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The Mountain Story
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Five days. Four hikers. Three survivors. From Lori Lansens, author of the national bestsellers Rush Home Road, The Girls and The Wife's Tale comes a gripping tale of adventure, sacrifice and survival in the unforgiving wilderness of a legendary mountain.
On his 18th birthday, Wolf Truly takes the tramway to the top of the mountain that looms over Palm Springs, intending to ...more
On his 18th birthday, Wolf Truly takes the tramway to the top of the mountain that looms over Palm Springs, intending to ...more
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Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
June 30th 2015
by Simon Schuster
(first published April 14th 2015)
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Wow! I was totally immersed in this story of survival from beginning to end!
Wilfred (Wolf) Truly has had an unbelievably sad and rough life in his short eighteen years......the traumatic loss of his mother, the utter abandonment of his low-life piece of sh*t philandering drunk of a father, (I did not like Frankie) and the thought of losing his one true friend in the world (Byrd) has literally sent Wolf over the edge.
With one final trip to the top of Angel's Peak, Wolf plans to end his misery and
...more
A few months back I started a spate of novels, that I ended up putting aside. My way of having reader's block, having a hard time finding something to grab me right off. Bit, I knew some of these I would want to go back and this was one, after all I usually love this author, so I had to trust she wouldn't write a book I didn't want to read, would she? Of course not and she didn't.
When I picked this book back up I was totally fascinated, hooked by the story of Wolf and his despicable father, and ...more
When I picked this book back up I was totally fascinated, hooked by the story of Wolf and his despicable father, and ...more
The beginning of this story grabbed my attention immediately.
There were a few lagging parts in the middle but picked up speed toward the end.
The 4 characters on the mountain only planned to be there a few ‘hours’.
Turned out to be 5 days.
I reflected on some stupid risky things I did on trails -[alone years ago]...when I use to begin hiking at 4am- always starting in the dark. I had no extra batteries for my flashlight.
My lights did go out one time. I had to sit and wait - in pure darkness for ...more
There were a few lagging parts in the middle but picked up speed toward the end.
The 4 characters on the mountain only planned to be there a few ‘hours’.
Turned out to be 5 days.
I reflected on some stupid risky things I did on trails -[alone years ago]...when I use to begin hiking at 4am- always starting in the dark. I had no extra batteries for my flashlight.
My lights did go out one time. I had to sit and wait - in pure darkness for ...more
I won a copy of The Mountain Story in a Goodreads Giveaway. This is my fair and honest review!
Rock Solid 4 Stars
July 19: A very impressive finish after a somewhat slow 100 opening pages … ramped up quickly and vigorously thereafter into a very strong close. Not sure ... 3.5 or 4.0? I need to sleep on it!
July 20: I slept on the story and this morning landed on a strong 4☆ rating! The author so masterfully ratcheted this thing up from a resolute, determined afternoon hike to a life and death strug ...more
Here's what first attracted me to this book. Many years ago, we spent a long, sweltering Labor Day weekend in the Palm Springs desert, and learned that the only enjoyable outdoor activity that time of year with temps around 114 every single day, besides sipping cocktails in the pool, was to take the tram up into the San Jacinto mountains. The tram ride (like a small train car dangling precariously from a cable, surrounded by rocks, cliffs, caverns, and crevices) terrified me--I think I had
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The Hook Feel a bit embarrassed that I won this book in 2015 and have just read it. My sincere thanks to Lori Lansens for the opportunity to read new novel.
The Line - ”Guess you're stronger than you think”
The Sinker - I picked the above quote as much of what this story is about comes back to this opinion. What do people do when faced with horrible odds but the will to live? In the case of the main character, Wolf Truly, this presents a stronger challenge as he sets out to The Mountain, withou ...more
The Line - ”Guess you're stronger than you think”
The Sinker - I picked the above quote as much of what this story is about comes back to this opinion. What do people do when faced with horrible odds but the will to live? In the case of the main character, Wolf Truly, this presents a stronger challenge as he sets out to The Mountain, withou ...more
I was surprised by this book. I was expecting a survival story, action/adventure, but it was so much more. Deeper, moving, and heartrending. The writing was lovely. Definitely a tale that sticks with you.
The book is written as a letter from Wolf to his son Daniel, as he prepares to leave for college. It's been twenty years since Wolf was lost on the mountain with three other people, and not everyone returned home. Wolf feels that Daniel is old enough now to know the truth.
The Mountain Story isn' ...more
The book is written as a letter from Wolf to his son Daniel, as he prepares to leave for college. It's been twenty years since Wolf was lost on the mountain with three other people, and not everyone returned home. Wolf feels that Daniel is old enough now to know the truth.
The Mountain Story isn' ...more
For me this was book was good not great. I liked the premise that this book is really a letter written by a father to his son. I had read many reviews on the book and had very high hopes for it. Maybe my hopes were too high. I do like how the story unfolded and we learn about each character in this coming of age story. Each character is unique and Wolf's back story is told throughout the book. There is a reveal at the end but even that didn't have too much flash or zing for me.
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I was quite excited to receive the ARC for this book as I loved Rush Home Road and The Girls. This book disappointed me - the writing is not up to her previous efforts and could have been edited much better. While the characters are compelling, I never quite believed them as real people or the situation on the mountain to be real. I finished the book to find out what happened on the mountain. There was just too much that caused me to question the story line.
A fantastic, brilliantly plotted survival novel. A beautifully written coming of age story. An amazing character exploration. Each of these is rare enough, but imagine finding all three rolled into one book? That's what Lori Lansens' The Mountain Story was to me. I'm a longtime fan of Lansens', from the time I picked up "The Girls" on a whim at an airport before a flight. (By the way, aren't those the absolute best surprises...when you know nothing about a book, buy it and fall in love with it?)
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My take - if this is your favorite genre - I think this book is a good read and you should add it to your list!! This is not my favorite genre, so when I read this type of general fiction/light thriller I really expect to be blown away....I know, I know it's a really high expectation, LOL! But, I'm keeping it!
This book started out pretty riveting - you get a little background of the main character Wolf, why he's at his current hiking spot, you are introduced to the group that is with him, and t ...more
This book started out pretty riveting - you get a little background of the main character Wolf, why he's at his current hiking spot, you are introduced to the group that is with him, and t ...more
Lansens does well with dialogue and the interior thought processes of her main protagonist in this story about three generations of women lost on a mountain with an 18 year old that's gone there to commit suicide. Unfortunately the descriptions of the physical environment are poor and the overall story feels like something cooked up to meet a creative writing class project deadline at the eleventh hour. While I very much wanted to enjoy this book, Lansen just didn't pull it off for me.
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I’m a nature girl, so I was greatly anticipating this read. In the end, it was a good, solid story. The characters have interesting backgrounds, the setting is ripe for adrenaline-pumping action. Toward the latter half of the book, the author does a tremendous job of whisking the reader through pages of intense emotion and danger.
And yet for me personally, there was a bit of disconnect to the situation and the characters, themselves. I didn’t begin to engage until the halfway point, and even the ...more
And yet for me personally, there was a bit of disconnect to the situation and the characters, themselves. I didn’t begin to engage until the halfway point, and even the ...more
Survival, coming of age, sacrifice, friendship, suspense,a hint of mysticism-mid year and this is my favorite read of 2015.
Give me anything that is outdoorsy, about Nature, about hiking and I'm there. However, this one was far beyond that.
Lori Lansens gets beneath the skin of her main character, Wolf, and we are absolutely along for the ride. Young Wolf has had a childhood sauteed in neglect, rejection, and bottomless grief. His father, Frankie, wears his ineptness like a badge of honor. His idolized mother died when he was very young and her memories are angelic with the fragrance of lemons and wrapped simply in a ...more
Lori Lansens gets beneath the skin of her main character, Wolf, and we are absolutely along for the ride. Young Wolf has had a childhood sauteed in neglect, rejection, and bottomless grief. His father, Frankie, wears his ineptness like a badge of honor. His idolized mother died when he was very young and her memories are angelic with the fragrance of lemons and wrapped simply in a ...more
I have just read this over the weekend while i was house/pet sitting and had time to sit in the sunny window and get lost on the mountain with them,well for a bit.I am not a camper,hiker, rock climber but i did love this wild setting ,the mountain right in the middle of the desert. The Characters were great some calm some hysterical some accepting of their fate.cannot say too much but it was quite a harrowing climb through the mountains .
This is my first Lori Lansens book and it won't be my last. I thought this was a great story that combined coming of age, grief, getting lost on a mountain, regrets, love and the ultimate sacrifice.
...more
I won this book from Goodreads first reads. This was a mountain top experience. Memories, ghosts and reality all mixed together in this adventurois story.
Nola, Bridget, Vonn and Wolf ride the tram to the mountain top. Plans were to spread ashes of Nola's departed husband. Plans changed. They were fighting with the elements for survival. 5 days on the mountain. Search and rescue found them except one member of the family . Great story. I highly recommend it. ...more
Nola, Bridget, Vonn and Wolf ride the tram to the mountain top. Plans were to spread ashes of Nola's departed husband. Plans changed. They were fighting with the elements for survival. 5 days on the mountain. Search and rescue found them except one member of the family . Great story. I highly recommend it. ...more
This book is ostensibly about 4 characters who get lost on a mountain and what they endure to survive, but there is a 5th character, and that is the mountain itself. All 5 characters come alive in this story, aptly named The Mountain Story. It is told by Wolf, as he is finally telling it to his son. There are a lot of flashbacks to his backstory, which is tragic at times, interwoven through the story of his and the Devine women's survival story on the mountain. Nola, Bridget and Vonn are 3 gener
...more
This book starts out a bit slow, but it really picks up in the last quarter. It's the story of Wolf, who goes up the mountain with no intention of coming back alive. It's about his best friend, Byrd, and the relationship Wolf has with his father. On the mountain, Wolf meets 3 women who are lost. Stranded together, they form a very close bond, borne of the hardest circumstances endured together.
I kept thinking what a great movie this would make! I didn't read "Wild", but saw the movie. If you li ...more
I kept thinking what a great movie this would make! I didn't read "Wild", but saw the movie. If you li ...more
whoa this book. who knew you were so incredibly good, lori lansens?
Nov 27, 2014
JenniferD
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
canadian,
2015-books
so, probably 4.5-stars. i was completely caught up in this story! i find lansens to be a beautiful writer - she takes on really tough themes, is great at weaving her storylines together, and sustains a very lyrical quality to her prose. lansens is an author i adore, and she is skilled at breaking my heart, yet filling it up again -- without teetering into the schlocky or (badly) sentimental. at its heart, a survival tale, the mountain story was harrowing at moments. but the heart and sensitivity
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Love Lori Lansens and this book reminded my why! Jansens excels with description. Whether she is giving us visuals or characters she instinctively knows how to allow the reader to see, hear, smell and sense what her characters are experiencing. This is the first time I am reading her writing from the perspective of a male character, and she did so well!
This is a gripping story of a teenage boy, living with very dysfunctional family members and how he survives both his upbringing and also being ...more
This is a gripping story of a teenage boy, living with very dysfunctional family members and how he survives both his upbringing and also being ...more
The Mountain Story is a story of survival and so much more. On his 18th birthday, Wolf heads to a mountain to take his life. His plans are thwarted when he tries to help 3 women find their way to the Secret Lake and they become lost in the wilderness. The survival story is riveting, but Wolf's backstory is also riveting. I have been a huge fan of Lori Lansens since reading "The Girls" 2 years ago.
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So this is a good page turning read, but too melodramatic and preachy for my taste. I didn't find it to be anything other than an entertaining story.
Lansens is full of emotional writing and contradictions: "You'd think that one of us would have cried or freaked out or laid blame" she says about two pages AFTER Bridget yells at Wolf for letting them get lost and Vonn defends him by noting that Bridget is the one who ran unexpectedly because of the bees. A bit later (page 106), when Wolf is tellin ...more
Lansens is full of emotional writing and contradictions: "You'd think that one of us would have cried or freaked out or laid blame" she says about two pages AFTER Bridget yells at Wolf for letting them get lost and Vonn defends him by noting that Bridget is the one who ran unexpectedly because of the bees. A bit later (page 106), when Wolf is tellin ...more
“Dear Daniel, A person has to have lived a little to appreciate a survival story. That’s what I’ve always said, and I promised that when you were old enough, I’d tell you mine.”
So begins the letter from a father to his son telling the story of Wolf Truly’s life and the five unforgettable days and nights he spent on the (always unnamed) Mountain.
Life had never been kind to Wolf and when it became more cruel than he thought he could bear Wolf intended to climb to Angel’s Peak at the top of the Mo ...more
So begins the letter from a father to his son telling the story of Wolf Truly’s life and the five unforgettable days and nights he spent on the (always unnamed) Mountain.
Life had never been kind to Wolf and when it became more cruel than he thought he could bear Wolf intended to climb to Angel’s Peak at the top of the Mo ...more
Each of Lansens' earlier novels, I have greatly enjoyed - starting in 2009 when I read The Girls. My anticipation for this latest novel is pretty high, too, considering it has been three years since the release of The Wife's Tale. On its face, this is a survival story of five days in the mountain above Palm Springs, CA. The book is framed around a letter from Wolf Truly to his son, Daniel, as he goes away to college and Wolf feels like he can finally share the true story of all that transpired w
...more
I thought this was an excellent story. It is very, very tense as five people are lost on a mountain for four days with no food and water and inadequate clothing. The book is written in the form a letter from father to son so it contains a lot of back story and explanation as the father tells the this story to his son for the first time. The author's sequencing of the story is really well done, it just doesn't slow down or let up for a minute. It is scary, fascinating, heart-wrenching, full of lo
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Dear Daniel,...more
A person has to have lived a little to appreciate a survival story. That's what I've always said, and I promised that when you were old enough, I'd tell you mine. It's no tale for a child, but you're not a child anymore. You're older now than I was when I got lost in the mountain wilderness.
Five days in the freezing cold without food or water or shelter. You know that part, and you know that I was with three strangers, and that not everyone survived. What happened up there change
Lori Lansens wrote one of my favorite books, The Girls. It's a book that I try to get everyone I know to read. She doesn't produce a book every year and not nearly often enough, in my opinion. But, when she does put another book out there, I always want to read it. I am a little behind in my reading, so I just got to The Mountain Story, released last year. It was, of course, one I should have read sooner, because, well, it met all my expectations of an incredible story. There is man vs. nature a
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Lori Lansens was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, a small Canadian town with a remarkable history as a terminus on the Underground Railroad, which became the setting for her first three bestselling novels. After living in downtown Toronto most of her adult life, she moved with her family to the Santa Monica mountains near Los Angeles in 2006. A couple of years ago she relocated with her famil
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