Landfill Mountain by Rab Ferguson, narrated by Christopher Ragland - 3/4

I love audio book and am a true believer that the narrator can make or break the story. This one did not hit the mark. I enjoyed the story and loved the world building but feel that the story would have come across better if I was to read it. I didn't are for Joe, not sure if that was the way the narrator portrayed him or if that is truly how his character is throughout. The ending was great, I love an emotional twist.

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Christopher Ragland
Content: 3 stars ~ Narration: 4 stars

Sixteen-year-old Joe lives in a town next to a mountain of waste left from the previous world. After climate change effects took place, there was no going back and no life for people like they knew before. Joe lives with his father, David, and his grandfather, Joe. All residents, including children, collect objects from the garbage mountain and trade them to drifters for food.

Part dystopian (overconsumption and climate change effects) and part a fantasy tale.

Thanks to Saga Egmont Audio for the ALC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

Thank you to Saga Egmont Audio and Net Galley for access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Landfill Mountains is an exploration in storytelling and climate crisis/dystopian fiction with a fantastical bent - definitively a product of current times.

By far the best part of this book was the meta stories (aka the magic system of this world). They were compelling, interesting, magical in their bedtime story like vibe while being original and engaging. I really wish there had been more! The world itself was an interesting take on the standard dystopian "everything is worse" model, but with a clearly thought out cause and effect from our current world to the one of the book.

My main issue with this book was the tone. Although this book is marketed as YA, it felt distinctly both Adult Fantasy and Middle Grade at alternating points, with little of what I would recognise from the standard YA book. It felt as if the book didn't know who its audience was.

The narrator was compelling and had a good range of voices for all the different characters, with good pacing and alternation between narrative and dialogue. The cover art is stunning and is 95% of the reason I picked this book up - and has a genuine and good relation to the actual content inside!

3.5/5

In a dystopian world, decimated by overconsumption and climate change, the huge landfill mountains were originally created when the city of Madera was once affluent, but those who remain have had to find ways to survive.



Joe lives with his grandfather and father David in a ramshackle shanty, on a land of discarded refuse. The wider community has split into subsections by skill - The Scavengers who live on the landfill mountains, The Gardeners, The Fisher People and The Hunters - all trade amongst each other to enable them to eat. When one of Joe’s community gets deathly sick, he goes in search of a cure … and a better life.



Such an imaginative storyline, apocalyptic, magical, heartbreaking and joyous with many amazing characters, I particularly liked the man that was essentially capitalism and greed personified. I would happily listen to a sequel.

 This is really an excellent YA book (I would suggest 13+)


I have listened to quite a few books narrated by Christopher Ragland now and he always does an excellent job. He is quite flamboyant in his reading in places, but I like that.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this alc in exchange for an honest review.
Landfill Mountains is a charming combinatuin of dystopian and fantasy. I loved the storytelling in this book. This book takes place in a world where climate change has destroyed civilization. I rarely read books with such heavy real world problems but I loved how the author portrayed it. The author gave us several incredibly written characters, Joe's Grandad being my absolute favorite of them all. I did think Joe was a bit bland for a main character and would have liked to see some deeper character development from him. The pacing was off and the beginning felt like it was dragging on forever but it picked up about halfway through. I adored all of the fairytales being told in this story and how it added just the perfect amount of magic to a dying world. The ending had an amazing and emotional twist that was definitely worth waiting for. This was a very unique and thought provoking novel. I also loved the narrator's voice and would love to listen to more voiced by him.