Brief synopsis: After her mother's harrowing death and a upsetting divorce, Cheryl Strayed takes to the Pacific Crest Trail for a three-month hike in the wilderness. The people she meet along the way and the trials she encounters along the way teach her she is so much stronger than she ever could have imagined.



Wild became very popular several years ago when Reese Witherspoon turned the memoir into a feature film. I keep saying memoirs aren't my thing, but then I keep reading them. These types of books take me a bit longer than I prefer to read, and I often find myself rolling my eyes as some of the stories within. This wasn't necessarily any different for this memoir. But again, that's not to say I disliked the book. I was honestly feeling a bit so-so about it, but the last couple of pages really drove it home for me, and honestly brought tears to my eyes.

Strayed has a really personable voice. Much like Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, I felt like I knew Strayed personally and she was telling me about her experience on the PCT. I was in awe throughout the book, though at sometimes I found myself actually saying out loud "No. What are you doing?".

While this didn't make me feel like I could actually survive on a long-term hiking trail like the PCT or Appalachian Trail, it did inspire me to want to be more mindful and maybe a bit more active.

While I felt like some pieces of the story were inconsistent (some portions of the trail were given lengthy descriptions, others were completely missed), I did definitely enjoy this book. I liked that Strayed was intentional with her language throughout the book, repeating similarly patterned sentences to drive a point home. This was an extremely well-written book that could easily pull the reader in. Again, the last pages are what really wrapped the book up beautifully.


If you're into memoirs, I would highly suggest this one.