At the End of the World: A True Story of Murder in the Arctic

by Lawrence Millman

At the End of the World is the remarkable story of a series of murders that occurred in an extremely remote corner of the Arctic in 1941. Those murders show that senseless violence in the name of religion is not only a contemporary phenomenon, and that a people as seemingly peaceful as the Inuit can become unpeaceful at the drop of a hat or, in this instance, a meteor shower.

At the same time, the book is a warning cry against the destruction of what’s left of our culture’s humanity, along the destruction of the natural world. Has technology deprived us of our eyes? the author asks. Has it deprived the world of birds, beasts, and flowers?

Lawrence Millman's At the End of the World is a brilliant and original book by one of the boldest writers of our era.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Crime, Mystery, Nature, Travel

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 17, 2017

About the author

I've written 16 books, including such titles as Last Places, Our Like Will Not Be There Again, A Kayak Full of Ghosts, Hero Jesse, and Fascinating Fungi of New England. I've also explored remote areas in East Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. I'm a Fellow of the prestigious Explorers Club and, in my mycological capacity, past president of the A.S.S. (American Stinkhorn Society).

And here's the most recent news: In January 2017, St. Martin's will be publishing my latest book, At the End of the World: A True Story of Murder in the Arctic. Not only does the book detail a series of murders in the name of religion in 1941 among the (surprise!) Inuit, but also it discusses how digital technology is turning our species into robots.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Not at all a chronological read, but more as musings, Millman wanders back and forth in thought and deed to the murders that took place in the Arctic in 1941. Most of these thoughts are only a few lines long but they are so extremely insightful, full of warnings and thoughts about our current addiction to all things that contain screens, our lack of care and indeed even notice of our natural world and original cultures and the danger our complete indifference can and have already caused.

The Canadian Inuit, their ways and world, already indisputable changed. So many interesting factoids about this world, the people he met, the birds, the fauna and their customs, all being lost in the name of progress. Yet, he points out we stand to lose much more, have already lost much of ourselves, our society because what we consider progress, may in fact be anything but. Our current addictions to computers, games cell phones may have a higher cost than many consider. Lack of brain power, concentration, imagination, empathy and little notice of where or what we are doing.

Not a book I read straight through, a good book to pick up and read a little at a time, but a very thought provoking book, made me take a wider view of things. Actually, went out and took a walk by the river, sat and thought about some of the things in this book. Where are we headed? And is it already too late? Things to ponder.

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like nothing I've ever read before. Lawrence Millman tells the story of a series of murders committed in the name of religion by a few of the Belcher Inuit of Hudson Bay back in March of 1941. But interspersed in the telling are his thoughts on nature and his funny and ironic comments on our world today. For instance, he coins the word 'Cyberia' and says it is one of the most highly populated realms on our planet. It has no landscape, only endless screens, and the inhabitants don't realize they are in prison. He wonders, Is digital technology the latest religion? His message? Turn off your devices, people, and get out and enjoy the natural world before it is too late!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an arc of this book.

[Lauren McClees · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never written a Goodreads review before but this book was so disappointing that I needed to vent about it. Do NOT read this book. It's awful. It bills itself as being an investigation into murders in the arctic with a lot of Inuit and natural history of the area along the way. This sounded like something I would really enjoy, like my true crime podcasts and Bill Bryson came together. NOPE! It's terrible. It's just a series of thoughts, like reading postit notes about whatever caught the authors eye in a given moment. Most of the time these are just rantings about technology/ the internet and how stupid anyone who uses those things are. The murders are such a small part of the book and the author's disjointed style was painful to read.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're the kind of person who thinks, "You know what would make this potentially fascinating story of murder and religion in the Arctic even better? The smug ramblings of a Neo-Luddite!" then this book is for you.

Everyone else can probably give it a miss. This was so disappointing.

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author's "kids these days with their iPhones and their Nintendos and their internet" shtick distracts from a fascinating true story. He's trying to draw parallels and warn about shifts in ways of life, but it just ends up feeling like being scolded in the middle of an otherwise interesting read.

[Maha · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the End of the World was a very interesting book. I planned this year to read other genres than the ones I am used to. So, here I go. I was reluctant at first but I am glad that I did. The book was really good. It has a bit of everything and to my surprise it was also a page turner for me.

In "At the End of the World", Lawrence Millman visits Hudson Bay and the Belcher Islands to investigate a series of murders that occurred there in 1941. At first I thought i was delving into a book about some true crime events. However, this book was totally different and it took me by surprise. Lawrence raises some very important issues. First there is the violent use of religion as a reason to kill. Also, the book is a cry against environmental destruction. It's amazing how we have become addicted to our devices and digital world more than the real world.

Well the most interesting thing about the book is Lawrence's talent and skills in bringing all these views. I have to admit that Lawrence is a very skillful writer. He used his great writing skills and talent to take us into the Arctic world. He also has a unique sense of humor. I just loved the term he coined "Cyberians" to describe our addiction to the internet and trusting it more than our own reality.

"The IT person in question was an inhabitant of Cyberia, one of the most highly populated realms on our planet. While Siberia possesses either endless taiga or endless tundra, Cyberia has no landscape, only endless screens"

That was just hilarious.. Ha! Trust me you can find a lot of that in the book and even more.

As I didn't know much about the Arctic, so this book was also informative for me. You know about the natives, the languages, some insight into their beliefs, all wrapped in an amazing writing style with quick and smart hints and remarks.

I just loved this book.

One last thing… What did I feel reading this book? Freezing!! What did I think reading a book about life in the Arctic in January?! Ha!

** Special thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Dunne Books for supplying my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review **

For all my reviews please visit http://www.meshascorner.net

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't remember the last time I've been so disappointed in a book. Buyer, beware: this is not, as the title would lead readers to believe, a narrative account of murder in the arctic. Instead, it's a series of self-indulgent ramblings and barbed little witticisms at the expense of the author's contemporaries. These smug comments are loosely arranged around a few mentions of a series of 1941 murders in Hudson Bay. Honestly, I hold the publisher responsible for marketing this as narrative nonfiction instead of social commentary or philosophy.

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5/5. At first I really enjoy this book. The style, the format in which it was written did please me a lot. Small thoughts, observations and ideas. I also like the way it talk about the northern Canada, the people living there, their culture, also the social criticism the author does. Everything was great, even if we didn't really get what the title seem the promises us.

By the half of it I start getting worried a bit. What please me at first also contribute to create a book that feel like it didn't have a great cohesion, fluidity or connection between itself, we go from here to there but we really don't get anywhere and we end up finishing the book with an uncompleted feeling like we lack something.

It should have been edited better, because this is clearly an editing fails for me, and the purpose, the main goal of the book could have been clearer. Felt like the author lost himself in it.

[Jillian Coleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC, which I received in exchange for my honest review.

I had a really difficult time getting into this book - I tried multiple times and made it about halfway through before I decided not to finish it.

Millman's style is very conversational - many paragraphs end in ellipses as he trails off, jumps into side notes and tangents, many of which have a very tenuous relationship with the story itself. Millman is also incredibly judgmental of technology (even as he describes his use of it) which is intended to draw a parallel between modern life and the isolated community he's describing.

Overall, I wasn't hooked by Millman's style and couldn't make it past halfway. Some folks may enjoy his style, but I didn't, and couldn't make myself finish, which was unfortunate, as the premise was enticing.

[Caitlin O'Sullivan]

Let's start with this: readers expecting a true-crime story will be disappointed by At the End of the World: A True Story of Murder in the Arctic. While the strange crimes central to the book are fascinating, they're not Millman's main focus. (It could be argued, as other reviewers on Goodreads have noted, that his real subject is the ubiquity of technology and its effect on the average American--a topic that seems to enrage him and leave him feeling smugly superior in nearly equal parts.)

At the End of the World is, instead, a narrative composed of three main strands: Millman's original research into the 1941 murders, the murders themselves, and his reflections--twelve years following his original research trip--on society, technology, and ecology. These three strands mix unpredictably throughout the book, thanks to Millman's decision to structure the book as a series of short chapters composed of brief, almost epigrammatic paragraphs. The effect is meant to be meditative: Millman often lets the proximity of paragraphs on different subjects suggest the connection between them, forcing the reader to slow down and think or else be utterly bewildered.

Millman's voice is at the same time humble and holier-than-thou, cutting and cleverly funny, genuinely passionate about the Arctic and its people and generally disgusted by most Americans (including, it would seem, a significant portion of his actual/potential readers). Those with Luddite leanings and grammarian streak will find a kindred spirit in Millman's lacerating attacks on his contemporaries; others may find themselves distracted from the elegance of his prose by his seemingly off-topic shots at technology.

Underlying these potshots is an attempt to tie together thematically the effect of technology on today's society with the effect of the Bible on the 1941 Inuit. That is, Millman argues that the intrusion of technology into our daily lives is putting us morally and literally in danger, just as the combination of outsiders' religious ideas and a meteor shower led the members of a small community to turn on each other. His arguments regarding the dangers of technology are not without merit, but his attempt to draw parallels between the events of 1941 and the society of the twenty-first century fares about as well as a concrete kayak in the Hudson Bay.

At the End of the World is a quick read with value for those interested in First Nations culture and the ecology of the Arctic. As a screed against technology, it's unlikely to convince anyone but those already shunning shining screens, but readers who can filter out Millman's more strident rhetoric will find a compelling tale set in a beautiful land.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I literally only finished this book so I could write a review on my insidious PHONE to be posted to an evil WEBSITE because I figured it would give the author fits.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got about 50 pages into it before realizing that I had no obligation to finish reading, and stopped--but I'll never get that time back. I wish there was an option to give this zero stars.

I would recommend this to people who enjoy reading about how people with cellphones, along with television and the internet in general, have irritated the author. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone interested in the arctic or in murder.

[Karyl · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title makes this book seem so very fascinating. True crime that takes place in a super remote area, involving Native Americans? There is so much to love in this premise. The problem is, Millman doesn't really achieve any of this.

Instead of focusing on the murders, Millman instead gives us a stream of consciousness piece. He'll focus on some of the details of the murders, but then he begins to muse about the plants up in the Arctic or the way of life of the Inuit, but generally he rants about the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets in our world nowadays. He will input a search term into Google and be disgusted with how incorrect the returned results are. He continually harps on the addiction that we as a people have to our devices, quoting random people (whom he doesn't even bother to name as sources) who say that they'd be totally lost without their devices, or he insists that he's constantly being run into by people who can't take their eyes off their screens.

There is only black and white for him. Screens are bad, nature is good. I can see his point, but it's far too simplified. He gives the example of being on the train, and everyone on the train is staring at a screen. They don't even see the beauty of the earth outside their windows. Yet before we had smartphones, we had newspapers and books to distract us from the scenery outside. So why are screens so vilified?

I agree that it's a shame that a lot of the traditional way of life is disappearing since a lot of the Inuit are online now. But that is really their choice. There is, as with everything, a balance to be had. One can easily maintain traditions and be caught up with technology and the rest of the world. But as with anything,it takes discipline, and it can be hard.

At any rate, Millman's rants wouldn't have bothered me so much of he weren't so heavy-handed with them. The reader can just about feel the condescension dripping from each page. The stream of consciousness format made it difficult to follow along and to keep various Inuit straight. All in all, this was a very disappointing book.

[Britt · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an aggravating read! It's supposed to be about a set of murders in the very remote Belcher Islands in Canada in 1941. One Inuk man proclaims he is Jesus and another proclaims he is God and they go killing anyone suspected of being Satan and others die while pushed to wait for the end of the world naked in freezing temps. Is the cause a shared delusion or a type of cult? Just an excuse to murder and take power? Or a misunderstanding of the white man's religion that they have been told parts of? The Belcher Island murders is a good story to tell, but you have the author's condescending rants about how he hates technology--all of it. People that god forbid use technology are "Cyberians" (hilarious, right?) view it as their new religion. Yet, he also talks about checking his email in this remote region because apparently he can't go without it (but it saps all life out of his body for that 20 mins it takes). The anti-technology people drive me nuts. They act like they are above everyone else yet they are on their phones just the same amount. He proclaims that technology is making us all idiots, unable to write, killing our brain cells, and will change our postures into a z formation. He sounds like a grumpy old man wanting to go back to the 1900s who will make your 7-yr-old child cry by telling her Siri died in a car crash (yea, he did that and seems proud of himself for it). Go live on a remote place away from technology if you prefer, but don't live in Boston and insult everyone including your readers who by your experience shouldn't be able to read a regular book anymore or sustain attention for more than 5 minutes. Anyway, this could have been a good book if his bitterness wasn't seeping off the pages. I think speaking about the effects of technology and pollution in this region is important, but don't go on your crazed rant that overtakes the entire story. (Seriously, he thinks we will have a Z posture?) Also there are no references in the entire book and just failed, dumb google searches (to make some kind of point). It's written in note format and very simplified writing that you can read in a day. It's a joke of a book.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

It takes a whole lot to get a one star out of me and for such a short book this impressively begs for it. The tag line is 'A true story of murder in the arctic', and while there are notes and thoughts on the murders in question most of it laced and held together with the author's thoughts on 'today's youths', making it more a 'Thoughts from my notebooks as I kind of talk about murder and more gripe about today's young people'. He spends as much time going on about the evils of the 'Cyberians' (his pet name for those who use computers and cellular devices) and their addiction to screens as he does the murders. The last time I'd seen or heard someone talk in the way he does was in high school. I think everyone knew one of those people who followed up random points with the word 'Question: ....?' and just left it hanging. That was this.
I give it a star for the little bits that were interesting about the murder. There was little else there besides the ramblings of a man who didn't understand modern tech and seemed instead to want to rant about it. To each his own, and this was not for me.

[Emily Carter-Dunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley.

I requested this book as I teach the Dene for IB Social Anthropology and I thought this would make an interesting read and perhaps something I could adapt for my students. There is actually a lot of information and research in the book that would make for an excellent ethnography; in fact the increasing use of technology amongst Inuit people is a growing focus in anthropology.

Unfortunately, the book as it stands is not a good read. The book reads more as a man telling you things at a social event; going off on tangents, anecdotes about things he has experienced and his personal views on technology. This is mixed in with the actual focus of the book, which got lost in all the waffle. I found it very hard to follow the story of the murders and the people involved as Millman simply kept flitting between stories and times.

I would recommend that Millman sits down and writes an ethnography about the use of technology amongst this group of people. I feel it would be a much better read.

[Jessica Tack · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have NEVER before felt the urge to burn a book rather than return it to the library, just that that no one else would have to suffer through this tripe. The story of the Arctic murders was fascinating, but it was the thinnest of broken threads popping up randomly through this book. The majority of the book consisted of Neo-Luddite rantings and ponderings. Fine, if the author feels that way and wants to express it, but why disguise it within what it being sold as a non-fiction accout of historical murders in a remote setting? I feel duped by the cover and title. If there was a tie between the murders and the author's hatred of technology, that tie was visible only to the author, and he did not make it clear to his readers. The author came across as a narcissistic curmudgeon with a social disorder. I am ashamed that the publishers allowed this book to go to press.

[Lilly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. It's not really a historic account so much as the author's musings. He is a proud Luddite and makes a point to insert his commentary on the evils of technology and "kids these days" ramblings. I honestly don't remember anything about the native people or the supposed story he was telling. If you want to write your treatise against technology then go ahead, but don't disguise it as a historic mystery.

[Debbie Armbruster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Less about the circumstances of murders inspired by religion in the far north, At the End of the World: A True Story of Murder read like a treatise on the horrors of modern technological consumption. While some excellent points were made, I was disappointed that the anti-tech rhetoric overwhelmed information about the murders/religious hysteria.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence Millman’s At the End of the World is billed as true crime, but this is a stretch, which has led many to give the book low marks. It is certainly not a true crime book, or a book of any genre whatsoever, unless it be in a category I’m inventing now, called the “barbaric yawp.”

Walt Whitman, in his “Song of Myself,” wrote:

“The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.

“I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

Millman is untamed and untranslatable. He complains about the destruction of nature and of a livable earth by people who want to make it “better” by imposing religion and technology on it, to make it homogeneous, dead, boring, and mediated by screens and devices.

The book does not move forward in a straightforward fashion to tell the story of the Belcher Island murders, but proceeds haltingly, popping back and forth between topics of environmental degradation, racial and cultural imperialism, the loss of the ability to see, feel, and engage with the word concomitant with a fixation on “iDevices” and the Internet, and the ever present, but for Millman quite distant, terrorist attacks. Millman draws parallels one wouldn’t expect between seemingly unrelated things. For example, here he is connecting invasive species and proselytizing:

“Originally from the Caucasus mountains, giant hogweed is an alien plant that has outcompeted native plants in many parts of Canada ... just as the Christian God, an alien deity in the Canadian North, has outcompeted local deities.”

Come to this book expecting a better understanding of the struggles of the Inuit to maintain their culture, and their own monsters, under the onslaught of qallunaak (white) culture; come to it expecting to be shown parallels between settler imperialism and environmental destruction; come to it expecting to see how digital life and focus on distant sensational events threatens one’s very ability to live in the actual world, and you will not be disappointed.

Come to this book expecting a true crime genre book, and you will be sorely disappointed indeed.

[Jaci · Rating 2 out of 5]

A meteor shower and a self-proclaimed God and Jesus during the winter of 1941 in the Belcher Islands resulted in the deaths of nine Inuit, mainly women and children. Millman outlines the occurrence in a series of "notes," not so much a chronological story but a story that he relates to his experiences, current events, and his ideas about digital culture and obsession.
While the format is interesting and some of the notes arresting, there is some preaching going on by Millman.

p.63: One consequence of inhabiting a world without predators: a dulling of the eyes.

p.140: A paradox: Social media are no more social than Narcissus gazing at his own image in a pool of water.

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deceptively titled book which is more about the author's animus against the modern world than it is a story of the Belcher Island killings of 1941. The usual clichés are paraded: whites are bad, religion is bad, Inuit are wise, not knowing the scientific name of a bird without googling is a bigger sin than murder. By the end, I found Millman's rants against technology more amusing than anything, especially since I was reading my copy on a tablet!

[John Alvord · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dysfunction attending a clash of modernity with traditional culture.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was, sadly, a disappointing read.

At The End of the World covers the little-known Belcher Island Murders, where nine people were killed in the winter of 1941. The reason?

An Inuit named Charley Ouyerack believed himself to be Jesus Christ, and revealed another man - Peter Sala - to he God. More than a few believed, and those who didn't were killed because they were 'Satan'.

Sadly, the book doesn't do a good job of writing about the murders. There are a few problems, such as the choppy writing. The author mentioned that this was once all notes, and it certainly reads like a collection of notes. Many chapters didn't seem to have a point (why devote so much space to his dislike of the Internet and other technology?) and even within chapters, he tends to jump from one topic to the other.

I think it took about ten or so chapters before I realised this was about the Belcher Island Murders. Luckily, the chapters are short.

Another problem the book has is that the link between the present and the past is not clearly established. The author mentions that the present was necessary for him to write the book, but personally, I didn't get it. How do his reflections on technology, on 9/11 relate to what happened in 1941?

There were parts of the book that I liked - the chapters on the murders, and the trial, which I wish was explored in more detail. However, those parts were rather scarce, and a good portion of the book was confusing and disappointing.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is described as a naturalist and an Arctic explorer. The book focuses mostly on 13 murders committed in a remote, peaceful, traditional Inuit settlement in 1941. This occurred on isolated Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay.
It also laments that our society has become less connected to nature, environmental destruction and social interaction due to our growing addiction to digital devices. We are missing observable climate change and the degradation of nature due to growing dependence on iPhones, iPads, etc.. I was reading the book on my iPad and Kindle.
The book is scattered with anecdotes of his various visits to the Arctic interacting with the Inuit, the way the Inuit notified him the events of 911 which they watched on TV and how they interpreted it, and listening to their folklore and beliefs. He also interjects with quotations and his observations, often with humor.
Time on Belcher Island was spent listening to contemporary accounts by senior natives regarding the 1941 murder spree, and researching the events online. The killings, trial and punishments are described. This may be connected to missionaries bringing Christianity to the settlement a short time before. Two Inuit men used distorted religious views to commit murder, believing they were God and Jesus, and it was their duty to kill people they labeled Satan. It is an example of people twisting religion to commit criminal acts.
The author feels that the intrusion of outsiders and their increasing use of technology is changing Inuit culture, perhaps destroying it. An example is a boat trip with a young man who was oblivious to the surroundings, playing video games on his iDevice.
I felt while reading this book that the author would make a brilliant conversationalist. The writing is excellent and witty, but wished it would have been split into separate books, each one focusing on a main topic.

[Luke Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is pretty much awful.

Why you ask? Doesn't a book about (as the subtitle clearly states) "A True Story of Murder in the Artic" sound riveting? Yes it does! But AtEofW isn't about that. It's just a guy complaining about cellphones.

If I had to give a rough breakdown of what this book includes I'd say it's maybe 10% about the murders giving just the barest of details. No buildup, very little explanation as to why, absolutely no drama.

5% is quotes that don't really serve any purpose. The majority come from Henry David Thoreau, the rest from people I've never heard of, and as far as I can tell don't have any connection to the story.

20% is unrelated stories of the author's time spent with the Inuk people.

10% anti-Christianity rants.

And the remaining is all just complaining about cell phones and technology even though that doesn't relate to the murders that took place in 1941. Worse yet, it's incredibly hypocritical. The author has no qualms about using websites like Wikipedia, Google, and TripAdvisor but people using their GPS or a kid playing a handheld Nintendo device, all of these are cardinal sins. For the author, it's perfectly fine to travel by airplane or motorboat but an Inuk owning a tv?That's a tragedy!

For an extra laugh make sure to look at the pictures in the middle of the book, the last one being captioned, "The author listening to an Umbilicaria lichen". What's it saying to you, Lawrence? Come down off your high horse? No one wants to read this holier than thou dribble? If you're so anti-tech you should return the money you've made from sales off websites like Amazon.com? If it does, I doubt you're hearing it.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good grief, I thought I was checking out a murder mystery, a true crime narrative that took place under the auspices of a mysterious comet in the Arctic, not a cranky diatribe against computers and the digital world. Millman very begrudgingly returns to the murders and trial that are supposedly the focus of this book but is easily distracted (irony?) by people using their "iDevices" and computers and relying on online information instead of observing the natural world. He interrupts the narrative constantly to point out people in his current world walking around with their eyes on their devices or relying on the internet for information. He can't go two pages without complaining about technology, and the story suffers terribly as a result. Just when you think you're getting some details of what seemed like an incredibly intriguing crime that happened in the Arctic, you get paragraphs like this: "... like a birder friend of mine. Using an app on his iDevice, he succeeded in identifying a semipalmated plover on Cape Cod's Sandy Neck beach in six minutes, while it took me less than a minute to identify the same bird using my app-free guidebook." If you want to hear smug, constant interrupting thoughts about how much the author hates the digital world and technology, read this book. (Actually, I'm guessing there are much better thought-out arguments and coherent narratives on this topic than this book.) But if you're looking for a "murderous tale" like this book was marketed, you will be very disappointed and most likely at least mildly annoyed.

[Aimee Massey · Rating 1 out of 5]

In 1941, after a spectacular meteor shower, residents of an Inuit village on a remote island in northern Canada suspected that the end of the world was at hand, and that two of their community members were God and Jesus. What followed was a bizarre series of incidents that left nine people dead.
There is very little information available online or in any historical record about this incident, so Lawrence Millman travelled to the island in 2001 to see what he could learn. He was able to interview several elders, some of whom were alive at the time of the meteor shower and its aftermath, and he is thus able to flesh out the gory details. And he also does a good job describing the bleakness and beauty of the far north and the Inuit's traditional ways and customs.
BUT, and it's a large "but," the book is disorganized, and apparently deliberately so: random scribbled notes here and there, endless diegressions, and the author constantly goes into rants about how much he hates computers, the Internet, screens, and the people who use them. (He uses them himself, of course, but acts like he wishes he didn't.) He calls computer users Cyberians, and this weird fixation gets in the way of what could have been an interesting and nicely written story. He ends up sounding like Ted Kaczynski.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment as I went into it expecting it to be about a series of murders that took place in the Arctic. Instead, this book is simply a compilation of notes taken by the author over a number of years and visits to the Arctic area known as the Belcher Islands. The story of the murders in many instances took a backseat to the author's observations about the climate of this Arctic region, his explanation of the environment of the area and how it is changing or has changed because of global warming/climate change, and his wry musings on how technology has changed people and the evolution of Homo Sapiens.

If he had stuck solely to the topic of the murders, the book would've been substantially shorter.

The writing style is, as I said, a compilation of notes. With that in mind, don't be surprised by the seemingly random directions each chapter seems to take. It is very much a zig-zagging journey rather than a straight shot from Point A to Point B and beyond.

My disappointment also lies in the lack of a climax to the parts of the book covering the murders.

Overall, a disappointing read.

[Dana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would like to give this zero stars but the only option is a star or no rating at all. This book sucked. The writing was terrible. I expected a book about murders in the Arctic, but they only made up about 20% of the book. The other 80% was about how terrible technology is and how the world is doomed because everyone is too busy being on their phones and okaying video games. If you want to write a book on that then do that, don't fucking say you're writing a book about one thing and then talk about something else entirely. I was so excited for this book because I teach about the Inuit and was looking forward to learning more about their culture and these murders that devastated them, but the only thing devasting about this read was the time I wasted on it.