Review of When The Mountains Roared by Jess Butterworth


Genres: Childrens, Mystery
Pages: 282
Publisher: Orion
Release Date: 05/04/2018
Find The Author: (Website/Twitter)
Find The Book: Book Depository/AbeBooks UK/US
Add To Your Goodreads Shelf
(Received free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

I thought we'd live here forever. But then I thought Mum would be here forever too. 

When Ruby's dad uproots her from Australia to set up a hotel in the mountains of India, Ruby is devastated. Not only are they living in a run-down building in the middle of the wilderness surrounded by scorpions, bears and leopards, but Ruby is sure that India will never truly feel like home - not without her mum there.

Ever since her mum died, Ruby has been afraid. Of cars. Of the dark. Of going to sleep and never waking up. But then the last remaining leopards of the mountain are threatened and everything changes. Ruby vows to do all she can to protect them - if she can only overcome her fears... 


I'm trying to read books with different cultures this year, because I'm tired of being an English-person stuck in America where all the main characters are white and middle class. This one is a children's book set in India and is a fantastic introduction to Indian culture for anyone wanting to learn more about it. The author has used her own experiences in life and written them into Ruby's story, creating vivid characters and a great mystery.

There's some great themes here - a love of animals, poaching, respect of other cultures and loss of a parent. Ruby travels with her Dad to live in the Indian mountains, running a direlict hotel that the locals shy away from. Greiving the death of her mother and a move to another country would take it's toll on anyone and we see glimpses of that from flashbacks that Ruby has.

Poaching is the main theme and it's devastating effects on the environment. When Ruby discovers that the owners of the hotel are up to something, she enlists her new friend Paveen and her Grandmother to help her investigate, discovering more about her new home of India along the way. I do wish that we had learnt more about Ruby's home of Australia, as it wasn't mentioned that much.

Comments

Post a Comment

I love comments! Spam comments will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Many Covers Monday - ALL THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

Image
After it was not so recently revealed that the classic, original covers were to go out of print and replaced with new, shiny covers, I thought I'd do something crazy this Monday. Harry Potter. But not the first book, no! This Monday I'm showcasing... entire sets of the books. Cool, but a lot of work. And a lot of tabs. These won't just be the covers you know and love, I've included international sets of the books too, which I've never seen before. Not all of the covers are here, but most of them are. (Ignore the random pattern for the last image. I wanted to tile them right) (This post was originally posted back in 2014 and since I'm re-reading the whole series I thought I might as well go for a full Harry Potter week on my blog by sharing my most popular post with new cover sets added. UK - these are the new covers revealed by Bloomsbury recently. These are my favourite covers, I wasn't impressed initially but the amazing covers won
Read more

Many Covers Monday: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Image
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.   Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.    UK/US I really love the US cover. It keeps the air of mystery by covering t
Read more

Many Covers Monday: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Image
Today we're looking at the many different covers of Jay Asher 's 13 Reasons Why and choosing a winner! Some are rejackets and others are foreign language covers. Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK / US ¦ Goodreads This was his freaking debut? Oh man, this book was amazing. I read it at least 5 years ago and still remember it, I'm going to read it again - as soon as I can grab a co
Read more