Review: "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed

O.K. I'll admit it. When I first saw the trailer to the movie Wild at the end of last year I was mega-excited. It looked right up my alley, so to speak. I love a good (day) hike and am fully into all those 'ladies discovering their value' kind of movie narratives. However, I still haven't seen the movie. Instead, I read the book.

For those of you who are not aware, Wild is an autobiographical novel about Cheryl herself as she hikes the Pacific Coast Trail for three months in the nineties. After a rather tumultuous few years following the death of her mother, Cheryl decides that by walking the trail she will somehow re-find her centre and be able to move forward as a complete and healed human. And so she walks.

Firstly, this book is incredibly easy to read. Strayed seamlessly weaves together the story of her journey on the PCT with her own inner reflections on her life before she started the hike. It is an incredibly honest portrayal of what it is to be broken by grief and not having the tools to pull yourself back together. Strayed really pulls the reader into her inner world and doesn't apologise for the mistakes that she makes. It is an incredibly brave thing to do and I commend her on that.

However, I did have a hard time identifying with Cheryl on her journey. Mainly because she deals with things in such a completely different way than I do. Where Cheryl tends to run away and find comfort in others, I am more of a 'pull yourself together and get on with it' kind of person (note: I don't think that one approach is necessarily better than the other, just a different way of dealing with hardship). Furthermore, if I am unsure or nervous about something I find comfort in details, structure and going through all the information possible in order to get some kind of footing. Cheryl is not like this at all and seemed almost uninterested in all the details and necessities of the PCT hike before she actually set foot on it and as a consequence was completely under-prepared. These differences in thought processes stopped me from being able to be completely drawn into the book and I did find it difficult on occasion to identify and fully empathise with Cheryl. It should be said, however, that this not a fault of the book itself and has nothing to do with the writing technique of Strayed but it is rather just a personal point that I noted.

All in all I did enjoy reading this book and I would certainly recommend it. It may also inspire you to go on a hike yourself.

Rating: 4/5
Book Depository
Good Reads

Lots of Love xo

*This post is not sponsored. Image above is not mine. It was sourced from here.