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.