Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

91 reviews

whimsicalish's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I haven't read anything else from Cheryl Strayed but this felt genuine. I appreciated the honesty and informative memoir from her. This entire experience couldn't have been easy to write and share. 

Also, I never heard of the Pacific Crest Trail so this was educational too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction and Drug use

amelie_rose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use

readingrainbowroad's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

Book: 3.5 stars. This book is at its heart one about immense grief and how people process it differently. I've heard this book compared to Eat, Pray, Love (which I've never read but heard the criticisms of) and I think if you view this book as another travel memoir, it misses a lot of the main heart of the story and what Cheryl Strayed was going through at the time. I think having gone through a very similar thing (mom dying suddenly of cancer) made this book incredibly more relatable and understandable.

Audiobook narrator: 5 stars. Would listen to Bernadette Dunne read 100 more books in a heartbeat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abortion, and Alcohol

clotalksbooks's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

An easy listen with a good narrator. A good mix of reflection on time before the trail with bits about walking the trail itself. So interesting and inspiring. Doesn't shy away from the hard details or the mistakes, doesn't try to paint herself in a perfect light. It's all the stronger and more relatable for it. Like the PCT itself though, this was long. Although I don't think anything was superfluous, it still felt quite a commitment. I'm glad I saw it through. I had previously watched the adaptation and I think it did a good job of pulling out the important bits. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, and Death of parent

janetsuzanne's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

tomnoor's review against another edition

4.75

Could have done without the horrific, graphic animal death. Otherwise really enjoyed, esp the author’s processing of grief losing a parent young. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Sexual harassment

natgeographic's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

I’m not hiking the PCT but I am living in Peru for 6 months— this was a good time to read this book. Away from friends and family, living a simpler life, doing hard things every day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity

Personally was super turned off by the abortion story but overall I found the book introspective and inspiring.

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

3.5

A cautionary tale to what it means to be young and naive. Good writing, sad but moving story, a series of very dumb and dangerous choices.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, and Abortion

kristenreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Abortion

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

There's a lot of heart and vulnerability woven throughout this story of one woman's personal adventure hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). The author, Cheryl Strayed, coming off an amicable but heartbreaking divorce, decides to step far outside her comfort zone and challenge herself to take on what initially seems like a formidable but reasonable challenge of hiking solo over a well-known trail that traverses the entire west coast of the United States.

The story begins with Cheryl's back story and the hardships she's experienced over the previous few years of her life. This really allows the reader to get a good idea of who the author is and sets up how she, as a person, will evolve over the course of the book. The book presents a map at the beginning to familiarize the reader with the full length and varied terrain of the PCT. The book is broken up into five parts, with multiple chapters in each part. Each chapter relays the author's most memorable experiences from different sections of the trail. The experiences shared could be about equipment, the hiking experience, people met, camping sites, etc. It's very easy to feel like a hitchhiker on this hike and relate to the various highs and lows that took place, as well as the insights shared.

Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren't a state of being but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was. The radical aloneness of the PCT had altered that sense. Alone wasn't a room anymore, but the whole wide world. And now, I was alone in that world, occupying it in a way I never had before. Living at large like this, without even a roof over my head, made the world feel both bigger and smaller to me. Until now I hadn't really understood the world's vastness, hadn't even understood how vast a mile could be until each mile was beheld at walking speed.

By the end of the story, the reader feels like a veteran of the PCT and intimately aware of what works and what doesn't work for a first-time long-distance hiker. It's also heartwarming to share in the tales of comradery that occurs between hikers sharing the trail and people who live along the trail, welcoming the hikers into their communities and servicing their needs. Ms. Strayed tells her story with a sense of humor and humility, admitting freely when she realizes her miscalculations and shortcomings as a hiker. But overall, I was impressed with the level of research and preparation completed before she set out on the hike, and how she managed to survive in a very sparing way at times.

This is a well written, informative, and entertaining book. I'd say it's inspiring, and while reading it you wonder if hiking the PCT could be in the cards for you... then reality sets in and you find you're satisfied to have just been given the opportunity to be a voyeur to someone else's bravery in taking on this historical hiking trail. I loved the quotes and song lyrics included at the beginning of each part of the book, and appreciate the extras included in the book: a list of books read and referenced by the author while on her hike and a Reading Group Guide.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator, Bernadette Dunne. Ms. Dunne brought an energy and lightness to her reading of the story that it was even more relatable and like listening to the author share difficult memories and special new experiences as her life expands and evolves.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Grief