Chilling, unsettling, and tense, Amelinda Bérubé’s debut novel The Dark Beneath The Ice relentlessly submerges the reader into the broken, detached world of former dancer Marianne. The lines between crushing mental illness and supernatural possession are blurred, and Marianne’s own attempts to distinguish between the two are in equal parts exasperating and intriguing.
Ambiguity runs deep throughout the story, and plays a significant part in the development of a protagonist who often deliberately avoids learning new information, in fear of shattering her already fragile state of mind. In most cases this would be a frustrating character flaw, but in The Dark Beneath The Ice we are similarly torn between our craving for knowledge, and our desire for Marianne’s safety.
As she loses control, we lose control with her. Each time she learns something new, we use that to desperately try to solve the mystery for her. By the end of the novel, the attachment we form with Marianne is not just one of an outside observer—we become Marianne, slipping into her skin as easily as the ghost.
It is clear on a surface level that Marianne’s possession is a metaphor for her coming of age. Its timing is no coincidence, as it falls directly within that period of life where we realise how little agency we truly have over our world. Parents separating, losing old friends, discovering one’s sexuality, giving up on childhood dreams—for those without an outlet, these frustrations build up and spill out in outbursts of rage. Then when our head clears, we look back and wonder what pushed us to act so out of character. Bérubé effectively applies a paranormal, psychological filter to this common experience, so that when the supernatural happenings start to creep into Marianne’s life they feel all too familiar.
One significant piece of imagery that plague’s Marianne’s mind is the icy, bottomless lake, threatening to crack and pull her under whenever she loses consciousness. At other times, Marianne finds herself watching her possessed body from the outside, with the world around her appearing dark and lifeless. Much like the sunken place from Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out, this realm is a place where Marianne is a passive observer, unable to interact with anyone or anything. Here, she is helpless against the force that is taking over her body.
Although this imagery is beautifully effective, The Dark Beneath The Ice unfortunately suffers from inconsistent pacing throughout its narrative. The story barely gives enough time for the reader to adjust to the setting before the supernatural activity is introduced, making its initial appearance not particularly surprising or unsettling. When the ghostly apparition finally manifests, its frequent battles with Marianne’s power of will often crop up at awkward points without sufficient build up, sometimes dragging on for so long that each one feels like the final confrontation. As a result the real, final face-off between Marianne and the ghost, while providing a satisfying resolution, does not feel as intense as those that came before.
Where Bérubé excels, however, is in her ability to imbue each character with a tragic sense of authenticity. Rhiannon, Marianne’s parents, Aunt Jen, and even Ingrid each feel like individuals who, just like Marianne, conceal parts of themselves they are ashamed of. Most of the time we never really get to find out what these are, and yet these hidden secrets further isolate us from the world in which Marianne feels like such an outsider. By gradually cutting off her closest ties, the tension slowly turns up until we too are suffocating, leaving us to grab at any sliver of hope—hope that is often tantalisingly dangled in front of our faces, only for us to see it cruelly snatched away.
The Dark Beneath The Ice is a refreshingly original blend of the paranormal and coming-of-age genres that dispenses with common young adult fiction tropes, and instead deals with adolescent issues in a more serious light. Although the uneven pacing occasionally throws the narrative off course, it rarely lasts long enough to distract from Bérubé’s enthralling characters and eloquent imagery. Her debut as a novelist displays a great deal confidence and intelligence, demonstrating a flair for delving into supernatural and psychological realms that will surely continue to captivate readers.
The Dark Beneath The Ice is now available at Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Something is wrong with Marianne.
It’s not just that her parents have split up, or that life hasn’t been the same since she quit dancing. Or even that her mother has checked herself into the hospital.
She’s losing time. Doing things she would never do. And objects around her seem to break whenever she comes close.
Something is after her. But a first attempt at an exorcism calls down the full force of the thing’s rage. It demands Marianne give back what she stole. And Marianne must uncover the truth that lies beneath it all before the nightmare can take what it think it’s owed, leaving Marianne trapped in the darkness of the other side.
