Reviews

Neverest by T.L. Bodine

ericarobyn's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Neverest by T.L. Bodine is a chilling survival story centered around grief, regret, and the search for answers in order to move on. Filled to the brim with quiet, unsettling moments, this book will have you nervously turning each page.

Mourning the loss of her husband, Carrie has made it through the horrible phone call, followed by the funeral and burial, but she can’t begin to move on until she has an understanding of what happened. Undeterred, even when begged by her late husband’s best friend, Carrie goes to Everest to climb and look for her husband’s body or any trace of information that may show her what happened to him.

Once on the mountain, mostly alone in the cold with her thoughts, we learn that grief isn’t the only weight Carrie is carrying up the mountain with her; she’s also carrying the weight of guilt and regret.

She’s not an experienced climber, but she has determination on her side. Will she get the answers she craves or will the mountain claim another victim?

There’s just something about this author’s writing style that sucks me right in every time. I absolutely devoured this book!

I was so invested in this character’s journey! Her emotional scenes were so spot on for how I have handled grief in the past, I couldn’t help but feel for her.

As the story progressed, I loved not knowing whether there was really something supernatural going on, or whether it was just altitude psychosis … and that ending! PHEW.

My Favorite Passages from Neverest

Outside, it had gone from evening to night to the earliest hours of morning, time stubbornly refusing to stand still for grief.

Uncertainty became a living creature that shared her body and drove her, against her better judgment, to fixate.

Otherwise, the path felt increasingly lonely as it wound its way up the mountain. Even when they passed other hikers on the trail, there was a sense of isolation that had not been present closer to the towns — like the whole area was holding its breath in anticipation of something.

She doesn’t know how to explain that she needs the distraction. Needs to feel busy, in control of something. That without something to keep her hands busy, she’ll be dragged down into an abyss in her thoughts — that focusing on the here and now is the only thing keeping her from falling into the limitless void of ‘what ifs’ and uncertainty.

The crowd has morphed, grotesquely, into an assembly of ghosts, and nobody else seems to have realized it.

Isn’t it funny how altitude and tiredness and grief all affect the body in the same way?

All the same, I felt an odd awareness that, even if I wished, I would not be able to raise my voice. Like when you’re in a dream and try to call out but can only whisper. I cannot explain it, but I was certain that the mountain itself had stolen my voice, suppressed it to maintain the level of ghostly hush that now filled the cold slope.

Behind her, the crevasse seems to grow narrower, as if the waiting mouth were starting to close in disappointment that it would have no fresh prey to swallow.

It is not true after all what people always say — that you can feel nothing in a dream. Dreams can be painful. Dreams can be more real than anything.

My Final Thoughts on Neverest

One of the very best slow-burn and suspenseful novels I have ever read, this one carries readers along step by step, taking everything in as we climb the mountain and break down the walls in the main character’s mind to see the full picture. Like the climb itself, things are only made clear at the top.

I loved every single second of this story. This is a must-read for fans of horror that has elements of survival, real-world horrors, and the supernatural.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Infidelity

dtaylorbooks's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I’d read Bodine’s work before she asked me to blurb NEVEREST, so I was interested in seeing what she’d come up with next in this interesting horror story set on Everest. It’s something different and intriguing and it captured my attention immediately. And it certainly didn’t disappoint.

One thing I’ve noticed about Bodine’s writing is her ability to dig up the humanest of human emotions in her characters. To the point where they’re almost unlikeable for how raw they react to situations. Yet at the same time they’re so incredibly human that you can’t help but empathize with them while you’re reading. Carrie is no different as we sit on her shoulder and climb the mountain with her. She works through a rollercoaster of emotions as she grapples with her husband’s death, and the guilt of some of her feelings toward him in the final handful of time before he died. At times cringey, but realistic to the point of hurting, I couldn’t look away.

Plus, there’s this underlying low thrum of horror that simmers under the surface of the story. Right from page one there’s a sense of foreboding as Carrie’s plane comes in for a rocky landing. NEVEREST is definitely not a sun-shiny story, that’s for sure! It’s a horror that lurks in the corner of the eye, in reiterated tales of urban legends that live on only on people’s tongues. Or in Carrie’s case, in the works of her husband through his journal.

The ending doesn’t really give you that well-rounded solution to the story, but it’s a fitting ending and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The horror is insidious that way, lurking just on the edges of the pages. It might peek it’s finger in, but that’s all you’ll see of it. I love this kind of psychological horror that never gives you the satisfaction of a solid ending. That’s the whole point, and it makes it all the creepier.

NEVEREST was a ride of a story that had me flinching with every page turn because I kept expecting something to reveal, but she keeps the terror on simmer the whole time, allowing it to needle under your skin and fester. If you want a low-key yet mind-screwy king of horror, NEVEREST is the book for you!

4.5