If you’re a thriller addict like me, Whiteout by R.S. Burnett is the icy punch to the gut you didn’t know you needed. Imagine The Martian got stranded in Antarctica instead of Mars—but with more claustrophobia, creeping dread, and the kind of survival stakes that make your heart race at 2 a.m.

Rachael Beckett is that rare gem of a character—flawed, fierce, and impossible not to root for. She’s trapped in the middle of nowhere, cut off from her team, and possibly the last person on Earth after a nuclear disaster. No food, no backup, and the Antarctic winter closing in? Yup, I was sweating in sympathy.

Burnett absolutely nails the setting—it’s so immersive, I swear I could hear the wind howling through the pages. The isolation seeps into your bones, and the dread is so thick it’s almost a character of its own. Plus, there’s a sneaky little thriller subplot lurking in the background that amps everything up to eleven.

The only thing that left me twitching was the slightly open-ended conclusion. I needed more answers! But honestly? That’s just me being greedy. The plot, the pace, the atmosphere—it’s all top-notch.

If survival thrillers are your jam, don’t miss Whiteout. It's tense, terrifying, and totally unforgettable. Five chilly, adrenaline-pumped stars from this fan!

Thank you @rob.burnett , @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for this amazing arc. I have enjoyed a lot.

❄️ Book Review: Whiteout by RS Burnett
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I devoured this book cover to cover on a 10-hour flight—it was the perfect read to get completely lost in. Tense, claustrophobic, and fast-paced, it pulled me in from page one and didn’t let go.

The premise is wild: a glaciologist stranded in Antarctica after her team goes silent, while a radio loop plays a chilling message—nuclear war has broken out. The stakes are sky-high, and the isolation and creeping dread are palpable throughout. It gave serious The Martian meets 28 Days Later vibes, with a haunting, frozen twist.

Yes, it was a bit unrealistic in parts (okay, more than a bit), but I didn’t care—I ate it up anyway. The suspense was relentless, and it would make a killer movie or limited series. You can practically feel the cold and the desperation, and the tension is dialed all the way up.

If you love survival thrillers with a hint of sci-fi and psychological edge, this one is a total page-turner.

The book started out pretty slow for me but then picked up about two thirds of the way in and I could not put it down.

4.5 stars for this one!

A dangerous expedition to Antarctica to gather important data before the next election goes horribly wrong, and Rachael winds up on her own for two months during winter. The sky is eternally dark, there is a blizzard blowing, and temperatures are freezing. Most would give up, but not Rachael.

One person stranded in Antarctica doesn’t sound like it has the makings of a thriller, but it really does. One thing after another challenges Rachael, and the treacherous environment isn’t the worst part of it. As days wear on, her mind begins playing games with her.

I loved the way there were snippets of her life leading up to the expedition slotted in, giving us backstory into her life and how she ended up in Antarctica.

This story held me captive. I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. And even though I did guess part of it, it was still well worth the read. Really enjoyed it

This was a difficult read for me, but I plowed through! Rachael is a glaciologist (I learned a little about those) and she’s accepted an urgent assignment to Antarctica, seeming like the end of the world. She has a floundering marriage and an infant daughter that she misses terribly. A radio message comes through telling her that nuclear war has broken out. She’s isolated from her team and she may be the only survivor. She’s starving and desperate and very motivated to live.

The book moves fast, but it dragged in the middle. Towards the end I was guessing at every turn! I was also freezing and could only imagine what the setting described in the story might be like. A LOT happens by the end of the book!

3.5 stars rounded up.

I received a copy of the digital ARC via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

Is there anything worth saving anymore?
If you want to read a book where you can just get lost in the chaos and the drama then this is one for you. Rachael is stationed in a remote outpost in Antarctica, in winter. It is blisteringly cold, there is no sun, and the risk of going mad from the freezing isolation is high. She wakes up almost every two hours to listed to a BBC recorded message, the only on coming across the airwaves. There has been a nuclear attack, it is not safe to be outside, and there has book no other communication since the recordings have started. Yet Rachael keeps undertaking the testing and measuring of the ice shelf – the job she was asked to research to prevent drilling for oil in Antarctica by a maniacal American president (too close for comfort?). Is she hallucinating? Or is this her way to motivate herself to keep going?
There are several storylines to this book that morph over time. One is the sensation that this is a dystopian post-apocalyptic story and a race for survival of one woman to try to find her way back home and to her loved ones. Another is whether she's actually already did and these are just the hallucinations of a woman slowly realising the end of her demise in the cold winter I'm Antarctica - Rachael sees her co-worker and others, and is in conversation with them. But they are not there … is this is because they are all dead? Another is the story that is connected to the reason why she was there and how she ended up all alone and what actually happened to the three coworkers in the mission. The other is what happens when she finds out she's not the last of her group of four that was alive and how the greed for oil was enough to drive someone to kill.

This sounds like a lot, and it is. It had that choose-your-own-adventure ambiance where everything was at stake and the only one to save it was isolated from it all. There is a lot of predictability but sometimes it's actually quite fun to read something like this because it really does heighten the drama. This is a guilty pleasure thriller with a lot of popcorn movie elements where you can suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the ride, regardless of where the story takes you.

This is a fantastic apocalyptic survivalist thriller and I loved every second!

Glacial researcher Rachel is alone in the Antarctic, it is brutally cold, dark and isolated – in the truest sense. The outside world now, as far as Rachel knows, is destroyed by a nuclear war, according to a BBC emergency radio broadcast. Fearing for her husband and infant daughter, Rachel dares to hope for their survival but every day is a struggle as she tries to stay alive in her brutal conditions with supplies dwindling.

The absolute terror I felt for Rachel while reading this was immense. Her struggle to stay alive through every situation is intense and fear-inducing. Just a phenomenal book all the way around and I can’t recommend it highly enough!

My thanks to Crooked Lane Books for this DRC!

This was a different kind of thriller novel. It was definitely one of trying to survive against the elements and your own thoughts. The first 1/3 of the book was a little slow, but it was build up for the last 2/3. I wish there had been an epilogue to let us know how everything turned out. Rachel certainly had the will to survive, even in the harshest elements. Nice mix of suspense, action, and plot. A little less politics would have been nice, but I understand how it fed into the story. The story was told from the viewpoint of Rachel and back and forth between past and present. The last 1/3 of the book was on the edge of your seat intense.

Wow, what a wild ride this was!! When you read the premise of the book, you wonder how it could be so exciting but it really was.

Rachael leaves her comfortable life in London behind to spend months in Antarctica over winter at the behest of her mentor.

What happens when she gets there is the stuff of nightmares but she tackles each issue as it arises.

I don't want to put too much detail in this review in case I give away too much but suffice to say this book was absolutely worth reading and a rollercoaster of a read that I just couldn't put down.

5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books.

Whiteout by R. S. Burnett keeps you hooked till the very end.
A well written suspense filled with twists that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
A quick and fun read that I finished in a few hours.
The characterization was superb, the writing pacey and flowing, and the tension delivered in a series of shocks and twists along the way.
This is a tightly written story, with well developed characters and enough suspense to keep you reading.

Rachael Beckett has a devoted husband, Adam, and they are the doting parents of an adorable toddler, Izzy. Rachael is a scientist who analyzes glaciers in Antarctica that are disintegrating because of climate change. When Guy Barnard, her former boss, pressures Rachael to join him and his colleagues on what promises to be a crucial expedition, she jumps at the chance. It seems that influential members of the American government have conducted exploratory drilling for oil in Antarctica. Their findings have led them to believe that extracting oil from this area will bring down the cost of energy. Guy and Rachael set out to prove that the glaciers are melting at such an alarming rate that further drilling could trigger an environmental catastrophe.

Most of "Whiteout," by R. S. Burnett, is an enthralling tale of adventure in a forbidding climate where dedicated glaciologists conduct important research. The temperature in Antarctica during the winter season is well below freezing, and those who remain there for months at a time are at risk from such hazards as frostbite, hypothermia, mental illness brought on by isolation, and fatal plunges into crevasses. During this eventful trip, Rachael, who is brilliant but also stubborn and reckless, will encounter terrifying challenges.

Burnett's descriptive writing is excellent, and we sympathize with the heroine, whose struggles would defeat most human beings. Thanks to the author's vivid prose, we can almost feel the bitterly cold wind as if it were whipping in our faces as well as the blinding snow that makes navigating the treacherous terrain so perilous. What a shame that Burnett ends his suspenseful thriller with a contrived, wildly implausible, and melodramatic finale. Until the closing chapters, this was a compelling and exciting roller-coaster ride.

DNF @ 13%. I was so excited to get an eARC of this from Netgalley, but it’s been almost 3 weeks since I started it and I have no desire to try and force myself further. The premise sounded so intriguing but I couldn’t figure out why I felt so disconnected from the main character and her emotions…until I saw a few other reviewers on here saying this is obviously a male author trying unsuccessfully to write a woman MC.

Yep, there it is. Considering this is a debut, the author’s first and middle name are initials, and there’s no author photo or even bio on here that gives pronouns, I had just wrongly assumed it was a woman author. Apparently I was wrong, and now it makes perfect sense why the MC didn’t feel realistic enough for me to care what was happening to her. Sigh. Can men please stop trying to write women MCs unless y’all are going through a group of brutally honest women sensitivity readers first. Or better yet, just stick to writing male MCs instead.

Yowsa! This is a real page turner especially for fans of novels about Antarctica. This moves back and forth in time to tell Rachel's story as she battles to stay alive in the present. She's alone at an outpost in Antarctica doing research and listening to a broadcast from the BBC about how the UK has been attacked with nuclear weapons. And then she has her own disaster and must set off in the dark back to home base. And just when she thinks things might be ok, well, no spoilers! To be honest, this does get quite Perils of Pauline in spots (and strains credulity a bit) but I couldn't put it down. You've got to buy the premise and root for Rachel but that's easy to do. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A great read.

Thank you Netgalley & Crooked Lane Books for an eARC ♥️


The story follows Rachael, a glaciologist who's stuck in Antarctica after a nuclear war breaks out. I know, I know, it sounds bleak, but trust me, it's a crazy ride.🤯
Rachael's a total rockstar, by the way. She's smart, resourceful, and determined to survive, no matter what. I was totally rooting for her from the get-go.
The author's writing is insane! The pacing is crazy fast, and each chapter ends with a cliffhanger that'll keep you up all night wondering what happens next.
But what really got me was the psychological aspect. Rachael's forced to confront some pretty dark stuff, and I was right there with her, wondering what I'd do in her shoes. It's a total mind-game, and I was here. for. it.

As I started reading Whiteout it felt like I was reading the news but as the story progressed there was web of deceit, lies, greed, unbearable psychological hurt, and crime. Rachael was a scientist experienced with travels to the Antarctica and she was now summoned by her mentor to help analyse what was happening to the ice to avoid drilling for oil in the region. She'll face many difficulties and will have to fight for life to discover the truth, send the data she was able to record, and eventually be reunited with those she loved. Whiteout has a great plot, a relentless heroine who will rediscover her most treasured feelings whilst fighting for her life. Highly recommended!
I thank the author and NetGalley for this ARC.

This thriller was perfect for helping me out of my reading slump as the pacing is perfect and the twists are twisty. Especially for a debut, I really enjoyed the writing in Whiteout and can’t wait to see what this author puts out next.

Part climate thriller and part domestic suspense - I loved the oscillating timelines as Rachael flashes back to her mundane suburban life. Stuck deep in the Arctic with only an emergency broadcast to keep her company - she begins to wonder if the mundanity was so bad after all.

Check this one out if you love thrillers, mysteries, cli-fi, and suspense!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the eARC of this frigid title!**

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane for providing me with this advanced eARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5⭐

This was so different than any thriller I have read before!
I found myself flipping the pages, holding my breath and feeling shivers down my spine just from thinking how cold the main character was. (then I went ahead and had frozen fruit bowls in the middle of winter so that I could feel 1% as bad as her)

I was incredibly curious to know how this book was going to develop and appreciated the fast pace.

The lack of higher rating is purely because, at some point, things did stop sounding very realistic to me.

Overall, I would recommend this book as it is so different from anything I've ever read.

I really enjoyed Whiteout. It was an edge of your seat read, full of suspense, drama, mystery, and crazy twists.

I loved R.S. Burnett's writing style. I was drawn in immediately and couldn't put it down. Rachael, Zak & Guy were interesting characters, especially Rachael. She was strong, determined, independent, stubborn, and downright fierce.

I highly recommend, and I look forward to reading more from R.S. Burnett.
Fans of John Marrs, Freida McFadden & Jeneva Rose will love this book.

Thanks to Netgalley, Crooked Lane Books, and R.S. Burnett for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Edge of your seat read. I also have the audiobook version as well. This was well written and had great suspense.
The setting of the middle of Antarctica is phenomenal.
My only complaint would be all the political stuff thrown in that wasn’t really necessary.

Rachael Beckett is an experienced Antarctic researcher who's skilled at measuring the thickness of the ice shelves, to predict possible calving. Currently, Rachael is taking a break from field work to stay in England with her husband Adam and baby daughter Izzy, who's the light of Rachael's life.

Rachael didn't plan to return to the Antarctic for a while, but feels compelled to go after a visit from her mentor, Guy Barnard. Guy brings research showing the Ross Ice Shelf is melting, and a piece weighing 4 trillion tons and measuring 23,000 square kilometers (the size of Wales) is in danger of calving off because of climate change combined with drilling. This could result in sea levels rising by six meters (about 20 feet), which would be disastrous. A possible solution would be to stop drilling, which the U.S. Congress has to authorize. To convince senators to vote the right way, scientists need compelling undeniable research. Thus Guy is planning an Antarctic expedition, and he convinces Rachael to join his team.

Guy, Rachael, and the rest of the research group is flown into Antarctica and start their work. Jump ahead four months and Rachael is alone in her pod in the pitch black Antarctic winter. For various reasons, Rachael has become separated from the rest of the team, and a radio broadcast repeating every two hours states the following: "This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service from the BBC in London. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons....the number of casualties are unknown....stay in your homes, etc.

Rachael doesn't know if Adam and Izzy are dead or alive, but fears the worst, and actually thinks she might be the last person alive on earth. Nevertheless, Rachael is carrying on with her research, recording everything in her journal: Temperature -69 C; Windspeed 63 mph; Ice Thickness....whatever; etc.

In the course of the story, Rachael's situation goes from bad to worse to horrendous, but she's absolutely intrepid and fights to carry on.

To say more would be a spoiler, but rest assured there's plenty of danger and drama.

This thriller is an edge-of-your-seat page turner, and you might even want to don your parka in empathy with Rachael, who has to 'Brave cold that's like a punch in the face. Cold that snaked its way inside you in seconds and seemed to freeze your very bones. Cold that overwhelmed you, stopped your hands from working properly and even slowed down the functions of your brain.'

Very good book. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, R.S. Burnett, and Crooked Lane Books for a copy of the manuscript.