I was approached by T L Bodine to read and review Neverest. The cover immediately drew me in, then I read the blurb and clicked reply to her email.

I am so happy to have T L Bodine to share her thoughts about, well, whatever she wants.

INTERVIEW WITH T L BODINE

1. Book covers heavily influence me and sometimes I will grab a book just because I love the cover. What is your process for coming up with the final product?

This particular cover went on a bit of a design journey. My publisher and I had a very different idea in mind, but with AI-rendered art being such a hot-button topic lately, we wanted to lean hard in the opposite direction and go with something that was very obviously bespoke and physical. My editor found the artist, Donnie Kirchner, and shared his Instagram to me, and I was intrigued by the way he worked with texture and color so I got on board pretty quick. I made several moodboards of other book covers I liked and different art styles and color palettes, and we sent a bundle of that over to Donnie who really knocked it out of the park. The original painting is actually hanging up in my living room now. The sky is painted on canvas, and the mountain is actually torn paper backlit with fairy lights to get that horizon glow. Overall I’m really happy with how it turned out, and it definitely captures the attention! 

2. What was your inspiration for writing Neverest?

I randomly stumbled across an article on one of those “weird news” sites on social media, about the bodies on Everest, and realized it was something I had never thought about before. It sent me on kind of an obsession spiral for a bit, trying to understand — why people climb the mountain even knowing the risks, why recovering a body is so important it’s worth risking more lives, why there are so many inexperienced climbers on Everest especially. In hunting for answers to satisfy my curiosity, I started thinking through a lot of spooky “what if” scenarios, and the central relationship drama at the heart of the book started to reveal itself.

3. Why a book about mountain climbing?

I started this project knowing essentially nothing about mountaineering, so I went on quite a research spree just to feel comfortable in that space. I’m still definitely a couch potato. But in reading climbing logs and blogs from mountaineers and watching YouTube videos and documentaries and digging into memoirs, I started to get a sense of what drives people into this hobby…and realized that in a lot of ways, mountaineering isn’t so different from writing. Obviously their hobby is way more dangerous than mine, and a lot more physically demanding. But we share a same passion for investing a tremendous part of ourselves into something others might view as a waste of time or even selfish — and once I found that emotional hook, I understood exactly what I was writing. Neverest is a story about grief and ghosts and death in the mountains, but it’s also about being married to someone with a deep, life-altering passion for something you cannot begin to understand. And that, I think, is super relatable to a lot of us. 

4. What authors have influenced your writing career?

Like most horror fans, I started reading Stephen King when I was entirely too young, and that influence has definitely stuck around. I also owe a lot to the YA authors of my youth, like Robert Cormier and R.L. Stine, and to the classics like Shirley Jackson, John Steinbeck, and Kurt Vonnegut. Among my contemporaries, I continue to be totally blown away by Paul Tremblay, Grady Hendrix, T. Kingfisher and Gillian Flynn. Their work never fails to inspire me! 

5. What do you do for fun and relaxation?

What is this “relaxation” you speak of? I’m a copywriter by trade so I’m in the position of taking time away from my writing job…to do a different writing job. Not very smart of me. I do also enjoy playing video games with my husband (our current obsession is playing World of Warcraft Classic on “hardcore” mode, so when your character dies you have to delete them and start over). I also cook a lot and tend to my pet rats and our little dogs. One of these days I should pick a hobby that involves going outside. 

6. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

I feel a deep affinity for rats. I’ve kept them as pets since my teens, and they’re such funny little animals — hypersocial, political, full of gossip and petty squabbles but completely devoted to each other, curious yet skeptical, infatuated with good food and warm, dark, cozy places to sleep in a pile with their best pals. Equally at home in the forest or crawling around in the trash. I can’t think of a more relatable creature.  

7. What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on a zombie book called Cage of Bones, which is the third and hopefully final installment of my Lazarus series about self-aware zombies struggling to survive and thrive under the nose of a government that wants to eradicate them. I’ve also got a book in the editing stages now about a selkie and a musician who team up to escape the abusive music producer who controls them both. After that, I guess we’ll see which thing from my mountain of to-dos grabs my attention first! 

Thanks so much, T, for taking the time to share your thoughts. It is a credit to your writing skills to make Neverest sound as if it wasn’t your first climb up the mountain (at least in our imagination). I can only imagine the gorgeous cover hanging on your wall. Your zombies sound awesome and my hubby thinks I may have been a mermaid in my former life, so your writing ticks all the boxes for me.

Amazon / KindleUnlimited / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

First off, the paranormal element is subtle, but a Yeti is mentioned. This is not a creature feature, but the paranormal twist and the look into what happens when you climb a mountain and your mind may become your worst enemy.

A year ago, Sean Miller, Carrie’s husband, climber Mount Everest and never came home. Carries is lost in her grief, but evokes a promise from their best friend, Tom, to take her to the top so she can find her body.

I never saw Neverest being the book it turned out to be, but it surely has enough horror without the creature…or is there something more to the mountain, something that lays it’s claim to those who falter. Is it a beast? Is it their minds altitude sickness causing them to lose it? Is there a hostile force that protects the mountain?

Tom and Sean usually climbed together, but Tom had his reasons for not being on the trip. They weren’t what I thought and I wonder if all those that never returned from climbing Mount Everest were all accidents.

Neverest is a book about survival. I have seen some TV shows and read some accounts of Mount Everest. I cannot imagine ever having the desire to do such a thing. For one, I like heat and I am pretty laid back. I think climbers have a desire to conquer something. Or are they running from something? Sean felt climbing was the only time he was in control of events. When you think of all the support needed to accomplish such a feat, I think that is a misnomer.

The writing, and watching shows and reading books, makes it easy to visualize her preparations, her assent, and the action as it unfolds. The hazards and danger, from the mountain and from the person themselves, does not make me want to follow in their footsteps. It was creepy. I found myself shivering and it wasn’t from the cold.

Maybe the mountain is striking back because of how humans have trashed it. My curiosity, which is great that an author can have me doing it, made me surf the internet. People…I get this feeling of who do they think they are. Do they think, if I were ever to climb the mountain, I would want to see how little they care about their environment? It’s like we say for the beach, leave only footprints.

Carrie is searching for answers and her guilt drives her on a journey of self discovery that she didn’t know she was looking for. The held the journal Sean had left behind as if it was her lifeline…

Man, oh man, that ending. I had no idea how T L Bodine would finish Neverest, but I didn’t see that coming. I guess, I was just along for the ride, not thinking of where I was going, just taking one step after another, one page after another, one word after another…

T L Bodine’s writing draws me in as I become fascinated with the allure to conquer, the price the climbers pay, both physical and mental, the cold, the lack of air and the tricks the mind plays on them. I wonder how many fall prey to altitude sickness and just wander off, lost on the mountain and lost in their mind.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Neverest by T L Bodine.

GOODREADS BLURB

One year ago, Sean Miller—journalist and mountain climbing enthusiast—reached the summit of Mount Everest and was never seen again. Unable to move on without knowing the truth of what happened, his widow Carrie insists on an expedition to search for Sean’s body so it can be properly laid to rest. Tom, Sean’s best friend and former climbing partner, agrees to serve as expedition guide and promises to keep Carrie safe on the mountain, despite their complicated relationship history.

Guided by a travel journal left behind by her husband, Carrie ventures into the frozen, open-air graveyard of the world’s tallest peak. But as Sean’s diary and Carrie’s experiences reveal, climbing the mountain is more than a test of endurance; it’s a battle of wills with an ancient and hostile force protecting the mountain—and the dead do not rest easy at the summit.

NEVEREST is a survival thriller with a hint of the supernatural that will appeal to fans of Ally Wilkes’ All the White Spaces and Amy McCulloch’s Breathless.

• Genre: Fiction, Horror
• 292 pages, ebook
• First published April 25, 2023 by Ghost Orchid Press

ABOUT T L BODINE

T.L. Bodine writes dark fantasy and horror. She’s interested in uncanny, fantastic things, and the way real people with real problems interact with them.

You can also read up-and-coming stories on Wattpad, or check out her Tumblr for writing advice, creepypasta, and more.

When not writing, she can usually be found watching horror movies, playing story-heavy video games, or experimenting in the kitchen.

She lives in New Mexico with her husband, David, and two small dogs.

View content warnings for her books here: http://www.tlbodine.com/p/read-my-sto…

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