Scan barcode
A review by lindsayw
The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens
3.0
This is no Rush Home Road (few things are), but it was still pretty good. Despite a slow start, I was remarkably invested by the time the book ended (even though there were parts of the ending I thought were ridiculous), so things definitely improved over time.
The fact that the front cover says, "Five days. Four lost hikers. Three survivors" gives the whole book this frankly kind of impressive feeling of dread that hangs over it throughout the entire story. While I read, I just kept waiting for The Event, trying to guess who it would be that wouldn't make it out alive. And Lori Lansens does do an impressive job of keeping you guessing..
The flashbacks to Wolf's life with his dad and in Tin Town are depressing, but the pacing during those parts was a bit slow. I found myself stopping whenever I got to those parts and then trying to hurry through them when I'd pick the book back up again. Fortunately, those become a lot less frequent as the story moves along, which is a good thing because the strongest parts of The Mountain Story are, appropriately, the parts on the mountain. And the flashbacks that do remain are much stronger at the end than they are at the beginning. Finally learning about Byrd and Truly, I couldn't put the book down.
I unfortunately guessed a fair bit of the ending before the end, but I think that was inevitable because the tone of this book encourages so much speculation. I was bound to get some things right.
The fact that the front cover says, "Five days. Four lost hikers. Three survivors" gives the whole book this frankly kind of impressive feeling of dread that hangs over it throughout the entire story. While I read, I just kept waiting for The Event, trying to guess who it would be that wouldn't make it out alive. And Lori Lansens does do an impressive job of keeping you guessing.
Spoiler
Although I knew it wouldn't be Nola because that would be way too obviousThe flashbacks to Wolf's life with his dad and in Tin Town are depressing, but the pacing during those parts was a bit slow. I found myself stopping whenever I got to those parts and then trying to hurry through them when I'd pick the book back up again. Fortunately, those become a lot less frequent as the story moves along, which is a good thing because the strongest parts of The Mountain Story are, appropriately, the parts on the mountain. And the flashbacks that do remain are much stronger at the end than they are at the beginning. Finally learning about Byrd and Truly, I couldn't put the book down.
I unfortunately guessed a fair bit of the ending before the end, but I think that was inevitable because the tone of this book encourages so much speculation. I was bound to get some things right.