The Other Side of Lost

by Jessi Kirby

Annica Lydenberg (Illustrator)

Girl Online meets Wild in this emotionally charged story of girl who takes to the wilderness to rediscover herself and escape the superficial persona she created on social media.

Mari Turner’s life is perfect. That is, at least, to her thousands of followers who have helped her become an internet starlet.

But when she breaks down and posts a video confessing she’s been living a lie—that she isn’t the happy, in love, inspirational online personality she’s been trying so hard to portray—it goes viral and she receives a major backlash.

To get away from it all, she makes an impulsive decision: to hike the entire John Muir Trail. Mari and her late cousin Bri were supposed to do it together, to celebrate their shared eighteenth birthday. But that was before Mari got so wrapped up in her online world that she shut anyone out who questioned its worth—like Bri.

With Bri’s boots and trail diary, a heart full of regret, and a group of strangers that she meets along the way, Mari tries to navigate the difficult terrain of the hike. But the true challenge lies within, as she searches for the way back from to the girl she fears may be too lost to find: herself.

• ISBN10: 0062424246
• ISBN13: 9780062424242
• Publish Date: 4 October 2018 (first published 7 August 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 22 August 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperTeen
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: This book is about the journey, not just in terms of the hike, but also in terms of character development. John Muir Trail forces Mari to come to terms with a lot of her thoughts and feelings and gives her a new perspective on life. While I very much enjoyed that time with her, I didn’t think the romance was necessary, and felt rather forced. That aside, I also liked the exploration of social media and how allowing it to engulf one’s every second of the day leads to missing out on the most important moments.

[Rowena]

I don’t know what I was expecting when I started this book but I really liked what I got. This book was emotional and it was raw and Kirby had me turning the pages faster than a nascar race. So much goodness.

[Sam@WLABB]

Mari had spent so many years curating her life, that she forgot to actually live it. Following her cousin's death, she felt adrift, lost, and she hoped following in Bri's footsteps would lead her back to herself.

• Pro: My emotions! My emotions! There were so many tears during this book. I cried for Bri and the things she would never do. I cried for Mari and the years she wasted, but there were also plenty of happy tears shed. Every one of Mari's successes filled me with joy, and I loved seeing her point of view change.

• Pro: This is my third book featuring some serious, hardcore hiking, and I was once again captivated by the trials, tribulations, and accomplishments of those who do this sort of thing. I know you are going to think, "How can Mari just walk onto that trail?" BUT, Kirby did not make it sound easy, by any means, and she gave her plenty of assistance. Regardless, I was still really inspired by the whole trip.

• Pro: The Sierras sound absolutely breathtaking. Kirby took us on a physical and visual tour of the John Muir trail, and it was such a special treat getting to "see" it.

• Pro: Mari was so lucky to meet Josh and all his friends. Not only did they help her novice self navigate the trail, but they gave her something she had needed more than she realized - genuine human interaction. The friendship they shared was really special.

• Pro: One of the items Mari found in Bri's pack was her journal. I loved getting to peek at the daily entries, because they were positive, inspiring, and also adorably illustrated. I thought it was a fantastic way for Bri to encourage Mari, and a brilliant way for us to get to know Bri as well.

• Pro: The ending was really beautiful and appropriate. I was left with some tears, but I was smiling through those tears.

Overall: A beautiful and touching story of one woman's physical, mental, and emotional journey of self discovery. I was all in from the very beginning and loved every second of it.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

2.5*

I was so, so certain that I was going to love this book. Survival components, feels, finding oneself, I love all those things! But at the end of the day, some of those aspects just fell short and I didn't quite love this as much as I'd hoped.

The Things I Liked:

• I love a good survival story! And it was one, no question. Mari is out on the John Muir Trail (which I spent lots of time looking up stuff about, the author did a good job of setting that scene for sure!) and it's not an easy hike. For some time, she's super alone, and that has to be harrowing for anyone, let alone someone without the experience under her belt. I liked it even more when it added extra characters to the mix, because the more people surviving, the more fun it is, for some reason.



• Character growth was definitely on point. Mari wanted to take this journey for a lot of reasons, but growth was definitely top of the list. And grow she did! She had to face a lot of things about herself that she didn't like or didn't want to admit, and she definitely did that. It was nice to see her go through such a personal learning experience.

The Things I Didn't:

• It was just so unbelievable to me. My Kindle notes look like "but NO, no one would ever DO that!" and then a bunch of emojis and exclamation points because I was getting stabby. Look, I know some people are risk takers, certainly more than others. But I simply did not buy that this girl, who was only a literal day before completely obsessed with her internet presence, decides to just bag the whole thing, delete everything, and take off on a long hiking trek. When she has never hiked further than the mailbox. I get the cousin's death jarring something inside of her, but that had happened before all of this, so it hardly felt like the impetus for such a drastic change? Or, if it was, it probably should have been a little more clearly defined as such- it felt so, so sudden.



• Not only was it wholly unbelievable, it was dangerous! Okay now I definitely sound like someone's parent, but wow, this was a terrible choice. While I loved that the journey empowered her, I don't know that risking her life to "find herself" is really the best plan ever? Especially when her cousin died training for this actual hike. Which I guess brings me back around to the unbelievability piece.
  
  
• Even though there was danger addressed, the stakes didn't feel that high, and a lot of the scary stuff was easily resolved. And again, without experience and training, a lot of it was just summed up to... Mari getting lucky, honestly. Which felt far too easy. 



• Her food issues weren't addressed. It seemed like Mari had a bit of an unhealthy relationship with food, and some body image issues, and I felt like these were kind of glossed over. It was like somehow now that she was off social media these problems vanished, and sorry, that isn't how that works.



• Lie of omission trope was in full effect. Gosh, I am not a fan of this. Like she was hiding stuff from her fellow hikers. Lots of stuff, lots of times, and look, we all know that's going to end badly. Everyone will get their feelings hurt, lots of awkwardness when the truth comes out, you know the drill. Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but it is, and this is my review, so there you have it.

Bottom Line: While I loved the character growth and hiking/survival aspects of the story, the plot as a whole didn't feel believable enough for me to fully invest.