Torch

Don't Listen to the Intro

Any additional comments?

The intro goes over all the main events from the story and compares them to the author's real life which pretty much ruined the book for me.. why am I spending this many hours listing to a book where I already know what happens... just skip the intro (ch1) and listen to in after.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Great book

Touches on all the emotions of losing somebody close to you. It's a great story and great character development. I really enjoyed it!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Meh. The characters just weren't likable

Be incredible? Really? I wish ALL the characters of this book would have taken that advice. The first part of the story is good. Meeting Teresa, the mom who has cancer is great. The characters around her and her relationships are great. But I lost interest during the rest of the 3/4 of the book.
If you are like me, you are interested in this book because you loved Wild. Strayed's style is in here. It's in here in the shocking, raw things that the characters do because they are flawed and because of their grief. I liked those moments. Where this book failed though was redeeming those characters and making them likable. In Wild, Cheryl obviously is super likable and does things and shares things that made me like her including and because of her flaws--I liked her because of her complete-ness.
The characters in Torch were selfish and narcissistic and shallow and single faceted in their flawed-ness. I had no reason to cheer for them, they were just kind of lame.
The end of the story was the worst part. It just fizzled as the characters continued to have things happen to them and as they just stumbled through their mediocrity.

I also did not like Cheryl as the narrator. She had an annoying lilt in the way she finished each sentence that got tedious.

I hope Strayed writes more books. Fiction or non-fiction, I'll read (listen to) it, because I like her style and I think she'll only grow as a writer.

I don't recommend this book.

13 of 17 people found this review helpful

Authors Should NOT Narrate

Couldn't make it through this book.The narration was monotonous. Every sentence felt like a bland staccato of downward lilts at each comma, with upward lilts at the end of each sentence. I found my head bobbing to the repetitive robotic rhythm. Also not a fan of the overly wordy writing style that seems to stock pile adjectives just for the sake of doing so. The Prologue was like Reader's Digest version of the book to come.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

High expectations

I had high hopes after listening to"Wild" but this fell short. The story was entertaining enough but lacking something....plot? The narration did not help at all. So monotone, one dimensional, sounded like she ended most sentences with an inflection that made me think of a melodramatic amateur poetry reading.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great! Exactly what I expect if Cheryl Strayed

After reading Wild, Cheryl did not disappoint me when I backtracked to Torch. Great story and very true to who she is as an author and person. The book itself felt intimate.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not what I expected

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved Wild, so I was really looking forward to this book. I just didn’t enjoy it, although the final chapter had the feel of her style in Wild and almost won me over. I’m still a fan and still plan to read Dear Sugar and will watch for other books from Cheryl Strayed, but this one felt like there was something missing.

Kinda just wallowing

Wild was much more my speed, but I a book of redemption and digging out of dispair. This felt like hours of just lamenting what it feels like to be in despair with no end in site...

torch

slow moving but enjoyed the story. Took me through some memories of my mom and her last days.

Great book to get lost in-

Loved the tone and pace of the authors voice as she read this-listening to her became just as important as the characters and story. I got lost in witnessing the struggles of very relatable souls experiencing tough transition with life without their mom-the only buffer they've had against the world-as they learn to cope without her.