In a Dusty Coat With a Red Right Hand (Review: The Shadow Friend by Alex North)

As the official blurb says, everyone has met a kid like Charlie Crabtree - intelligent, manipulative, secretive and a little scary.  Paul, even as a teen, knew that something had to be done about Charlie but was unable to fathom exactly what before Charlie and his group of friends committed a terri…

...and, We're Back.

Clear, unscalable ahead
Rise the Mountains of Instead, 

From whose cold, cascading streams

None may drink except in dreams.

                                      W.H. Auden

You Never Can Tell With Bees (Review: The Bees by Lalline Paul)

The Bees
Lalline Paul
Ecco, 2015

I have to make an admission before we get started: I’m pretty damn scared of bees. They don’t instill the same mind-numbing terror as wasps or my new Taiwanese nemesis the giant hornet. Still, it takes a lot for me to get through a book whose cover is swarming in aphid…

On a Wing and a Prayer (Review: Winger by Andrew Smith)

Winger
Andrew Smith
Egmont, 2014

This review contains spoilers. Consider this fair warning, although we'll warn you again below, before things get REALLY spoiler-y. You may now proceed.

Ryan Dean West is 14 and, as such, Ryan Dean West has problems. Not exactly abject poverty, incurable disease, d…

This is Halloween! Some Terrible Treats for the Weekend...

I love Halloween, I always have.  I think anybody who is a reader, or who spends a lot of time on their imagination can't help but be entranced by an evening so driven by stories.  Even as a very young child, I liked the sharp thrill of fear, found between safe pages and each year, I ferret out…

As I Try To Make My Way to The Ordinary World - Review/Interview: Patrick Ness on The Rest of Us Just Live Here.

We're both fortunate and delighted to welcomePatrick Ness back to these here hills to talk about his new book The Rest of Us Just Live Here.



The Rest of Us Just LiveHere takes the idea of a Chosen One (Harry, Buffy, Katniss, whoever) and asks: what about everyone else? What about the kids just …

A Pirate's Life for Me (Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier)

Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier is one of my top five favourite books. I have re-read it once a year since I was about 16 which means that I've read it more times than I am willing to admit here. Yet as entranced as I have always been with Rebecca, and Maximilian and the young Mrs. de Winter, I had never been tempted to read anything else by Du Maurier until recently.  What prompted my long overdue interest was an email from Little, Brown who have re-released Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek with some gorgeous new covers and who were wondering if I'd like one to review.  It seemed like the thing to do.  So here we are, part of the Du Maurier blog tour.  I urge you to check out all the stops on this one as, rather than just focussing on one book, it's focussing on several and each one is a classic.  I know this because, having read Frenchman's Creek (thanks to Little, Brown) I sought out and read all three (including Rebecca. Again)....

You Were Made for Me (Review: Made for You by Melissa Marr)

Made for You Melissa Marr Harper Collin’s Childrens 2015
When Eva is victim of a hit and run in her sedate North Carolina town, she is confused.  Who on earth would hit someone with a car and not stop?  Who would want to hit her?  Eva is, after all, Little Miss Popular with a locally noble lineage and…

It's Pretty, But Is It Art? (Review: I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson)

I’ll Give You The Sun Jandy Nelson Walker 2015
Noah and Jude are twins, linked in that ineffable way that twins so often seem to be.Inseparable for their childhood, things start to change as they get older and I’ll Give You The Sun tells their story from two points in time and alternating perspectives…

Secrets and Lies (Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher)

Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher
Razorbill 2007

Slightly late on the uptake - story of my life - but I have been looking forward to this for a while now. Goodreads reviews are hugely mixed and there has been a fair bit of controversy banded around.  So is the fuss justified we rightly ask?

Clay arrives…

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Childhood/Teen Books that I'd like to Revisit.

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme run by The Broke and The Bookish.  It involves lists of, well, top tens. We like lists.  This week's Top Ten on the Mountains of Instead is brought to you by Splendibird.

The problem with loving to read is that there are so many, many books in the world and so very lit…