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Eva Neumann

raw and real - loved it!

Reviewed in Australia on 2 March 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it was an honest, very real story about somebody going through a pretty rough patch in their life and departing on a journey to 'find themselves', pretty much unprepared and spontaneous. I was a little concerned it would be like one of those 'Eat, Pray, Love' books that are slightly too sugary and always have a happy ending to make everyone feel good. This one was very different - it was just raw and real, not your typical 'chick-lit' (which I loathe). The first few pages almost had me in tears as it reminded me of losing my father and the emotions you go through, regrets you have and the helplessness you experience. I was literally hooked from there. The book doesn't have a happy ending - it leaves Cheryl at the end of her trek along the PCT. We don't know what happens to her after that but you feel like she's come a long way from the person she started off as and you're confident she'll find her feet back in real life. It was uplifting without any obvious life-changing moments - a great read that I can whole-heartedly recommend.

6 people found this helpful

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Karishma Suresh

Read this about 15 times, can't get enough.

Reviewed in Australia on 25 April 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Wild is inspiring while being brutally honest - cutting right to the deep emotional baggage that we carry around, unconsciously affecting everything that happens in life. Beautifully and movingly written, this is a tale of courage, belief and complete surrender to the Universe in order to come back to oneself. I read this book a few times every year when I need to be reminded of what it means to be connected to my Spirit. Thank you Cheryl, for doing this. Thank you ever more for having the courage to tell your story to inspire people like me around the world. 🥰

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Karen E

Strayed, but not lost.

Reviewed in Australia on 12 February 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I enjoyed this author, this journey, this honest and compelling story. It made me, not the most energetic person, want to trek the PCT (but couldn't possibly due to the graphic & descriptive pain of those feet, I suffer sore feet so couldn't bear the thought of what Cheryl went through). I envy her ability to grieve so publicly and with so much insight (and the love she obviously gave and received from her mother). Thank you, the journey was great, the beauty of your surroundings, the struggle, the pain, the bare emotions and the bravery of your admissions are well regarded.

Karen Edmunds, Melbourne, Australia

9 people found this helpful

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A mind-boggling description of the trials and triumphs of hiking the PCT.

Reviewed in Australia on 10 May 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

What an epic journey. Cheryl acknowledged that she wasn't coping with the death of her beloved mother, and other emotional problems that her mind was in conflict with. Her decision to hike the P.C.T. was certainly a monumental one, but one that proved an uprising from her previous grief. Her trek and also her personal relationships, she so readily described. Also the hardships and problems she encountered en route. I still can't think how could she persevere and keeping plodding along with her sore back and feet. I would have thrown it all in. Congratulations Cheryl, I believe you have now found peace of mind.

One person found this helpful

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Robert Geagea

I sang in my heart... I cried ...

Reviewed in Australia on 14 April 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I sang in my heart ... I cried for her and for my own mother ... everyone should read this book!
A sanity in our insane world ... this book rings true on almost every level of the human psyche.
Read it ... it will set many people free from their pain without the fee of an expensive psychologist!

Thank-you Cheryl Strayed for bringing us onto the 'right path' through calamity and heartbreak.

Robert Geagea.

2 people found this helpful

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A very surprising book as well as being thoroughly enjoyable.

Reviewed in Australia on 22 January 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Didn't think I was going to like or even finish this book. But I did, and I am pleased I did - I thoroughly enjoyed it - after the first few chapters, that is. A lot different style of writing and content than I had ever experienced before, but would recommend this book to most of my friends. The story evolves over only a matter of months, but the journey into who the author finally becomes is tremendous - especially as you are taken along with her in her travels. You will have to read this to make sense of what I have said - read it.

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And beautifully written, too - what I have read

Reviewed in Australia on 9 April 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

My wife and I saw the film. I have just begun dipping into this journey on the Pacific Crest Trail - but there are resonances for me from the 88-temple pilgrimage of 1200 kms around the island of Shikoku I walked some six years ago. Those who walk are on a kind of involuntary meditation which permits the finding of one's inner core - as did Cheryl STRAYED. And beautifully written, too - what I have read!

2 people found this helpful

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Shelley Altman

Reviewed in Australia on 9 May 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A true epic voyage of self discovery, the hike along the PCT seems grueling. I wasn't so impressed with the heroin use or casual sex, but each to their own. Every one at some stage can loose a love one, especially a parent, This is not a justified reason for going off the rails it is just an excuse. Having said that, it was well written and highly entertaining. Brave to be able to be so open and frank about this, cant wait to see the movie

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Top international reviews

Carol El Hawary

Superficial, questionable, maudlin drivel.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 January 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I'm truly stunned by the number of 5 star reviews this book has received. I have enormous respect for Cheryl's imagination - where I suspect a lot of the book happened. Right from the beginning some of what she describes is simply not feasible. She says this was constructed from her journal, which she barely mentions writing in, despite the excruciating detail she describes everything else. Some of her thoughts are about her dead mother and some of this is completely inane - grieving about a table? I was left not understanding why she'd done it and also why it made such a difference to her life. There is little true insight here. Much too superficially written, too many clichéd phrases, dire sex scenes and two dimensional characters. Truly awful book. If it hadn't been in my book group I'd never have finished it.

13 people found this helpful

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Kee Lady

Inspiring read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 February 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed Wild! Cheryl Strayed’s account of her epic hike along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail is both heart wrenching and entertaining. She tells her story with exceptional honesty and self-deprecating humour. I finished the book feeling as if I had made a friend such was the intimacy between author and reader. A heart-warming, inspirational tale told by a formidable yet ordinary human being. Recommended.

11 people found this helpful

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Fortysomething

A good book- for me this is a book about grieving

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 September 2018

Verified Purchase

I loved this book mainly because, having lost my mother not long before reading it, I could identify with the main character and her apparent irrational behaviour and rejection of 'common sense'. For me this was a book about grieving and as such I enjoyed the emotional exploratory passages more than I did the travel descriptive (the trail, other hikers' stories, etc.). The book received a very mixed reception at my book club, and many different interpretations- from mine (a book about grieving) to others (a book about travelling or a book about an annoying woman who didn't want to take control of her life). From personal experience control felt overrated after my mother died, and this was the aspect that resonated most with me - and also surprised me the most in the harsh criticism from others at book club. I gave the book four stars as, notwithstanding my liking for it, I don't think it is a greatly written book and I found the ending a bit disappointing.

5 people found this helpful

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Janie S

Not just a walk in the woods.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I thought this was going to be a take on Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. How wrong can you be! While I enjoyed Bill's book enough to have read it several times, this book has more depth and intensity per page and Cheryl Strayed's reason for her hike on the PCT is not just because it's there. Her compulsion to exorcise her guilt over her mother's death & her subsequent moral collapse leads her to push herself to the limit for more than 1000 miles - that's some exorcism! A brilliant book,
unputdownable, and left me with intense admiration for the strength of will that pushed her on day after day. Highly recommended.

5 people found this helpful

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Grinster

Loved this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2013

Verified Purchase

I'm a sucker for strong female characters and Cheryl Strayed is a great example. I found the book uplifting despite some of the themes of drugs, abuse, and depression. In the book, the author goes on a trip unprepared and suffers some of the consequences. I've read other reviews that call it irresponsible and compare it to Into The Wild, where the main character travels to Alaska because he's disillusioned with consumerism and wants to connect with nature. While the trip into nature (and the title) have similarities, I don't think Cheryl is trying to convince anyone to go off and hurt themselves in the wild. She takes a trip to find and heal herself, and she comments on that trip with introspective and insightful musings. She's a funny, sarcastic, and kind narrator and touches on themes of self-loathing and self-healing that spoke volumes to me. After reading about her physically-grueling trip, I decided to take my fitness more seriously and challenge myself more in my life. It's been an inspiring and memorable read.

16 people found this helpful

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J. King

and have considered one night alone camping as a list of brave things I might like to do one day

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read this book after a recommendation from my friend who read it in her book club. We were hiking in a UK national park together and she said the book made her want to hike alone for weeks on end. That intrigued me. I walk a lot, I hike fairly often with a partner, and have considered one night alone camping as a list of brave things I might like to do one day. I love nature and connecting with nature has been a healer though hard times in the last couple of years. Ive done quite a bit of "work on myself" in recent years too, and although I have had some serious changes in my life recently, I thought I was doing alright.
Then I read this book.
WOW, the effect on my was incredible, I felt every little last bit of pain along her journey, the pain and the victories and joy too, like they were my own almost. It was so powerful. I really resonated with some of the issues Cheryl had, not that they were the same as mine, but that all pain is universally connected somehow, and I felt a huge release of my own pain through her journey. I cried a lot, and I was so happy for her for her incredible achievements both physically and emotionally and spiritually (although not written in a spiritually moralising kind of way at all). I couldn't put the book down, I fantasised about my own healing trip. What makes it even more brave and incredible is that all this was before the internet, where people have so much more access to advise and blogs and so on. Really loved this book. I'm not saying that you will feel the same release or gain the same strength that I did from this, but either way, this incredible journey is worth hearing about from this brave and very special lady!

4 people found this helpful

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Anne Duff

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Outstanding! Cheryl is so real and down to earth that you can't help rooting for her. I absolutely admire her for her strength and determination, both physical and emotional. She has a beautiful turn of phrase that is engaging and moving. I was really sad to come to the end of this book and this is the first time ever that I've continued on to read the acknowledgments - just so I could stay a little longer. I normally move straight on to my next book as soon as I finish my current one but this one is still sitting in my heart so I'm going to give myself a day of space to allow it to settle and to think of it for a while. Easily one of my favourite books EVER.

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Nic

Read before you watch

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2015

Verified Purchase

After the recent film adaptation of this story coming out I thought I would read the book first and then watch the film and I am very glad I did.

I found the book to be very emotive and very real, I was concerned the story would be crammed with moments where Cheryl 'found' herself and this didn't happen that much to my relief. I found the descriptions of her aches, pains and her emotions very easy to connect with but I struggled the whole way to picture the scenery which I was looking forward to escaping to. I couldn't put it down and it really captured something within me which adores the wilderness.

I appreciated that there wasn't just one problem Cheryl was struggling with, the whole way through her sad past became layered with more heartache and it made for a more interesting character - although obviously Cheryl is real and in this way it was very very sad.

The film was disappointing

One person found this helpful

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It's an AK47 or nothing.....

Great read....!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Anyone who is interested in hiking , travel and the great outdoors will find this work fascinating.
It is honest funny and very true to life....!
I take my hat off to Cheryl for her endurance and her bravery for undertaking the PCT and also for sharing this work with us all.
Thank you........

3 people found this helpful

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Daisyreader

Simply epic!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2015

Verified Purchase

I really do recommend this book. Cheryl's journey genuinely qualifies as epic - a word often overused. However in this case, it's justified. Nothing traumatic and no single life-changing event happens in this tale of her three month journey hiking the USA's Pacific Crest Trail. Instead, as the best self-help gurus will tell you, it's the journey itself that makes all the difference. It's not the best written prose and sometimes the geographical descriptions are a little too lengthy, but the simple fact Cheryl did not give up is simply awesome. Her honesty and willingness to reveal details of her emotional life are so genuine that you cannot help but be moved. A true testament to the human spirit.

2 people found this helpful

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Jillian rest

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book. It certainly gave one food for thought. This book I am sure will encourage others to take control of their lives and to live it. Very impressed by this lady. Well done to her. (Wish I had the guts to do it, as I am sure many others did). I thought it may get boring but it did not, and I enjoyed the descriptions of those she met on the way. Would recommend.

One person found this helpful

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Mirjam M

Great read, especially for anyone considering long-distance hike

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2019

Verified Purchase

I read the book, inspired by my plans to do some long-distance hiking and I found it very enjoyable once it got to the actual hiking bits and past the backstory.
I especially enjoyed her reflections on the journey and self-discovery throughout (instead of just a description of places and people that some of the travel books fall prey to), and found myself rooting for her as the book progressed. Her style is also very easy to follow and makes me want to see what else she's written.

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P. Canham

What an inspiring read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

One of the best books ive read. Had me crying with laughter and with sadness. The way cheryl writes really drew me into her world and her experiences chimed with some in my own life. The profound vulnerability of the writing and the expression of gut wrenching grief intertwined with the journey both physical and spiritual, touched me deeply and i couldnt put the book down..... well my kindle anyway.!! Im also an aspiring writer and it inspired me hugely with my own personal project. Wonderful.

One person found this helpful

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Phil

A great book! Different from what I usually read, and all the more worthwhile for it ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I have hiked (small) parts of the Pacific Crest Trail, and was curious about the movie. So I started by reading the book, as it is often better to get the material at the source. The book is very different from what I usually read, and I found it hard to leave. It works at both levels: the personal level, in which the author does not spare any details and makes us suffer with her, but also rejoice with her, and the "hiking" level, with great descriptions of the landscapes, the people (few as they are, they are always worth meeting and remembering), and also the mindset and happenings of life on the trail. Parallels can be made with other long-distance trails, including the Santiago de Compostella routes. People who start this trail and do large portions of it never come back the same, and often greatly benefit from it. The end of the book was very rewarding, and all my congratulations go to the author.

One person found this helpful

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Claireabella

The story about the weight of a backpack

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 January 2019

Verified Purchase

Perhaps I should have persevered with this book, however, by the time I reached mid-point I was thoroughly tired of listening to 'How heavy the backpack was'. I figured my life is too short and I have adventures to be had which doesn't include wasting my precious reading time on this self-ordained drival.
Sorry folks- not for me.

One person found this helpful

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