A review by arcoirisdesign
Wild by Cheryl Strayed

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A book about Cheryl Strayed losing her mom and then deciding to hike the PCT. I loved the book. It took me in. It helped me find new perspective. I didn’t hike the PCT, but I learned from it.

My favorite quote. I will never forget this one:
“It was wrong. It was so relentlessly awful that my mother had been taken from me. I couldn’t even hate her properly. I didn’t get to grow up and pull away from her and bitch about her with my friends and confront her about the things I wish she’d done differently and then get older and understand that she had done the best she could and take her fully back into my arms again. Her death had obliterated that. It had obliterated me. It had cut me short at the very height of my youthful arrogance. It had forced me to instantly grow up and forgive her every motherly fault at the same time that it kept me forever a child, my life both ended and begun in that premature place where we’d left off. She was my mother, but I was motherless. I was trapped by her but utterly alone. She would always be the empty bowl that no one could fill. I’d have to fill it myself again and again and again.”

I discovered Cheryl Strayed on a podcast, I think. 

Anyone who has lost their mom should read this book. 

I love the way Cheryl writes. It really draws you in. I loved her courage. And her stubbornness. I’m glad I finally read the book. 

The book changed me because now I know others have had grief as deep as me. It’s clear as day to me now.