The Mountains of Instead

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

All Hallow's Read Recommendations

So, today's the day and we certainly hope that you ladies and germs have a day of spooksome fun and certainly one of more treats than tricks.  However, before you sit back and relax into an evening of guising and scary movies ask yourself this:  Have I passed on an All Hallow's Read?  No?  …
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All Hallow's Listen: Click Clack the Rattle-Bag... and it's FREE!

As we've devoted this month to promoting Neil Gaiman's All Hallow's Read, it would be inopportune not to promote an entirely new Gaiman story.


Click Clack the Rattle-Bag is available via audible.co.uk and audible.com as a free download and it's pretty darn good. Vaguely Gothic, bril…
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Monster Mash - Terrifying Tunes and Mournful Music

So,Halloween isn't just about scary stories - or scary films, for that matter - sometimes music can be more evocative of fear than anything we read or watch, sometimes it can compliment both books and movies and sometimes it's just awesome in it's own right.  Today, Cannonball Jones ret…
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A Hell of a Scary Crack In Your Wall

The Magic Cottage
James Herbert
New English Library 1987 (1st ed.)
DESIRABLE PROPERTY. Cottage, secluded position adjoining woodland, needs renovation, but excel. Potential. 2 beds, recep. kitchen, bathroom, ½ acre garden, offers invited.            
Cantrip 612.

For Mike and Midge, a session musician a…
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The Breeze In The Trees, Singing Weird Melodies (Review: The Diviners by Libba Bray)

The Diviners Libba Bray Atom 2012
New York City has much to offer to those who seek its unsleeping streets.Arriving fresh from Ohio, Evie O’Neill spends her evenings on the town, living life to its fullest while her days are spent in the Museum of the Occult with her uncle.Alongside Evie work Jericho …
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Scary Shorts (not the type you, er, wear).

Halloween is nearly upon us and while we usually focus on books here in The Mountains of Instead, Cannonball Jones is here with a terrifying array of short films. Proceed at your own peril and keep a weather eye on your electric meter - because after this little lot you're going to want to slee…
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Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? (Review of Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon)

Henry Franks Peter Adam Salomon Flux 2012
Henry Franks is neither here nor there.  Sleep-walking through his present and unable to remember his past he is a haunted by non-memories, living in a limbo that seems unlikely to change.  Held together by 4000 stitches, he’s recovering from the accident that…
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Must There Be Horror? An All Hallow's Guest post from Helen Grant.

As you are probably aware by now, we're running a month long promotion of All Hallow's Read and today we're excited to welcome author Helen Grant to our foothills. Helen is here to share some very old ghost stories so for those of you who can't pass on a book for AHR, perhaps you co…
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Because It Is My Heart (review: Broken by A. E. Rought)

Broken A. E. Rought Strange Chemistry 2012
In this modern day re-imagining of Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emma Gentry is one familiar with the dead (as one would like to expect from any good Gothic heroine).  Well, she at least spends a lot of time in her local cemetery, desperately missing her recently d…
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Because It Is Bitter (Review: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson)

I Am Legend
Richard Matheson
Gollancz 2006 (originally published 1954)

Another day, another post-apocalyptic book review. As Splendibird has pointed out, Hallowe'en approaches so it's time to rustle up our best costumes (I'm doing 'Sexy Book Reviewer' this year), carve up a lantern…
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