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pharmdad2007's review
4.0
This was a really interesting book about the transformative power of a life-or-death survival situation. Everybody in this book is changed immensely by the time spent trying to find their way off the mountain. An intense story with a realistic and touching ending.
lauralovestoread's review
4.0
Wow I'm starting to think that deep down I want to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail. After reading the book Wild last year, and falling for the story about hiking the western mountain range, The Mountain Story touched me in similar ways, but the similarities stopped there.
Honestly I was looking for a book that would grab my attention and hold it, and The Mountain Story did just that for me. In this book we meet Wolf, an experienced hiker who by chance, meets three women who also happen to be the same strangers he gets lost on the California mountain range with. Wolf comes from a hard childhood, and has decided that on his 18th birthday that he also wants to end his life. He is set to go forward with this plan until he gets distracted by these strangers on the trail who need his help, and the story takes off from there as we see him grow from a boy to a man while being lost in the wilderness. I kept guessing the whole story as to who the unfortunate soul would be.
Honestly I was looking for a book that would grab my attention and hold it, and The Mountain Story did just that for me. In this book we meet Wolf, an experienced hiker who by chance, meets three women who also happen to be the same strangers he gets lost on the California mountain range with. Wolf comes from a hard childhood, and has decided that on his 18th birthday that he also wants to end his life. He is set to go forward with this plan until he gets distracted by these strangers on the trail who need his help, and the story takes off from there as we see him grow from a boy to a man while being lost in the wilderness. I kept guessing the whole story as to who the unfortunate soul would be.
jackyobrien6's review
3.0
The Mountain Story is a survivalist novel, with a background of familial drama and grief. The survival portions were interesting, with Bridget making me want to pull my hair out, and loving the resilience of Nola. I found it a good balance or useful survival actions mixed with understandable ignorance. I thought the sections that were about Wolf's early life and his life with Byrd took away from the story a little, by taking the reader out of the action too frequently and for too long. I didn't think it helped me understand Wolf's character any better, and could do without it. But the book wrapped up nicely and I overall liked it.
jenna_cross's review
4.0
A great story of survival, not only in the wilderness but also childhood trauma and a dysfunctional paternal family. When I first started this story I wasn't sure I was going to like it. That outlook quickly changed once Wolf and the women were actually on the mountain. The last third of the novel was truly beautiful. So glad I read it.
thatjamiea's review against another edition
5.0
Wowza! Great action packed novel. Absolutely perfect for older teens to read and a possible choice for reluctant readers as the entire book had me on tenterhooks as I was reading.
On the day of his eighteenth birthday, Wolf Truly heads to the mountain to end it all. The mountain has given him some of his greatest happiness but also, his worst pain and and crushing guilt. A family stops Wolf for help finding a hidden lake and a panicked situation finds Wolf and the Devine women (Nola, Bridget and Vonn) fighting for their lives on the mountaintop.
The book is written as a story to Wolf's son, explaining what happened on that mountain so long ago, and talks about Wolf's life up to the point, the death of his mother, his deadbeat Dad and his relationship with his best friend Byrd.
On the day of his eighteenth birthday, Wolf Truly heads to the mountain to end it all. The mountain has given him some of his greatest happiness but also, his worst pain and and crushing guilt. A family stops Wolf for help finding a hidden lake and a panicked situation finds Wolf and the Devine women (Nola, Bridget and Vonn) fighting for their lives on the mountaintop.
The book is written as a story to Wolf's son, explaining what happened on that mountain so long ago, and talks about Wolf's life up to the point, the death of his mother, his deadbeat Dad and his relationship with his best friend Byrd.
thebooktrail88's review
4.0
Why a booktrail?
See the literary locations on the blog - Booktrail of the Mountain Story
Four people go up a mountain near Palm Springs. Three return. What happened up there and why were two of them determined to go up that day in particular?
Story in a nutshell
Wolf Truly has a mission. He’s off to the mountain, his mountain – the one where his memories are not good ones. He takes nothing as he is not intending to come back.
However he is not the only one with a link to the mountain. Three women he meets in the cable car also seem keen to find something there. There’s talk of a secret lake they say, and they want to to find it.
This is not the landscape for being stranded on but that’w what happens when the weather changes and so their bed for the night is a lethal ridge with the lights of the city twinkling below, so close and yet so terrifyingly far away.
Whether anyone will get off the mountain is quite another story…
Blimey this was good. If you’ve ever been hiking and worried about getting lost don’t read this! Ironic that Wolf should be going up the mountain to commit suicide but then find out that the mountain has a lot more in store for him that he realized.
The women he meets – when their stories came out it added to the weird isolation that was already more than building up. Desperate times call for desperate measures. That mountain is unforgiving and will wait for no one.
Four people on a mountain and only three come down…..the fate of the fourth person is tragic as it is the culmination of a series of events from that very first tram up to the mountain station.
The tension builds as the isolation and rawness of the mountain envelopes and pokes each one of the people there.
The legend stories told of men who had died there, poisonous plants and tragic details of the mountain really added to the overall sense of ‘how the hell will they get out of this situation’ the lights from Palm Springs below tends to mock them as they seem so close despite their being so lost.
A mountain tale which shows how suffering and survival in the wilderness show the extremes of the human spirit and how four people can come together under the most pressurized of situations.
See the literary locations on the blog - Booktrail of the Mountain Story
Four people go up a mountain near Palm Springs. Three return. What happened up there and why were two of them determined to go up that day in particular?
Story in a nutshell
Wolf Truly has a mission. He’s off to the mountain, his mountain – the one where his memories are not good ones. He takes nothing as he is not intending to come back.
However he is not the only one with a link to the mountain. Three women he meets in the cable car also seem keen to find something there. There’s talk of a secret lake they say, and they want to to find it.
This is not the landscape for being stranded on but that’w what happens when the weather changes and so their bed for the night is a lethal ridge with the lights of the city twinkling below, so close and yet so terrifyingly far away.
Whether anyone will get off the mountain is quite another story…
Blimey this was good. If you’ve ever been hiking and worried about getting lost don’t read this! Ironic that Wolf should be going up the mountain to commit suicide but then find out that the mountain has a lot more in store for him that he realized.
The women he meets – when their stories came out it added to the weird isolation that was already more than building up. Desperate times call for desperate measures. That mountain is unforgiving and will wait for no one.
Four people on a mountain and only three come down…..the fate of the fourth person is tragic as it is the culmination of a series of events from that very first tram up to the mountain station.
The tension builds as the isolation and rawness of the mountain envelopes and pokes each one of the people there.
The legend stories told of men who had died there, poisonous plants and tragic details of the mountain really added to the overall sense of ‘how the hell will they get out of this situation’ the lights from Palm Springs below tends to mock them as they seem so close despite their being so lost.
A mountain tale which shows how suffering and survival in the wilderness show the extremes of the human spirit and how four people can come together under the most pressurized of situations.
farmlady1's review
4.0
Picked this up from the library today. Can't wait to start it tonight. It sounds like my kind of story
Loved the characters revealing a bit of each of their real stories along the way and the relationship as they developed. The story was very bittersweet. Especially, fitting all of the pieces together at the end of the story. A very entertaining read.
Loved the characters revealing a bit of each of their real stories along the way and the relationship as they developed. The story was very bittersweet. Especially, fitting all of the pieces together at the end of the story. A very entertaining read.
sbachtell's review
5.0
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I'll admit it took me a few pages to really get into the story, but once I did I was hooked. I was caught up in the characters - actually emotionally invested in them. You love who you're supposed to love, and dislike the one you know almost from the beginning will be a pain in the rear. Throw in a few great plot twists and this was a thoroughly enjoyable book.
maeclair's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of those books that stays with you long after you read it. Wolf Truly goes to the mountain on his eighteenth birthday intending to take his life. Instead he ends up in the company of three women, all of them becoming lost in the wilderness.
What follows is a gripping story of survival interlaced with glimpses of the lives of all four characters. Wolf’s personal story is told in sections that take us from his childhood to the “now” moments of the book, allowing us to understand what brought him to the mountain in a suicidal frame of mind. I enjoyed the way the author wove the two stories together, and was especially fond of Wolf’s close friendship with his friend Byrd.
These characters grow on you. At the beginning, there is no emotional connection to the women, (the book is told from Wolf’s point-of-view throughout), but by the end, I felt like I knew each of them personally. Like Wolf, I grew to understand them through their ordeal on the mountain, and became attached to each.
The ending was superb, and took me by surprise. Bravo to the author. I haven’t read a five-star book in a while, but if I could give this one more than 5 stars I would. I highly recommend The Mountain Story for a riveting and engaging read.
What follows is a gripping story of survival interlaced with glimpses of the lives of all four characters. Wolf’s personal story is told in sections that take us from his childhood to the “now” moments of the book, allowing us to understand what brought him to the mountain in a suicidal frame of mind. I enjoyed the way the author wove the two stories together, and was especially fond of Wolf’s close friendship with his friend Byrd.
These characters grow on you. At the beginning, there is no emotional connection to the women, (the book is told from Wolf’s point-of-view throughout), but by the end, I felt like I knew each of them personally. Like Wolf, I grew to understand them through their ordeal on the mountain, and became attached to each.
The ending was superb, and took me by surprise. Bravo to the author. I haven’t read a five-star book in a while, but if I could give this one more than 5 stars I would. I highly recommend The Mountain Story for a riveting and engaging read.