The White Road by Sarah Lotz

Although I don’t normally recommend books with unlikable main characters, I found The White Road to be one of those books that I couldn’t put down.   This is a book that you think you’re only going to read one more chapter before you go to sleep, and then you find out it’s 2 hours later and you have to get up for work soon!   The main character, Simon Newman, is really a hateful character, but he’s like a car crash from which you can’t seem to look away.

Simon is an adrenaline junkie who also seems to be a pretty useless human being.  When the new website that he and his friend host is not exactly causing advertisers to start dropping money in their laps, Simon decides to explore the notorious Cwm Pot caves in Wales.  Enlisting the help of a thoroughly creepy guide, Simon has a hidden agenda.  He wants to photograph the bodies of a group of young men who were trapped and died in a previous caving adventure.  (Okay, right there, the “I really don’t like this guy” crept into my thoughts.)  

Barely surviving this ordeal, Simon’s footage goes viral, and his fame and advertising revenue seems assured.  Soon, however, Simon needs another escapade to keep the excitement going and, ignoring his own precarious mental state, he agrees at the last minute to join a group who are attempting to summit on Everest. Throughout the trip Simon senses a malevolent presence that he isn’t sure is real or is a product of his own deteriorating sanity.  Simon becomes involved with other members of the expedition, including one man who is desperate to find the body of his mother who disappeared on Everest years ago.  All the while, the entity seems to haunt Simon, whether in reality or his deteriorating mind, he’s not sure.

A big part of the suspense is because you’re never sure if Simon is a reliable or unreliable narrator.  Can you believe what he’s reporting or is he hallucinating or, even more troubling, is he deliberately misrepresenting events?    The stark beauty and power of the caves and the mountains add dimension as they become almost characters in their own right.  It is truly a book that is hard to put down. Highly recommended.