Reviews with content warning for Death - Hacia rutas salvajes

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Hacia rutas salvajes by Jon Krakauer

92 reviews

gracegodwin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

One of my favorite books! Krakauer’s writing is so immersive; I spent the first part of the book hating the main character and finished it feeling as though we were one in the same. This story is now somewhat controversial, but IMO Krakauer crafts a sympathetic but fair and factual retelling. Fantastic book to read if you want to reflect on your life and what you value. 3 years after reading and I still think about this book often.

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lisasch's review against another edition

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adventurous informative sad medium-paced

4.25

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kjm_x's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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kyarabereading's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I had to read this book for my AP Literature class back in 2018-ish, but I was a lazy high school student so I never read it. Plus, I didn't really care much for the story of Chris McCandless, so I thought "why bother?" I finally decided to give it a read this summer, and I have to say, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's not usually the type of book I read, so it was a huge surprise to me.

Since it's a nonfiction story, one may be inclined to think it would be really boring (and I will admit, some parts are a bit boring) but the author does a great job of bringing these "characters" to life. Krakauer really takes the reader on this journey with him, helping the reader better understand the journey Chris McCandless went through that led him to his untimely death in Alaska. I like that we not only learn more about McCandless's life: We also see Krakauer reflect on his personal experiences, provide historical information and connect it to McCandless's story, try to uncover the cause of McCandless's death, etc. I will say that I was even moved by McCandless's philosophy through this book. Before I even read the book, I had made preconceived notions about McCandless so I disliked him for all the reasons other people who learned about him after his death disliked him: He seemed pretentious, he did something reckless, etc. But I grew to appreciate him more through this book (though I still don't really like him very much). I think there's a lesson to be learned in that.

Final thoughts: Krakauer's writing is what compelled me to finish this book the most. Sometimes I forgot that I was reading a nonfiction book because he did such a good job storytelling in a way that makes the reader feel like they are there with him/with Chris. I would probably read this one again!

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