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A review by bunnieslikediamonds
Lost Canyon by Nina Revoyr
3.0
I get sentimental about nature a lot and imagine myself in all kinds of majestic settings when planning the next vacation, Jack London style. This book was a good reminder that the wilderness is out to get you, and civilization was created for a reason. Showers and hotel bars, for one thing.
The four hikers in Lost Canyon learn the hard way. Never trust a ranger who's all: "oh, all the trails are busy, why dontcha take a super remote one that's not been used in forever because of reeeasons . It's like totally overgrown. Here's a handdrawn map!"
These scrappy LA yuppies are surprisingly meek and go along with their leader Tracy to the Trail Of Doom. Tracy is the least developed character and the only one whose p.o.v we don't get. She's inexplicably enthusiastic about making terrible decisions, although she's supposedly the most experienced hiker of the group. The others get alternating chapters and a lot of backstory, but I felt like they were mostly there to represent the issues the author wanted to write about. Which is fine. Exploring race, class and gender through a nature adventure story is a good idea, but there was no depth to it. The Important Issues were simplistic and packaged in fluff, as if intended for sheltered high schoolers or those boozy book clubs where you want everything neatly analyzed for you. Everything is spelled out and thoroughly explained, and there are some rather unbelievable plot elements (if I were a Sierra Nevada ranger I'd be mighty offended).
I liked the nature writing, and it's pretty suspenseful once bad shit starts to happen. However, this is a case of loving the idea and being disappointed in the execution. It's gotten some nice reviews though, so I might be missing something.
The four hikers in Lost Canyon learn the hard way. Never trust a ranger who's all: "oh, all the trails are busy, why dontcha take a super remote one that's not been used in forever because of reeeasons . It's like totally overgrown. Here's a handdrawn map!"
These scrappy LA yuppies are surprisingly meek and go along with their leader Tracy to the Trail Of Doom. Tracy is the least developed character and the only one whose p.o.v we don't get. She's inexplicably enthusiastic about making terrible decisions, although she's supposedly the most experienced hiker of the group. The others get alternating chapters and a lot of backstory, but I felt like they were mostly there to represent the issues the author wanted to write about. Which is fine. Exploring race, class and gender through a nature adventure story is a good idea, but there was no depth to it. The Important Issues were simplistic and packaged in fluff, as if intended for sheltered high schoolers or those boozy book clubs where you want everything neatly analyzed for you. Everything is spelled out and thoroughly explained, and there are some rather unbelievable plot elements (if I were a Sierra Nevada ranger I'd be mighty offended).
I liked the nature writing, and it's pretty suspenseful once bad shit starts to happen. However, this is a case of loving the idea and being disappointed in the execution. It's gotten some nice reviews though, so I might be missing something.