Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart

Fresh and surprising thru-hikealog

After finishing this book, I found I craved the narrator's voice and being on the trail with Carrot, so I started listening again. It's become the backdrop for life these days, and I listen as I drive, as I lay down to sleep, whenever I want to escape to the trail. It has re-opened the world of thru hiking for me just when I needed it! PCT '85

20 of 20 people found this review helpful

Compelling, even if you'll never hike the PCT

I'll never climb Everest, but I read everything I can about it. I'll likely never hike the PCT, but I love stories about people who do. Carrot's book is so immersive, so wonderful, so occasionally mundane in the matters of food and water and clothing--it made me very happy.

In contrast to Wild, I feel this book is much more about the daily journey of the trail--what it's like to walk the whole thing. What it's like to fall in love with it. What a largely free heart feels in such a place. I love her humor, her despair, her overwhelming joy, her change as the miles fly by. Unlike some other reviewers, I don't find the bits about intimacy with other hikers troubling or annoying. It all seems very genuine and real and isn't overdone, or overly focused upon. It's simply part of her journey. And, more importantly, her.

Highly recommended. Thank you, Carrot, for sharing your marvelous journey. Please write more!

17 of 17 people found this review helpful

Strong start...underwhelming finish

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the first half of this book, experiencing the day-to-day struggles of the trail with Carrot. But, lost interest when it became mostly about her immature romance. Some of the dialogue was pretty cringeworthy.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Like an infinity of switchbacks...it just never ended

Recently I hiked Mt. Whitney. They call the descent from the saddle “The 99 switchbacks” because it’s a seemingly endless back and forth and back and forth, while the valley below seems impossibly out of reach-never getting closer no matter how long I walked. That’s what this book felt like. There was no story, just a series of narration about what Carrot ate, how well or badly she slept, and how she felt about whatever sexual entanglement was occupying her mind. And every time I checked the remaining time,
the end was nowhere near.

And it felt...dishonest, in a way. The author talked a lot about eating ice cream and hamburgers...then in a later chapter reveals that she’s lactose intolerant and has issues with gluten so if she ate like that she’d be dooming herself to days of diarrhea. Tough to buy that she’s going to hike long distance in that conditions. She didn’t have long pants and only wore shorts...but talks about being in extreme cold...says she read all the right books but seems to be surprised by each mishap...”what is Hiker heaven...I didn’t even know” is the kind of pretentious wide eyed innocence that shows up throughout and rings...if not false...at least disingenuous.

I’ve never read a book about hiking that made me less interested in experiencing a similar trek or “nope”ing so hard at the idea of traveling with the author. When she’s with people, she loves them until she can’t stand them...then misses them on the trail (all within about 24 hours from meeting them). She manages to get into a cutesy lesbian thing with another hiker but trades snowflake-experiencing-Tinder level sexting when they’re apart on the trail and the other woman is flirting with a different hiker...and telling her about it. It’s like reading every cliche about millennials and their inability to disconnect, FOMO and general angst, but applied to a 2600 mile hike to Canada.

Bottom line: I called in evac and bailed with about 1/3 of the book left. I’d rather re-listen to Wild for the 10th time than hear the minutiae of another day of “I’m starving...I ate too much...I’m lonely...I hate people” angsty day on the PCT.

15 of 16 people found this review helpful

More of diary than travelogue

Any additional comments?

Of the 3 thru hiking books I've read, this one is in third place. In first place would be Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, and in second place AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. I never really got used to the "valley girl" accent of the narrator of Thru Hiking will break your heart. Putting an extra drawn out syllable on a one syllable word, kind of a teenager's voice. But much of the book was detailing the junk food eating at each stop, the motels, foot problems, pretty much any reason not to have to sleep on the trail. But I listened to the whole thing, and I disagree with other reviews that said there was "too much sex in it", there wasn't, just that a couple of girls shared a tent once in awhile and a hug. The rest was left to imagination. I want to be fair to this book because I recognize the effort and the accomplishment of the thru hiking, just that from my point of view I was interested more in accounts of nature, not just that everything looked "green", or was desert, etc. This was more of a diary with how many miles, what food eaten, where night was spent, restaurants visited, and about collecting boxes of food and equipment she had shipped ahead to various towns. I just did not get a feel of nature from this account.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Self involved, made me want to jump in front of a bus

Overhyped crap. We get it, you are a lesbian living in the Pacific Northwest. Surprisingly, the hiking bits were not all that interesting. The narrator is highly unlikeable, which isn't always a bad thing. Cheryl Strayed was certainly unlikeable in Wild, yet her story was compelling. Yes, thruhiking will break your heart, but this was a huge ego trip. I say no on this one.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Walk,sleep,tired,happy,hungry,pain -- then repeat

What would have made Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart better?

Unlike most other adventure books this story concentrates only on what the author was thinking while walking during this long hike.

I lasted through the first thousand miles hoping that something would happen. But nothing does. It's almost like Groundhog Day, the same thing over and over again. How many times does one have to hear about the questioning as to whether enough food is being carried?

For example,we never learn anything of significance about the people that are encountered along the way other than for some very superficial stuff. Did we ever learn why any of them were hiking? As for the trail angels, why do they do what they do? There is never any discussion of the different areas that are traversed other than to offer a physical description. No history, no explanation as to why the geography is the way it is, nothing about the indigenous people, and in fact no explanation as to what the PCT is or why it's there.

Whenever there was an opportunity, and there were many, to talk about anything but herself, that path was not followed which really made the book boring for me.

Overall, I felt like I was listening to someone read from their Franklin Planner.

What was most disappointing about Carrot Quinn’s story?

nothing happened.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Not much. Very benign.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

My Heart is Only a Little Broken

I had a good time listening to this book while I do my farm work. I enjoyed the voice actor. I sometimes became annoyed by Carrots hippie platitudes left and right.. her repetiative questions like "where am i" and "what am i doing"... but I like that she's a queer punk feminist who makes her politics known in her book. I'm glad she talked about the interpersonal bonds, the friendships and the romantic connections she made on the trail. Being a young queer woman interested in thru hiking that accidentally picked out a book written by a queer woman, based on the cover alone made me feel like it was destiny.. However, I had some dissapointments to face. I found the most serious love interest (a man) to be very boring and that was a let down for me. But I get that being queer means falling for dudes sometimes... I guess.

I especially enjoyed and appreciated the occasional moments of true vulnerability she showed when she talked about her childhood and things like that. I wish there had been more like that.

Overall I feel that I understand more about what the hike will be like. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the trail and the weather and the struggle.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

A Diary from the Trail

Would you consider the audio edition of Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart to be better than the print version?

The narrator brought life to the words that I cannot imagine would have been the same in my head had I read the print version. She was sincere and inquisitive as I imagine Carrot to be.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart?

It is easy to focus a lot on the brief romances Carrot has while on the trail, they are exciting and leave you with many questions. But this is not a story about finding romance, it is a story about figuring out one's self when taken out of the every day. The part of the story that stuck with me the most is the friendships she developed with Spark and Instigate. Learning how Carrot handled various illnesses and ailments while on the trail was also an intriguing part of the story. Her trip to the dentist and to the doctor for antibiotics really put things into perspective how out of the normal every day American routine she was on the trail.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The title is a perfect tagline for this book.

Any additional comments?

The book changes tone about half-way through. This is because the "book" was originally written as a blog. With half of that blog being written on the trail. The latter part of the book was written after Carrot had completed the PCT. Because of this, there is a shift from focusing on gear and blisters, to more thoughtful quiet moments that include Carrot's reflections on her own childhood- surely inspired and in sync with her thoughts on the trail.

This book is a gift. I have never thru-hiked myself but am attracted to stories where people step out of the every day routine. It is written like a diary and Carrot really brings you into her world and to the trail with her words. I followed along on her blog that still includes pictures from the trail while I listened to the book. I highly recommend.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Perfect for me

While not a perfect piece of literature, it was beautiful, insightful, and oh so enchanting.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful