Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail | Book Review

Meet Cheryl, 5 years ago her mother died of cancer. Once upon a time she'd been the one that seemed to have it altogether, but as she battled through her grief, she went off the beaten track (figuratively and literally). 

Before she makes the wild decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (a 1.100 mile hike), Cheryl loses sight of herself as she dapples in adultery, sex and drugs. When the divorce with her husband is finalized, she sets off on her journey, hoping to get back to being the woman that she once was. 

There's one slight hitch though.... she's never backpacked or hiked before. Nor had she trained for this trip. She was not prepared for what she was about to get herself into at all!

Wild has gotten so many mixed reviews and mine is a combination of both good and bad. 

I enjoyed this book. I found the writing excellent, the descriptions beautiful, the honesty and raw quality brutal yet addictive. Yet I found that the book droned on... seemingly never-ending and skipping between the actual story of her hike through the Pacific Crest Trail and her story before it. The story of her failed marriage and heroin addiction, sleeping around with anyone with a penis and the grief over the death of her mother... 

It meshed together well because it helps you to understand how she got to where she is, but I must say that the book was far from what I was expecting.

But that's just the thing isn't it? Judging a book by the cover is one of the biggest crimes in the book world. I walked into my local bookstore and saw a book with a roughed up hiking boot slapped on the front cover and thought, 'Wow! This looks like something I'd love to read!'

And for the record I did love reading it. I related SO much to Cheryl throughout the course of the book. By the third page I was actually convinced this book was written about me! Even with her silly decisions that make you want to shout down into the pages at her... it was just brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

This is a REAL book about things that can and probably will go wrong if you decide to venture out into the wild by yourself. It is a book of mistakes and life lessons, of reality and hardships! It is a book about being independent and brave. 

It is a book that will resonate in me for a very, very long time.