Saturday 19 December 2015

REVIEW: The Everest Files by Matt Dickinson

Pages: 313
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: March 10th 2014
Buy The Book: Amazon UK

In the deepest Himalaya a story is spreading like wildfire. The story of an Everest expedition unlike any other. An expedition that ended with mysterious disappearances ... and death.

This is the mystery that eighteen-year-old Ryan Hart sets out to solve.

Ryan is on a gap year adventure, working for a medical charity in Nepal. When a local girl begs him to investigate why her sixteen-year-old friend Kami never came back from Everest, Ryan cannot resist the challenge.

A solo journey takes Ryan deep into the mountains where his detective work finally pays off. What emerges is a shocking tale of lies, betrayal and obsession.

All played out on the lethal slopes of the highest mountain in the world.

Little by little Ryan is falling under Everest’s deadly spell.
  

My Thoughts:
A young adult novel set on the slopes of Mount Everest, that’s not something I come across every day. And that’s exactly why I wanted to read it. Being an avid reader of everything YA, I do find a lot of books sharing the same themes and cliché moments, and for that reason I am always on the lookout for something to take me by surprise, for something completely different to anything I’ve read before. The Everest Files definitely provided me with something new.

When I started reading, I was under the impression that this first book in the trilogy would follow Ryan, the character we first meet on his plane journey to volunteer in Nepal, but I was wrong. This is very much Kami’s story, the young Sherpa who gets tangled up in a web of deceit on an Everest expedition that aims to get a high-profile American politician to the summit. 

Whilst providing medicines to remote locations in Nepal, Ryan meets Shreeya, who tells him about Kami vanishing on the expedition. He promises to search for Kami and return the truth to Shreeya once and for all. When Ryan finally finds who he is looking for after days of difficult journeying, Kami finally gets to tell his story. 

I absolutely adored learning all about Kami’s trek to Everest, and he was a thoroughly enjoyable character to read about. As he got to know his new team members, so did we, and not all of them were to be trusted or had the right intentions, and it left me on edge throughout each chapter. I also loved the insight it gave into the lives of Sherpas, especially young ones, and how dangerous their work on expeditions can be. 

The setting for this novel was wonderfully epic from start to finish. Not only are we treated to a rich variety of characters, but we get the chance to learn about the terrain that they work on. It was very interesting to see the responsibilities each individual held on the mountain, and how quickly situations can change. 

Kami’s journey certainly had a lot of tense and uneasy moments. I loved how the story had the ability to always keep me guessing as to what was going to happen next, and the ending was spectacularly surprising.  

Now that I’ve learned Kami’s story, I am definitely interested to learn more about Ryan, especially since the ending of the book hinted at him becoming reeled in by the challenge of Everest. I’m highly anticipating another epic mountain adventure.

Royal Rating:


 

3 comments:

  1. This actually sounds very very interesting! I haven't heard of it before and I'm glad that you reviewed it, so it got my attention :)

    Aeriko @ The Reading Armchair

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was refreshing to read something so different for a change! You should definitely give it a try. :)

      Delete
  2. Sounds really interesting. Not sure how I feel about it for myself but it's definitely an interesting story. Nice review!

    ReplyDelete

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