The Mountains of Instead

Championing fiction as an escape from pandemics, politics and bad TV.

A Troublesome Servant and Fearful Master (Review: The Poisoned House by Michael Ford)

The Poisoned House Michael Ford Bloomsbury August 2010
The year is 1856, and orphan Abigail Tamper lives below stairs in Greave Hall, a crumbling manor house in London. Lord Greave is plagued by madness, and with his son Samuel away fighting in the Crimea, the running of Greave Hall is left to Mrs Cot…
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Whose Woods These Are (Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater)

Linger Maggie Stiefvater Scholastic 2010
Linger is the second book in Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. If you haven't read the first, Shiver, then GO AWAY! Even the synopsis contains spoilers. Read Shiver (seriously) and then come back.
In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace…
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Swept Away? (Review: Sea by Heidi R. Kling)

Sea Heidi R. Kling Putnam 2010
Haunted by recurring nightmares since her mother’s disappearance over the Indian ocean three years before, fifteen-year old California girl Sienna Jones reluctantly travels with her psychiatrist father’s volunteer team to six-months post-tsunami Indonesia where she meets…
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IMM (#13)

In My Mailbox is a meme created and hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren with inspiration from Alea at Pop Culture Junkie. All book titles link to further info at Goodreads.


Bought
Graceling
Kristin Cashore
Gollancz 2008
I've heard lots of good things about this title and now that I have jumped …
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Win The Midnight Charter and The Children of The Lost!

I recently reviewed The Midnight Charter and The Children of The Lost by new-kid-on-the-fantasy-block David Whitley. Read my review here.
Read it? Good. Like the sound of Agora and its inhabitants? Excellent. Penguin have kindly offered a set of both books to one lucky winner! Fill out the form belo…
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Tricks Of The Trade (Review: The Midnight Charter/Children of The Lost)

The Midnight Charter The Children of The Lost David Whitley Penguin 2009/2010
I can be a bit leery of fantasy titles. I have to really be in the mood to read them and recently I just haven't been. I ended last year by reading Trudi Canavan's awesome Magician's Guild trilogy and then star…
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Shivery Spookiness

I recently got sent Pastworld by Ian Beck to review. I hadn't heard much about it but thought it looked OK.  Then I came across this awesome trailer - how scary does this seem!  One of the best produced book trailers that I have come across so far - it has definitely moved Pastworld to the top …
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My Crooked Neighbour (Review: Paper Towns by John Green)

Paper Towns John Green Bloomsbury 2010
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of …
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Fields of Gold (Review: I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti)

I'm Not Scared Niccolo Ammaniti Walker Canongate 2010
Ammaniti is one of Italy's most acclaimed younger writers, and this carefully constructed thriller is the first of his books to appear here. During a piercingly hot summer, a few kilometres from a bone-dry hamlet in rural Tuscany, a shy, ne…
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IMM (#12)

In My Mailbox is a meme created and hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren with inspiration from Alea at Pop Culture Junkie. It basically give book bloggers everywhere the opportunity to share what books they have received/bought/librarised (yes, I know that librarised is not a word) over the las…
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Does Whatever An iPhone Can (review: iBoy by Kevin Brooks)

iBoy Kevin Brooks Penguin 2010
Before the attack, sixteen-year-old Tom Harvey was just an ordinary boy. But now fragments of a shattered iPhone are embedded in his brain and it's having an extraordinary effect...Because now Tom has powers - the ability to know and see more than he could ever imagi…
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