I loved Quan Barry’s last novel We Ride Upon Sticks. So, when I found out she had a new novel coming out, I was excited. A Black woman who is a film scout goes kayaking in Antarctica with a group of strangers. Things go awry, the group becomes stranded, and it becomes a horror/ psychological thriller. A Black girl protagonist and penguins? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, I really struggled with this one. I like an unlikeable protagonist but, Striker (yes, her name is Striker, and I don’t like it. It’s silly, but it bothered me the whole time I was reading the book.) felt unlikeable in a way that I didn’t feel invested in her story. There’s a lot happening in this novel. I got confused at parts. Like her last novel, Barry’s writing is dense. I felt the denseness of the prose made this book harder to get through. I’m interested to hear what more people have to say after reading this book because maybe I just didn’t get it. Or I wasn’t in the right headspace to read it. I don’t know. You know when a book is well written, but you didn’t enjoy reading it, and you’re not totally sure what happened. That’s how I feel. I’m giving it 2 stars for the quality of writing.

I should say right off the bat that this book is highly readable. The pages flew by for me even if I didn’t understand a lot of it. I had heard good things about the author’s previous book, We Ride Upon Sticks, and wanted to give her a go. I actually didn’t know that this book was horror until the body count made the fact undeniable. But the genre doesn’t explain the incoherent nature of the actions and narratives of this book. I kept thinking that all the insanity would make sense at some point, but it never did and I was left reeling at the end, not sure what had happened or why.

I liked the premise of this book: Striker is a young black woman on an Antarctic cruise for rich white folks, scouting locations for an upcoming film. Things go very wrong on a kayak outing and a group of cruisers find themselves fighting the elements and the supernatural on an inhospitable block of ice. Striker is a highly unreliable narrator. She’s experienced past traumas and addictions that have led her to occasionally black out and/or hear voices. These interruptions were presented abruptly, in the middle of the narrative. I didn’t find her as irritating as some reviewers did, but her mental breaks definitely contributed to the disjointed nature of the story for me. Unfortunately, this is not a book I can recommend, even to horror fans. Most reviewers have trouble with it and I’m no exception.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for my opinion.

How do you even describe this book? One of the characters says that their favorite novel is Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman. When asked what it’s about, they are unable to explain it. I nodded emphatically, as if the character was right in front of me, because I feel the exact same way about Hangsaman. (One of my favorite novels, too!) And then I thought—haha! The Unveiling is unexplainable in the same way!

It’s the kind of story that slowly feeds off your confusion and then your brain explodes as Barry starts to show you how the puzzle pieces fit together in the end. This is a delightfully fresh take on being stranded in Antartica while also delivering gut-punch social commentary. Lots of mysteries and questions to chew on, while being entertaining as both an adventure story and a character study.

What a great book club choice, what a great book to buddy read, what a great book to just read by yourself as fast as possible until midnight because you can’t tear your eyes away from the pages.

Quan Barry is an exceptional talent. From the first line, this book hooks you. The characters are so real and so captivating. The setting is harsh and rugged and captivating. The writing is lyrical and moving and captivating. It’s just utterly captivating.

I picked this up because "We Ride Upon Sticks" is one of my favorite novels of the past 10 years. Funny, quirky, nostalgic. It's one of the few novels in recent memory that has made me laugh out loud. I knew this book would be different, but it's like it was written by an entirely different person.

I could go into detail, but I don't want to pile on. For me, the most frustrating part of the story was how often Barry relies on her characters having a lot of technical information to relay to the audience--information the character likely wouldn't have. We have one teenager, Anders, who seems to conveniently remember everything they ever read, word-for-word. Then we have Striker, our protagonist, who also remembers minute details of every lecture she conveniently sat through on the ship, plus every article her friend Riley ever sent her. Anytime Barry needs her to have some bit of esoteric knowledge, she happened to have come across that very information while scouting for a movie in the past. And of course she remembered it and is able to recite facts like reading from a textbook. It was like a lesser, more inexplicable "Slumdog Millionaire."

What is really happening, and what is only a figment of Striker's withdrawal-addled schizophrenic imagination? By the end, I really didn't care.

"We Ride Upon Sticks" had some semi-autobiographical elements. Maybe that's why they say you should write what you know--because when you veer too far off course, you get lost.

Rating: 😐/2.75
Source: #netgalley
Review: Started off great with such a good premise and strong sense of place. After the initial set up it just got too slow and no real direction. So much in the main characters head and it felt like it was just going in circles. Only got about 30% in and just didn’t care.
Format: 👩🏻‍💻
Published on Goodreads 7/20/2025

I can’t recall the last time I repeatedly mumbled what the f is going on here? while reading a book. This is my encapsulated experience after making my way through The Unveiling.

Is this cosmic horror, literary horror, psychological horror, deconstructed social horror or supernatural? I couldn’t say.

I can’t even say what the ending may have been, meant, or intended.

A fever dream, yes, maybe? A psychotic break or some untreated psychiatric condition? I don’t know. Likely.

Quann’s visceral prose wraps you in a heavy, at times cumbersome, miasma of existential crisis and digs deep into themes of racism, otherness, not belonging, with a wide cast of characters intended to reflect facets of social injustice, in an isolated setting where tenuous reality steadily devolves into a sizzling hot nightmare.

Exhausted and bewildered, characterizes how I felt when I finished the last line. And while horrific, with vivid descriptions that both unnerved and disturbed me carried by excellent writing skills, I came away mostly unsatisfied by the plot with the same persistent question nagging at me. WTF just happened?

If you enjoy horror novels heavy on social issues that permeate every fiber of its content and that make you feel like you’re on a bad acid trip, then you may enjoy The Unveiling very much and should give it a read.

The writing while exquisite, choking it down required many, many repeat swallows.

I took numerous breaks along the way.

3/5

4.5 stars

This is the kind of book where nothing makes sense and it isn’t supposed to. The main character, Striker, is unreliable and very stuck inside of her own head. There were so many moments in the story where I was like “wait what is even happening is any of this real what the heck.” If you’re a reader that loves books with ambiguous endings and fever dream-like plots where you have to piece together the narrative yourself, I think you will have a fun time!

Quan Barry is a poet and it shines in her prose. I highlighted so many quotes in this novel, and I’d love to eventually get a physical copy to go back through and annotate. Here are two of my favorite quotes:

“That was the true nature of horror. It needed your full participation.”

“There are no winners. That’s what early twentieth century explorers discovered the hard way. Dominion over the earth begins with dominion over each other, but ultimately it’s a false power. It leaves you with nothing on which to build your church.”

The horror elements of this were perfectly crafted. The unsettling tone of Barry’s writing mixed with the isolated setting of Antarctica and discussions of social horrors like colonialism, racism, existential dread, and classism all blend together to make The Unveiling a unique and fresh addition to the genre.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads on 7/14/25.

Full review to be posted to Instagram closer to release date, rating to be included in my monthly reading wrap up post at the end of the month.

“Anytime the works tells you something is for your own good, a road your life could have traveled gets erased. After that you never know what might have happened. All you can do is keep going.”

When Striker sets out on an Antarctic cruise to count for filming locations, a cinematic landscape reveals layers of haunting histories, some her own and others of the mysterious island she and some fellow passengers are stranded on. Isolation in an alien landscape, fueled by the Antarctic summer’s perpetual daylight, destabilize our protagonists mental clarity until we aren’t sure what is real and what isn’t, and neither can she.

A small and well definite cast of characters, each with their own hauntings and motivations, rounds out this spooky and mysterious novel.

If you liked The Lighthouse, The Terror, or want a Lord of the Flies on the Antarctic, this book will scratch the itch! Less lighthearted and playful than Barry’s previous “We Ride Upon Sticks,” but with a similar humorous and dark inner monologue of the main character.

The setup for The Unveiling was instantly compelling. A Black film scout sent to Antarctica to scout locations for a Shackleton-inspired movie, surrounded by wealthy tourists, with simmering tension underneath it all? I was hooked. The first half delivered on that premise. Striker’s observations, the eerie landscape, and the quiet dread creeping in were all fascinating.

But once the group becomes stranded and the story shifts into survival and psychological unraveling, it started to lose me. The tone becomes more abstract and surreal, which made it harder to stay connected to the characters or the stakes. I felt like the story leaned heavily on the Antarctic setting to create tension and disorientation, but it didn’t always balance that with clarity or emotional payoff. There were definitely powerful moments, but the second half felt muddled compared to the sharpness of the beginning.

Still, Quan Barry’s writing is striking, and I admire the ambition here. This is a haunting, literary ghost story that explores identity, memory, and survival—but it may not land for every reader.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a survivors story set on an island in Antarctica. A diverse group of passengers on a luxury cruise become stranded while on a kayaking expedition. Striker, a soon to be forty year old is on the trip for her job as a movie location scout. Although she feels out of place with the small group of diverse and rich passengers, Striker takes charge. The Unveiling is a suspenseful story, great to be read on a hot summer day.

First part is a feast to read. I love the chilling and creepy vibes and to getting to know the characters. But later on something happens that makes it feel like a completely different book. I didn't like where it was going and it felt a bit unrealistic in terms of the dialouge and the way the characters acted with each other.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This has an incredible premise that I feel ultimately fell short of expectations. The beginning starts off rather strong: you meet the main cast of characters, learn of the prejudices the MC has to deal with, and there’s a creepy kid (which always adds to the horror element of any book). Things start to go downhill once they are on the small boats to do their island excursion. The conversations between the characters is disjointed and there’s a lot of random facts just thrown at you that never tie into the story. Once they arrive at the island, the story starts to get confusing and way too complicated. I had such high hopes for this novel, but by the end of the book, I was left wondering what the heck I just read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Please note this is a 3.5.

This is one of those odd horror novels that has a crawling sense of dread throughout. There’s something to be said for Antartica as a horror novel setting. It’s definitely under-utilised and deserves more laurels than it currently receives.

The characters in this book are hit and miss, with some that are standouts and others that are just tedious. I could have taken a pared back version of the batch of characters we got, with the better fleshed out ones taking prominence.

The one thing I really had trouble with was the tone of some parts of the book. There’s a tendency to over-explain and dictate some parts, but not where it matters. The eldritch sense in this book got bastardised in places by a lack of showing, while the philosophical arguments perhaps got too much of a dedication.

All in all, I enjoyed the ride this book offered, but I do think it could have been edited to be a bit sharper. I think the ending as well could have been a bit punchier, but I did enjoy the concepts and the attempt.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Quan Barry has such a unique writing style and this story was beautifully ridden.

The uneasiness is almost insidious in the way it creeps up on you but it’s so fantastically well done that you truly feel the isolation and terror the characters are experiencing.

I thought this was very well balanced with the way it handled some tough subjects like racism and mental health but it was handled well and didn’t feel like a gimmick being used to drive the story.

It did take me a little while to get used to the formatting and figure out what was going on, but I would highly recommend this to anyone.

A film location scout, Striker goes on an Antarctic cruise to photograph locations for a potential film about an expedition — she's cynical and doesn't have much faith in people, but her work is the one thing she takes pride in. Striker isn't meant to be a charming, lovable character and her misanthropic tendencies are conspicuous within the first few pages already. It comes across as a little grating at times because she often goes on a long "tangent" about her past that's meant to show a glimpse of her personality — and I usually don't mind that at all, but the actual plot in the present flits incoherently.

As she goes on a kayak adventure with a group of rich people, things go awry and Striker's stream-of-consciousness becomes more rampant in the narrative. It has the classic feel of cosmic horror where the main character's psyche is more jumbled and the supernatural aspects are obscure, moulding themselves depending on the characters' trauma. The unreliable narrator and "is it all in her head" concept is something I can appreciate, but the supernatural aspects are so sparse, and I feel that I'm mainly being lectured by Striker.

The struggles and prejudices she faces are a huge part of her identity, and if there's one thing I love about horror is its ability to intertwine societal issues and the taboo with sheer terror. Unfortunately, I feel that the two never fully marry together. Between the dialogue and her own polemic ramblings, there's a lack of purpose that can't be redeemed by the tension that is barely present in the first place. The history regarding Antarctica is also clearly well-researched, but along with the characters' one-dimensional traits, you end up questioning the point of all that background knowledge and exposition. Flatness in characters can certainly serve a purpose, and I understand that this is also due to Striker's own negativity. But it was even difficult to hate them, much less care about them.

My main gripe ultimately lies with the prose. I absolutely adore the themes and concepts in theory, but I wish it was more immersive and less confusing overall.

Thank you Grove Press and NetGalley for providing me an advance review copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

This book had me flat out confused. Things went from good to strange then more strange. I can’t explain to you how the book even ended.

I love thrillers that have complicated settings. Like being stranded in a place without other people. Except this was too complicated. There were deeper conversations that were either overshadowing or being overshadowed by the setting. The themes of this book were great and important but I think they became overcomplicated.

Let me tell you something, I was confused the whole book, the premise it's really interesting, a group of people goes missing in the antartica and weird things happen.

I don't know what to tell you about this book, at the beginning I was really hooked with the story, Striker is a girl who is traveling to the Antartica, but she's the only black person so she's feeling like a litte out of place, I liked the little monologues that she plays on her head about race and white privilege.

The horror in this book was good, but there is where this story starts to going crazy and confusing, parts where I had to re read because I didn't understang was going on, and after try to give some sense to the story I just lost interest.

At the end, I don´t know what happened. that's it.

This is a book that will sit with you long after you finish reading it. Striker is not a likable character, but she's not supposed to be. She looks for the worst in people so that she's not surprised or hurt when she eventually sees it. Because she will eventually see it.

The sense of place in the Unveiling is fantastic. Quan Barry is very talented at putting you right on that Antarctic island with the vicious birds, melting ice, and thermal vents. It's isolating and terrifying, and the experimental storytelling really helps with the feeling of unease that permeates the book.

A lot of people will go into this novel wanting it to be a survival horror, and to a certain degree it is. It is a depiction of the survival of Black people in the US. It confronts those realities head-on and it engages with the discomforting idea that white people are racist, even if you think you aren't. That will make people uncomfortable and want to hate this book, but I encourage white readers to embrace that discomfort and sit with it.