The Mountains of Instead

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

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…
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Ghost in the Machine (Review: Echo Boy by Matt Haig)

Echo Boy
Matt Haig
Random House 2014

Space year 2115 - the future! Travel the globe and beyond in seconds, live forever thanks to insatiable advancements in medical science and, if you like, never leave the safety of your home again whilst living a better virtual life on-line!  I know, what's not …
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The House That Horror Built (Review: Amity by Mical Ostow)

Amity
Micol Ostow
Egmont USA 2014

Amity? As in Amityville Horror? Seriously?! Holy son of a nutcraker am I pumped for this.  What's not to love right?  This ol' house is a cornerstone of modern horror, it is the quintessential haunted house tale, everyone in the English speaking world knows th…
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We Are Family (Salvage by Keren David)

Salvage
Keren David
Atom 2014

Cass Montgomery always knew that she was adopted.  No biggy really, her mother had her young and couldn't cope and so she was raised by loving, middle-class perfecto-parents in a leafy English suburb.  She can remember almost nothing of her birth family and she doesn&…
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Once Upon a Terrible Time (Review: Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville)

Gretel and the Dark
Eliza Granville
Penguin 2014

Lilie does not believe that she's human.  She came in to being to kill the monster.  After being found naked and unconscious by the side of a Vienna road, she is taken in by celebrated psychoanalyst Josef Breuer.  She could be his greatest achieveme…
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MOI Welcomes Alexia Casale to talk Bone Dragons, Bone-inspired writing and future Ghosts!

Evie's shattered ribs prompt her to finally tell her adoptive parents the secrets that she carries from her early life, but as the physical scars heal and all she is left with is bone fragment in a jar, she realises that her journey is far from over.  Her bone fragment is carefully whittled int…
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Matt Haig, Kevin Maher on Real Life at EIBF 2013

Both Kevin and Matt are newly recognised authors at this year’s festival – Kevin, breaking ground with his debut novel The Fields and Matt finally finding the acceptance his work deserves with The Humans (and we all know I loved The Humans!).  Both men are personable and self-deprecating in equal m…
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Roving Reporter PolkaDot Steph talks Star Author Patrick Ness at EIBF 2013

I'm not entirely sure what we could say about Patrick Ness that we haven't already said on The Mountains of Instead (see the links at the bottom of the page) but in the words of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where Ness talked on Saturday, Patrick Ness is "the greatest youn…
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Best of the (EIB)Fest 2013

Here at the Mountains of Instead, we aim to spread our unashamed love of all things book-y to the far reaching corners of the internet. So if any of our gallant readers plan to head to the Scottish capital to sample the wonderful goings on at this time of year, here are the MOI team’s pick of this …
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