2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

This is probably a loose interpretation of the challenge since it's very fictionalized but I'm telling myself that's the difference between nonfiction and based on a true story story. This one has been on my TBR list for a little while so it was one of the books I wanted to work in somewhere.

The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape. The Terror swells with the heart-stopping suspense and heroic adventure that have won Dan Simmons praise as "a writer who not only makes big promises but keeps them" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). With a haunting and constantly surprising story based on actual historical events, The Terror is a novel that will chill you to your core.

I'm considering abandoning this one which is unfortunate because I think I would enjoy it in the right time. The kindle edition is 955 pages which is LONG considering it's the start of the academic year and there's other personal stuff going on.

I'm afraid if I abandon in then I'll never revisit it. But then I feel like I'm reading less because picking it up is so daunting. Decisions...