Grim, fast-paced story about a fifteen-year-old trying to survive in a plausible near future of global warming, lawlessness, and general anarchy. ( )

This book is set in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, which is near where I am from, so I was intrigued by the book. The post-apocalyptic story line is reminiscent of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but on a grander scale. The language, the culture, the people -- all are true to the New Orleans area.
Right away I was struck by the simplistic nature of the writing. This is Scott Ely's first book in the Young Adult genre, which I could easily guess from what the writing lacked. One major thing that bothered me throughout the book was Ely's habit of "telling" instead of "showing." He repeatedly made statements in the book like this: "She went on to tell him that their house was close by, on high ground, and they thought they could live upstairs." (page 38) Why couldn't Ely have written this out in dialogue. This kind of writing is littered throughout the text, and it left me feeling like I had been shorted a proper book. At a little over 200 pages in length, this book was too short for my expectations. I normally love dystopia, but this one was disappointing.
The main character Stephen was a likable character, but he seemed to be both extremely lucky and a kind of talisman for death. I understand that the conditions of the area that Stephen was traveling through were extremely dangerous with very limited resources, but did just about every single person that Stephen came across have to die? That strikes me as overkill, pardon the pun.
I also did not understand the ending. If there really was as much flooding as the radio continuously announced, then Stephen would have needed to travel much further than he did to find dry ground.
I gave the book three stars because I really liked the premise of the book, though it fell short of my expectations. ( )

I am always willing to pick up a dystopian read - that is what drew me to The Elephant Mountains. I was definitely intrigued by the original aspects of the story, but overall found the plot a little odd. Unbalanced maybe. It kept me from connecting with the characters - which in turn, kept me from really appreciating the story. Definitely not going on my list of recommended dystopians. ( )

The writing style of The Elephant Mountains was very strange. I read some other reviews and some people said it made the book brutally honest(as a good thing). But to me....it didnt work at all. I never got know Stephen, he was very flat. Elephant Mountains did have enough action for me to keep reading(even though it started out slow...with the frogs?) but I was never connected to Stephen and it made for a boring dialogue(or lack there of). ( )

This book initially attracted me because the dystopian-esque setting was not brought about by humans in any attempt to create some utopian society, but rather, it was brought about by nature. There is something scary about nature, how powerfully and unexpectedly it can annihilate thousands of life in mere minutes. This is a story about survival, when all the odds are against you.

Stephen was sent to live with his survivalist father for the summer. Little did he know this would be the summer that hurricanes would destroy almost everything around, drowning whole towns in water. Little did he know this would be the summer that is father is killed just feet away from him. But the fact is, this is that summer, and now it's time to survive. As Stephen desperately tries to make his way through swamps and flooded towns to make it to New Orleans, or what's left of it, to find his mother, he is met with people he can't trust, a girl he might love, and more dead bodies than he can count.

The nature of this book seemed probable; the qualities that come out in humans especially. So that was good. My only problem was there didn't seems to be much going on... I mean, once you get past the initial shock, it is really more of the same. I understand the limitations brought on my the setting, but I just wished there was something more. What that would be, I'm not sure...

My only other criticism was the somewhat romantic relationship that takes place. Well, maybe that is the problem - it wasn't romantic at all! To me it seemed almost primitive. It is hard to explain.

So this story was interesting and it kept me interested, but there were definitely aspects that left me wanting a bit more. ( )