The Mountains of Instead

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

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - April Genevieve Tucholke talks Amoral Love Interests

Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea is the debut novel of April Genevieve Tucholke - and what a debut!  Violet White is waiting away a long, hot summer in a house on the edge of the pacific. Life is quiet, dull even, until the arrival of River West. There to rent out the summer house, River is …
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Goodbye, and Keep Cold (Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black)

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown 
Holly Black 
Little, Brown 2013
"He would hold onto revenge. It would be his fairy story, his lullaby, sung softly by flayed lips. Off-key and deranged."
I hate Twilight. I'm sure most of you agree, I just had to get it out there. I used to ignore it but that c…
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Your Parents Fuck You Up, You Know (review: Reality Boy by AS King)

Reality Boy
AS King
Little, Brown 2013

Gerald was an angry/bad/troubled/awful little boy. And everyone knows it. Every aspect of his rage, frustration and confusion was played out on national TV in glorious, awful Technicolor.  The ultimate problem child, his issues made for great entertainment for th…
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Home, Sweet Home (Review: Sweet Damage by Rebecca James)

Sweet Damage
Rebecca James
Faber & Faber 2014

In his early twenties, Tim Ellison has yet to decide what to do with his life. In fact, he's not really in a hurry to decide and spends his time crashing at his ex's apartment, working in the family restaurant and surfing. Eventually, his stay …
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Don't Read That Read This welcomes Nicole!

Don't Read That Read This is a sporadic feature (because ALL ourfeatures are sporadic due an entire lack of organisational skillz) that asks you to come up with three books that you don't think are read often enough or raved over with sufficient frequency. This month we welcome Nicole, a lo…
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Bloody, But Unbowed (Review: Half Bad by Sally Green)

Half Bad
Sally Green
Penguin 2014

Nathan has been largely unwanted his entire life.  Outcast by the society he was born into he has spent the majority of his life in the fragile care of his grandmother, brother and sister even as another sister torments him with his own nature. Nathan, you see, has be…
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