Fourteen-year-old Sym has always been fascinated with Antarctica, especially with legendary explorer Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates. When her eccentric Uncle Victor promises to take her on an expedition to Antarctica, she can hardly believe her luck. But what starts out as a tourist trip to The Ice, turns into a secret expedition to uncover a hidden world that promises to change the face of science forever.
At first Sym is excited to help her uncle, and a father and son film team, on their quest to find Symme’s Hole, the gateway to what Uncle Victor believes is an entirely new world inside the Earth’s crust. However, after a series of strange illnesses and a violent explosion that leaves the group stranded, Sym starts to wonder if the quest has gone too far.
After the getaway plane burns, Uncle Victor steals a snow vehicle and takes Sym and the filmmakers on a trek deep into the center of the White. Soon supplies run low, and one of the filmmakers wants to turn back. In response to his perceived betrayal, Uncle Victor leaves the man stranded in the snow. A sure death sentence.
This murder only confirms Sym’s growing realization that Uncle Victor is not the sweet, eccentric figure she knew growing up. He is a man obsessed with an impossible dream, and he won’t let anything, or anyone stop him from reaching that dream.
This novel is a harrowing tale of obsession set to the backdrop of nature’s relentless fury. I’m not at all surprised that it won 2008’s Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature. Interestingly, John Cleves Symmes Jr. really did propose the idea of a hollow earth in the early nineteenth century. The theory posited that the Earth consisted of a series of nesting shells with openings to the inner planet at both poles.
DweebMeter: 4/5
