wait is an addictive, thought-provoking read and Ally Wilkes has definitely solidified themselves as an auto-buy author for me. If you’re looking for a dark and bloody horror novel that will keep you glued right until the very last sentence, you won’t want to miss Where the Dead Wait.

Some nightmares are very vivid and specific (the monster chasing you) but sometimes the worst ones are just when you know things are wrong, haunting you on the periphery of your vision and can’t quite work out how to escape. It preys on your dreaming mind and builds that sense of fear. When things get worse what will you do? In Ally Wilkes’ disturbing horror novel Where The dead Wait a 19th century rescue mission into the Arctic follows the track of a previously doomed expedition and as they near the end of the search more horrors await discovery.

William Day of the British Navy was once a young, ambitious but kind-hearted officer. But in 1869 his captain’s expedition on HMS Reckoning to discover a mythical sea route has been trapped in the ice. Provisions are low and the death toll mounts. When the survivors are eventually found, it is discovered to keep alive they did the unthinkable with their dead – cannibalism. Day’s reputation will be ruined in scandal a friend of his named Stevens will prosper.

Then in 1882 Day is recalled to the Admiralty. It is now Stevens’ turn to have been lost in the Arctic seas and Day is tasked to find him – and possibly finally restore his reputation but also be reunited with this compelling man. Day pulls together a crew of doomed whalers, Steven’s spiritualist wife and then they go into danger which quickly finds them. However, for Day the constant presence of Stevens drives him onwards and onwards as things get worse as it speak to the worst secrets of his past.

What strikes me the most bout this store is the sense of the liminal. Wilkes uses the setting of Arctic seas, ice and skies to create a landscape that feels like a big oppressive liminal space into which anything can go and be lost in or mysterious things come out of. It is never a welcoming place where endless sunlight bleaches the bones and burns the skin or endless dark plunges the unlucky into despair. It’s a very unique type of prison. Cleverly the outside then has the pressure cooker of the ships Day and his crew live on. The steamer HMS resolution is in contrast cramped, full of dark shadowy places and irregular noises where you cannot find much peace before someone else finds you. The outside and inside are working together to create a ever growing pressure of dissonance impacting the crew and in the 19th century we have a very superstitious crew all carrying their own bad memories and to which potentially being lost in ice, without enough provisions is bad enough but the people feel the dead may be haunting them the pressure gets stronger. How long can rationality take hold when people are under such pressure? This is a novel skilled at building up a sense of dread that things will explode…and they do.

One central mystery is focused on the characters of Day and Stevens. Day is a character we feel sympathetic too but as readers we soon get aware he is carrying a lot of secrets. Not simply that he’s done the unthinkable – eaten the dead but that this earlier expedition carries a stigma that it may have engineered some punishments to create new bodies. We witness one key moment at the very start that has many consequences. Day though seems to carry more secrets - other things that in his mind are worse than what is publicly known about this time in his life. While we grow to admire Day we feel he is weak and so may have been pushed into something he never stood up against and the storyline is great at making us have to wait. In contrast is the malevolent Stevens outwardly in looks a heroic angelic figure that Day has a fixation on (Day’s homosexuality is another secret he works hard to hide from his crew) but the reader feels Stevens is a lot nastier based on the reputation he carries, Day’s flashbacks and the mysterious haunting images of him that Day witnesses again and again. As readers we suspect that Stevens is heavily involved in the past disaster but not sure how and as horrific clues from Stevens’ new command appears it seems dark events are afoot. Eventually all is revealed and its unflinching in the horror about to descend on these unfortunate crews. For day what will his eventual decision be as we can see both his kind and more hidden ruthless nature appear throughout the book which could doom him for a second time.

The horror is deliciously delivered. The first half of the book is about building this powerful atmosphere aided by many strange events – some human-driven while others very possibly not. The madness of people, the environment, and the way everything feels slightly unreal makes this a murky humanless world where bad things can just happen. As they escalate the impact on people’s minds get worse and worse. One horror theme here is less focused on the supernatural but that people may perform irrational and horrific things to break the bad luck they think is on them. As we move into the second half of the book the threats get more active and surprising. It neatly wraps up the two storylines and reaches a powerful climactic showdown of characters at the end battling to survive.

Where The Dead Wait is haunting - not just with the hints of the restless dead but in its creation of an environment that is truly desolate and its impact on anyone within it when things go wrong. Life here is fragile and to survive when things go wrong you may be pushed into doing the unthinkable to survive just even the next hour. As the setting an eerie place those deeds though may carry echoes for a very long time afterwards. A thoroughly disquieting but mesmerising read and strongly recommended for a cold winter’s night of a read. Wilkes continues to be a writer to watch!

Ally Wilkes seems to have found something that she's really, really good at writing, and I'm super glad that they're sticking to it. After the absolutely fantastic All The White Spaces, one of the best debut novels I've read, I was happy to learn that they would be staying in the realms of historical, queer, arctic horror stories, and Where the Dead Wait is the perfect companion piece to the first book; though this time it jumps to the other side of the world, and gives you a reason to fear the North Pole, as well as the South.

Where the Dead Wait tells the story of William Day, a young sailor who found himself in a horrific position some thirteen years prior to the main events of the book. Part of a polar expedition, his ship became trapped in the ice, with the provisions running low and the crew becoming sick. When the captain dies, Day is thrust into a doomed command, and tries his best to keep the sick and dying members of the crew alive as they take to the ice. He does whatever it takes to keep himself and his men alive, even doing the unthinkable.

When Day and his men are finally found the truth about their survival becomes a scandal, with stories of cannibalism splashed across the front pages of the papers. Day becomes a pariah. However, years later, when one of the members of his old crew, and the man he secretly loves, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same icy waters in another expedition. Day is given the chance to redeem himself, and save the man he loves, by leading a rescue party north to find the missing group. But this is no normal expedition, his crew is filled with the superstitious survivors of a disaster at sea, and he has to bring along Stevens' wife, a psychic medium, and her personal bodyguard, a native girl named Qila.

As they sail into the cold and desolate north, looking for signs of the missing party more and more strange things begin to happen on the ship, and Day has to questions if the strange visions he's being haunted by might not just be all in his mind, but dark forces from beyond the veil come to destroy him and his crew.

Much like All The White Spaces, I found that Where the Dead Wait became the perfect kind of book for the time of the year I read it. Sitting in the dark of my room, the only illumination the screen of my kindle and a dim lamp, wrapped in a blanket against the cold, whilst fierce wind howled against the side of the house, rattling the windows in their frames. The only thing that was missing were flurries of snow. This book makes for a perfect winter read, one that has you questioning if the chill that just went down your spine was the weather, or what you just read.

And, similarly to her last book, Wilkes doesn't use obvious horror. The book has you questioning what is and isn't real, has you wondering if the characters are going mad, and what kind of dark forces are lurking just out of sight. Much of the book relies on an increasing sense of tension, slowly ramping up the eeriness until you're almost begging for something to happen just to cause a break in the worry that's building inside you. However, unlike the previous book, where that tension never really broke, this time it does. Wilkes throws some truly horrific moments at the readers, and they do so in ways that shock and astonish, moments that leave you wondering if what you read was real, or another dark hallucination in the arctic night.

One of the things that I personally loved about All the White Spaces was the queer representation the book had. The lead character was a young trans man, and it was fantastic to see a lead in a horror story from this demographic. And I know a lot of people were hoping for something similar with this book too, and Wilkes absolutely delivers on that a second time, telling a wonderfully crafted story of hidden gay love, of a man desperately wanting to be with someone society tells him he can't be. There are some wonderful moments in the book that goes deep into Day's head, and shows you how much his love for Stevens has affected him. But, a persons feelings can sometimes hide some painful truths, and our hearts can lie to us, and the more we learn about Stevens the more complex this relationship becomes, leading to some unexpected moments that might be some of the most horrific due to how real it is.

Where the Dead Wait is a hugely atmospheric book, one that's packed full of dark and disturbing scenes that play with both the characters and readers heads. It demands your attention, and juggles a lot of plot threads and characters, creating an intricate and fascinating tapestry (one that you might want to make notes about along the way just to keep up). With Wilkes having explored the two opposing extremes of the globe, terrifying readers of both tales, I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next. Whatever it is, I'll be reading it as soon as I can.

First of all many thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for my Arc of this book.

Happy release day!

Ally Wilkes’ debut novel ‘All the White Spaces’ did two important things for me: firstly, it opened me up to the endless potential that the desolate landscape of the arctic has within horror, and secondly it made any novel written by Ally Wilkes a must read for me. Needless to say, ‘Where the Dead Wait’ was very much a highly anticipated novel. It did not disappoint, but nor did it meet my expectations.

This is not a criticism!

‘All the White Spaces’ is gritty, and the landscape and conditions to survive in are truly horrific. Wilkes does not shy away from the punishment the cold can inflict on the human body. If ‘White Spaces’ depicts the arctic landscape as monstrous, then ‘Where the Dead Wait’ reveals the inverse: the monster that the landscape can create.

Main character William Day, in every sense of the word, is haunted. Haunted by his failed expedition, haunted by his reputation, and haunted by Jesse Stevens, his second-in-command on the failed expedition. I think it is fair to say that Day and Stevens had a *complex* relationship; an intimate relationship, or as intimate as explorers can be in the mid-1800s. Day, fourth in command on the expedition, was thrust into the captaincy role as those around him perished from scurvy, amongst other disastrous endings. In this vein,
one of the themes I found the most intriguing throughout the novel was that of leadership.

Day, both on the past expedition and in the present one, is stuck in a position of power that he has no business being in, and he knows and hates it. Power dynamics are constantly at play throughout both timelines between Day and his ‘crew’. I never thought I would be sat here applauding ship politics, but it held a definite fascination and a razor-sharp edge to it. When order and civility hang by a thread; as food supplies dwindle and the nights get darker, any wrong decision Day makes is likely to have disastrous consequences. Wounds do not heal in the arctic freeze and Day, unintentionally or otherwise, is constantly in danger of inflicting many a wound upon his crew.

The relationship between Day and Stevens is at the black heart of both expeditions within the novel. It is a stark look into not just an unhealthy relationship, but a terminal brand of affection that has unthinkable consequences on the surviving crewmen. Stevens’ personality dominates and engulfs Day, and it is a damning insight into the dormant wickedness that exists in passive complicity. Day is aware of Stevens’ plots and plans and yet he chooses ignorance and love over the truth and a broken heart. The present-day narrative is a case of Day coming to terms with his reckoning.

Day, haunted by physical manifestations of Stevens (amongst other things), is finally forced to confront his past. Ally Wilkes is subtle with her use of supernatural forces, reality and insanity constantly intersecting and leaving you unsure what is real and make-believe. There is a hypnotic quality to some of her writing; in truth it can be a challenge at times, but it is a good challenge! It leaves you just as disorientated and vulnerable as the characters in the story. There is constant uncertainty about what is real and what isn’t, what is malicious and what is harmless, and this is all reflected in Day’s more and more reckless actions as captain. As the past closes in on Day, the more erratic he becomes.

Questions of identity plague the story until its very end. What does it mean to be a hero? A villain? Someone who is good? Someone who is bad? As always, the answer is typically found somewhere in the middle, and that is where Ally Wilkes thrives, between boundaries of certainty and uncertainty, in that uncanny grey area where the dead lie in wait.

First of all I should say this book does have trigger warnings, including but not limited to animal death, cannibalism, injury detail & death and homophobia to name a few. Now the later of those warnings and cannibalism should I suppose be at lease expected or considered when the novel is set in the 1800s and mirrors the ideals of the time. On top of this it is about polar exploration and we all know the real life horror stories of those early ‘explorers’ who found themselves at the mercy of the ice and ocean. With this in mind the triggers for me I could accept and understand but I am aware some will not.


I personally really enjoyed this novel. I particularly liked the way Day seems to struggle with the idea and perhaps possession or spell of the past, particularly Stevens. I found the pacing worked well with the novels setting and plot. At times we seem to be steaming along while at others things go slower as if we are stuck in the icy landscape and at the mercy of what the ocean will put before them.


Tied with the pace is the writing, Wilkes’ writing is perfect at evoking the claustrophobic setting of the ship and the surrounding area offering no respite. This is aided, in my opinion, by the narrative switching between ‘then’ and ‘now’. We slowly find out what happened and why Day is seemingly so obsessed with Stevens. I can understand that the pace may not be for everyone but for me I really enjoyed it and think it captured the isolation and slowness of the actual journey the characters undertake as well.

William Day was part of an expedition, to find the fabled Open Polar Sea, which ended in disaster. Many of the men died of scurvy & the survivors only managed to hang on by becoming cannibals & eating their dead shipmates. As the last surviving officer, Day took most of the blame & opprobrium being nicknamed 'Eat 'em Fresh' Day. Thirteen years later, Day is offered a chance at redemption, to go find his second-in-command from that ill-fated voyage, who has gone missing in the same area. Jesse Stevens was Day's bunkmate & closest friend - perhaps more. Day sets sail with a new crew, a reporter, & Stevens' wife - a spiritualist who claims she can communicate with the dead. Day has his own run-ins with the dead who haunt him, but as they get closer to their destination, violence & death once again circle ever closer.

This was a difficult book to rate. There are a lot of positives: I thought the author conveyed the claustrophobic feeling of being stuck onboard a ship for months, & the despair of those who know they are unlikely to live to return home. I felt as if I was there. Pace-wise it was a little uneven as some parts of the book seemed to fly by whilst others crawled at a snail's pace. My main issue was impatience with the main character though as it seemed to take him forever to snap out of the spell that he was under with regards to Stevens & see the true character of the man. If you enjoyed Dan Simmons' 'The Terror' you'd probably like this book. I've read both & I'm actually rating this one slightly higher. 3.5 stars (rounded up).

TWs: violence, homophobia, Injury detail, cannibalism, animal death.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Titan Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I really wanted to love Where the Dead Wait but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. I think this was an issue of loving the idea, but not the execution. Arctic exploration and cannibalism sound like the makings of a chilling horror novel, but it was so slow paced that I found myself struggling to get through it. I did like the ending, but it felt like too much work to get there.

3.5 stars

I had a lot of hope when I first heard about this book. While I haven't read 'All the White Spaces', I'm a big fan of polar horror, for lack of a better term. I absolutely adore Michelle Paver's work, especially Dark Matter, which I consider to be one of the most terrifying ghost stories I've ever read, so was excited to see that she blurbed this book. However, I unfortunately felt that it sort of lost a bit of its impetus in the last third that it struggled to recover even with quite a punchy finale.

In brief, 'Where the Dead Wait' follows disgraced Naval captain William Day, who led a failed expedition to find the North-West Passage some thirteen years before, which led to survival cannibalism before he and his remaining crew were rescued. Now he must venture back to the Arctic in search of Jesse Stevens, his previous second in command who has disappeared far beyond the realms of civilisation. Despite being unsure if Stevens is alive or dead, Day is constantly haunted by him and the things they did on their previous expedition. The rest of the ship seems cursed too, manned by a crew of whalers who had survived their own stint with cannibalism, and accompanied by Stevens wife, a spirit medium who insists on holding seances aboard the ship.

With all this in mind, there was plenty to be spooked by here, and for the most part it did its job admirably. I was especially unsettled by a figure that seems to be haunting the ship, wearing a horrific mask fashioned from an orca's head (because I'm terrified of the sea and especially orcas), and was disappointed that it was only in the book for a short length of time. I especially liked the fact that Day was gay and one of the elements of Stevens that haunted him so much was his desire for him and how Stevens had used that to manipulate him into doing horrific things. I think that the central issue I had with the book was that it was too long - it felt like it was really running out of steam by the time the crew found the old ship and it was a struggle to keep reading when it felt like there was no moving forward until Day lead the small expedition out of the ship. As I've said before, the ending was punchy and definitely picked the pace back up, but I wish it had had more momentum leading into it.

“Needs must when the devil drives.”

Ally Wilkes new novel is based on William Day, an acclaimed Arctic explorer. After a failed expedition, his men only managed to survive by eating their own, which upon his return made him a disgraces cannibal and murderer. Thirteen years later, Day’s second in command Jesse has gone missing in the same waters It’s up to Day to go on a rescue mission to find his friend the man who has haunted him his entire life.

“The Terror” by Dan Simmons is one of my favourite Arctic horrors. This book has been described as a cross between The Terror and the tv show “Yellowjackets”. Which was also an awesome show. I definitely felt the same reading this without even realising this comparison had been made.

There is a constant dread that looms over this story. You think you have a grasp of what is going on with William Day but the events that follow keep the reader guessing.

The claustrophobia of being on initial expedition and this rescue mission visualised perfectly. The tension and fear of something dark and unsettling is ever present.

This had me on my toes from the beginning to the end. If you enjoyed “All The White Spaces” by this author then you will definitely enjoy this one too.

On being accepted to read this novel by Ally Wilkes I was full of excitement, sadly it did not quite fulfil my expectations

This was an exceptionally well written story and felt entirely authentic to its time period but for me was too slow paced and I had issues with keeping track of the events due maybe to it being a period piece. On the other hand there were some extremely tense moments during the story and it was by no means a terrible read.
No doubt an author to watch out for but this book simply wasn't to my taste.

“Where the Dead Wait” is an incredibly gripping and atmospheric novel from Ally Wilkes. I was so impressed with how the author builds up the details of the characters’ past and present – it’s clear a huge amount of research went into making it historically accurate, but the depiction of relationships is just as strong. I really could not put this book down and felt like I was living its experiences alongside the characters. I will definitely be recommending this to all fans of “The Terror” and “The Hunger”.

I love a good book set in the remoteness of the Arctic, with themes of survival and paranormal encounters. This book had all these elements and I was really hoping I would love it, but unfortunately it fell short.

I found the dual timeline confusing (I could not get my head around who was part of the first expedition, who was part of the second, and who was in both), and I struggled to follow who was who and to get attached to any of the characters. Maybe for these reasons, I found the length of the book challenging. I reached the end, and I'm glad I did so because it was really good, but it felt hard work to get there.

Thank you NetGalley and Titan for the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this but I found it hard work.

I’m glad I finished it as I think it was worth it for the ending, but I struggled with the character names, following the plot and the dual timelines.

I also didn’t like The Terror and struggled through it so maybe these narratives aren’t for me!

3 stars

Wilkes delivers what has all the markers to be a thrilling arctic horror about ghosts, cannibals and a disgraced explorer forced to confront his past on the chilling slopes of ice and snow.
Unfortunately, it doesn't quite deliver.
A strong premise is bogged down by a sluggish narrative style that slows down the story and reduces any chills or scares to mere whimpers, making this a tough one to get through.
It's a shame because this one had all the hallmarks to be something fantastic.

I love a good survival horror, but I had to DNF this one. I didnt invest in any characters and I really needed to for a burn this slow. I found it nearly impossible to tell the difference between the timeline and crew of the reckoning vs the resolution. Perhaps Wilkes first novel is a better choice for me.

Possible spoilers

Ah, the slow burn book, that at the beginning you wonder, if maybe its a tad too long.
Then by the end, you know, it was just right.
It's atmospheric and claustrophobic, with plenty of tension.
The trip itself feels like a fight to stay alive every day in those conditions.
Going back and forth between two timelines, and each of them with a worsening situation... I wasn't sure where I wanted to be.
I also wasn't sure if we were being haunted, or just plain insane 😁.
All of this in itself was great, but throw in cannibalism and what was essentially a cult, and it was all a winning combination for me.