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A review by mariakureads
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
3.0
I came into this book hoping to listen to what drove the author to make this journey to Mount Everest.
What I didn't expect was so much of her private life to be woven into that drive as I was hoping, thanks to the blurb, to read more about the climb itself - teh adventure of getting to the summit, the risks, the people involved, the climb itself.
What I got has a non-linear memoir that had more to do with her family, the abuse at a hands of a family friend that she was gaslight to believe was the start of a life with him, the supression of that and eventually her sexuality, her alcoholism, and the dangers of it, which she ties into different parts of climbing.
I appreciate what the author did and how this narrative was written, for it's well done, but it's also more than I expected for what I wanted to hear. It's well written and I can see the praise of it but I was hoping for more of her talking about the Everest climb itself.
What I didn't expect was so much of her private life to be woven into that drive as I was hoping, thanks to the blurb, to read more about the climb itself - teh adventure of getting to the summit, the risks, the people involved, the climb itself.
What I got has a non-linear memoir that had more to do with her family, the abuse at a hands of a family friend that she was gaslight to believe was the start of a life with him, the supression of that and eventually her sexuality, her alcoholism, and the dangers of it, which she ties into different parts of climbing.
I appreciate what the author did and how this narrative was written, for it's well done, but it's also more than I expected for what I wanted to hear. It's well written and I can see the praise of it but I was hoping for more of her talking about the Everest climb itself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting