Thank you to Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions.
In the Shadow of the Mountain is exactly what it says it is: a memoir of courage. I didn’t fully understand what that meant when I first picked up this book, and even though the author and I share few life experiences, I felt an overwhelming sense of kinship while reading. Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is the first Peruvian woman to have summited Everest, and in this memoir she weaves together her story summiting Everest with her childhood in Peru. Memoirs don’t usually impact me much: I enjoy reading them when I pick them up, but often I don’t think about them after I’m finished. In the Shadow of the Mountain, however, will stick with me for a very long time.
Silvia has an ability to retell gripping events with vulnerability and compassion and I couldn’t stop reading. Summiting Everest firmly remains off my adventure list, but I did enjoy reading about it and I will definitely be looking for future books by this author. While there are graphic depictions of abuse throughout this memoir - both of the abuse the author endured and that which other women have shared with her - there are overarching messages of healing and breaking cycles of abuse. Above all, and one of the messages I found most powerful, your trauma is not the same as your identity.
I did have some difficulty with the passage of time in a few sections, and I wish there were pictures. While there might be pictures in the final version, I did spend a lot of time looking things up so I could better visualize them. However, after searching for examples of the Everest ladder crossings…maybe pictures are unnecessary (there were many moments during the Everest parts that were absolute nope moments for me, and the ladder crossings were definitely one).
Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC of this title.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Mental illness
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Homophobia
Minor: Murder, Sexual harassment, Excrement, and Kidnapping