Review: Wild - Cheryl Strayed

Yes, I know it's the movie tie-in cover,
but this is the copy I have!

Title: Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found

Author: Cheryl Strayed

Summary: Cheryl Strayed lost her mother to cancer at the age of 22 and fell into a life of drugs and sex. Trying to find her way again, she decides to hike a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail completely alone. Wild follows this journey, as Cheryl reflects on her past and how to deal with pulling together what remains of her old life and starting a new one.

Rating: ★★★★★

Review: 

Wild is one of those books that you know you adore from about ten pages in, but when you try and enthuse about it to somebody in the real world, you just end up gesticulating frantically and trying to find something else to say apart from 'It's SO good!' 


I saw the film adaptation of Wild when it came out a few years ago, mostly because I'll watch anything with Reese Witherspoon. I didn't know anything about Cheryl Strayed before going into the cinema, but after coming out I knew I had to read the book. I eventually got around to it this year and almost as soon as I began reading, I had to start slowing myself down because I didn't want it to end. Finishing the last line was like being punched in the gut. 

Strayed's writing blew me away. It was deceptively simple at first, but the more I read, the more I appreciated it. Not a single word is out of place, and the sentences flow seamlessly. Her way of describing a feeling or a place instantly transports you to the Pacific Crest Trail, walking alongside Cheryl in her trail-battered boots.

There are a lot of clichés that could be used when describing what Wild  is about. 'It's about finding yourself', 'it's a journey of self-discovery' etc, but I don't think any of them do it justice. It's a book about the Pacific Crest Trail, about the beauty and harshness of nature, about love and loss and letting go, about growing up, about loneliness and being alone, about people and about kindess. It's wide-ranging without being rambling, there is humour and danger and deep sadness and soaring hope. 

The impetus for Cheryl's breakdown and subsequent PCT journey is her mother's death from cancer when Cheryl was just 22. The parts dealing with this illness and death are heart-breaking and full of very raw emotion. On paper, Cheryl and I have very little in common, but I still found her an immensely relatable narrator. It feels as though she wrote the book as a form of catharsis and simply invites readers along to share the trail with her, to see if they might find something interesting or useful along the way. 

Some reviewers have complained that Cheryl comes across as 'spoilt', 'whiny', 'asking for pity', or 'annoyingly ill-prepared' - I disagree. If you went into this book expecting a serious, factual account of the PCT by an experienced backpacker - did you not read a synopsis? Strayed does not position Wild as a how-to guide or a source of knowledge on the best way to hike a trail (or how to live your life). 

Neither does she portray herself as a guiding moral light - she is open and honest about the poor judgements she made in the past, including her marriage to and subsequent cheating on a man she cared deeply about, following by a period of heavy drug use and a lot of casual sex. It's a fact of life that sometimes people engage in destructive behaviour that appears inexplicable to outside eyes, but I think readers who get stuck on this behaviour and get 'too annoyed' at Cheryl to appreciate the rest of the book are missing the point somewhat. Her decisions were irresponsible, sure, but a great number of people have done similarly foolish things. She made her apologies to the people she hurt, and in my opinion she doesn't need to offer excuses to her readers. 

I can't help wondering if she would have received the same level of criticism had she been a man writing about the same topics. Shock, horror - sometimes women have and enjoy casual sex! If this reality bothers you, you will not enjoy Wild. Cheryl is rightly unapologetic about her sexual life; the book is all the better for including what critics might describe as the 'irrelevant' or 'immature' (codewords for 'overly feminine'?) parts of her life on the trail. 

All women have a range of interests and talents, from literature or astrophysics to fashion or sex, and none are mutually exclusive. Why should Cheryl thinking about her appearance or about sex on the trail negate her opinions on philosophy or human nature? In Wild, Strayed gives us a true picture of herself and her life - of everything a woman can be, when she doesn't hide parts of herself to avoid judgement. 

Ordinarily, I loathe the word 'inspirational'. But Wild is the closest I've come to being genuinely inspired by a book. Cheryl Strayed is a phenomenal narrator who elevates a simple story about a walk along the PCT to a celebration of womanhood, a therapeutic exploration of loss and loneliness, and an overwhelming, freeing, reassurance that no matter what happens in life, you are okay as you are, and you will eventually find your way to the right trail.  

Have you seen or read Wild? What did you think of Cheryl's journey? I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Katy xo