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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
Such an incredible, tough memoir. Loved it so much, I didn't mind the length.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Alcohol
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Misogyny, Grief, Lesbophobia
A beautiful memoir of a Peruvian sexual abuse survivor who summits Everest. It is well told with some beautiful self-discovery. It is very hard to read in many parts.
Liked hearing about the hike and journey but was too hard to listen to her child and the extreme detail she went into about her being raped multiple times.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
I was expecting a memoir about Silvia Vasquez-Lavado's experience in climbing Mount Everest. However, "In the Shadow of the Mountain" is more about dealing with alcoholism, her sexuality, and physical/sexual abuse she suffered as a child. I admire Vasquez-Lavado for her heroism, determination, and desire to help other women in pain but "In the Shadow of the Mountain" just wasn't what I thought I would be reading.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
This was a great memoir about how Silvia worked through her trauma by hiking Everest. It was really inspiring to see her do that and get to the summit (not enough to hike it myself).
Silvia wrote “I’m overwhelmed by the poetry of it all,” and I agree wholeheartedly
I'm bummed to be rating this so low, but despite being generally well written and a very engaging story, there are two big issues I can't overlook. First, every time the author discusses the group she led up to base camp she misgenders one of the members. Once, she literally misgenders them, and very very often she uses phrases like "the girls" or "the ladies" and other gendered terms. It's very distracting and entirely unnecessary. Second, the author is biphobic as heck and it's never really addressed.
A smaller quibble, which is really uncomfortable, is asserting that all of her sexual encounters were consensual when not that long ago she lets you know that there was no boundary she wasn't willing to cross while trying to seduce people. I really have a hard time believing that there wasn't coercion and manipulation involved when she frames it the way that she does. Hopefully this is just bad editing?
Hopefully the summary makes it clear, but giant trigger warnings for rape (on page), childhood sexual abuse (on page), alcohol/alcoholism (on page), physical abuse, domestic violence, emotional abuse, suicide, vomit, and much more.
A smaller quibble, which is really uncomfortable, is asserting that all of her sexual encounters were consensual when not that long ago she lets you know that there was no boundary she wasn't willing to cross while trying to seduce people. I really have a hard time believing that there wasn't coercion and manipulation involved when she frames it the way that she does. Hopefully this is just bad editing?
Hopefully the summary makes it clear, but giant trigger warnings for rape (on page), childhood sexual abuse (on page), alcohol/alcoholism (on page), physical abuse, domestic violence, emotional abuse, suicide, vomit, and much more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol
A touching story about transcending trauma and building community. Would give 5 stars but I found myself a bit frustrated with Silvia’s descriptions of mountaineering and how she didn’t know the route and relied completely on the sherpas for decision-making, route finding, etc. Maybe that’s just what guided mountaineering is, though
4.5 stars. So sad, so good! The audio is read by the author herself, that made it more intense. It was very long, some of the parts I felt like I was getting lost, but all in all an incredible journey.