Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

this is a memoir where all i can really say is that im so glad cheryl was so open with her life in this book, giving us readers such an intimate look into her story as she took us all along with her on the pacific crest trail.

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readingrainbowroad's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

Book: 3.5 stars. This book is at its heart one about immense grief and how people process it differently. I've heard this book compared to Eat, Pray, Love (which I've never read but heard the criticisms of) and I think if you view this book as another travel memoir, it misses a lot of the main heart of the story and what Cheryl Strayed was going through at the time. I think having gone through a very similar thing (mom dying suddenly of cancer) made this book incredibly more relatable and understandable.

Audiobook narrator: 5 stars. Would listen to Bernadette Dunne read 100 more books in a heartbeat.

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natgeographic's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

I’m not hiking the PCT but I am living in Peru for 6 months— this was a good time to read this book. Away from friends and family, living a simpler life, doing hard things every day.

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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

I thought that this was a really interesting book about one women’s journey into the wilderness, to kind of save herself.

The hiking portion of the book was super inspiring! She was wicked badass even if some of the mistakes she made were anxiety inducing. Also great to see how mostly the hiking community treated her.

For the non-hiking parts of the book, I was always surprised at what she was thinking and doing. While I did not agree with the choices that she made, she was in pain and was looking to do what she needed to do at the time. Interesting to get to see how other people wildly different than you think.

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annaofjesup's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

3.5

Dang, this is a DIVISIVE book. Like people either adore it or despise it. Wild (pun intended). I'm not sure what y'alls experience with distance (or thru) content is, but going in wildly unprepared like Strayed did is absolutely common. I'm not sure why people are so shocked that she would do it. Read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods - there was a huge lack of preparedness there too. Not to mention that even in 2022 people are still doing thru hikes while grossly unprepared - check out Tiktok and you'll see tons of people, who, like Strayed, just kind of rolled up to the trail and hoped for the best. I'm just impressed Strayed managed 190 days (mostly) on the trail - most people seem to drop out a lot faster than her.

Anyway, defense of Strayed aside, the book was fine. Some parts were super engrossing, while others were boring. Truly, I don't care about all the conversations you had where people talked about how hot you were and/or brave for doing the PCT. Like, it's great (and frankly, I believe it), but after a while I just didn't care. Sorry. The parts about Strayed's mom were powerful and I loved how those parts were written. Other parts just seemed unneeded.

Also, hiking any huge distance trail just seems terrible. 0/10 will never attempt.

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jasminrain's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

4.0

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