gretchen
Abandoned after first chapter but I will concede that I am probably the wrong audience for this book; it would more likely appeal to mid-teens. I usually love YA fiction, but I just could not get past the arrogant whine of the main character. I flipped through to spot read to see if her entitled attitude would dial back and then realized I wasn't invested enough in the hints of the story to come presented in chapter one, so back to the library for something different.
The first third was good, then there was a sudden jarring time shift and I should have listened to my gut instinct and abandoned the book right there. The last two thirds wandered around in circles, attempting to tie everything up, but it was so rambly and so full of convenient coincidences that I found the last two thirds of the book to be distinctly tedious. I ended up skimming the last 30 pages, just to get it over with.
So fast-paced it was like reading a movie. I love Norse mythology and started the book with high hopes, but predictable and convenient plot points wore thin fast - I would have liked to see more character/world building. Abandoned about 1/3 the way through. Will appeal to readers that like dialogue-driven books.
I applaud the effort it took to weave a story of multiple accounts of the devastating impact this blizzard had on the lives of those that experienced it into a full-length book. However, all the accounts are of white settlers - apparently, the blizzard sidestepped any and all of the native americans that lived in the region. It would have been nice to learn how the native experience compared...or, at the very least, have a paragraph or two about why native americans weren't included so it doesn't seem like they were omitted on purpose.
Having grown up in the Northwest, I found all the background history to be tedious, and at times, was wondering if it had been lifted straight from Schwantes (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606039.The_Pacific_Northwest) and Egan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452538-the-big-burn?ac=1&from_search=true). I liked learning more about the lives of the folks that perished, but I downright disliked the cold descriptions of their deaths and the factual way the deaths were presented - the facts are not known and we can only speculate, yet the author presented last moments as strict fact and that somehow managed to dehumanize these unlucky people.
A baby with a mustache floats through fantastic (trippy) backgrounds (sharks, unicorns, bees, space) with accompanying quotes by Nietzsche. Pictures are goofy, quotes are profound and this book makes Silas smile every time. This is one of his first books and one that he gravitates to over and over again.
I wish I'd abandoned this one. Honestly, I just don't get what all the hype is about with Cheryl Strayed. Maybe I disliked this because I read Torch first - and I wish I'd abandoned that one as well (I only finished it to see if Bruce would follow through).
Positive point: it's very admirable that she writes so truthfully and seemingly without regrets. I can see this as a reason for people to like her writing so much.
The reasons I didn't like this book: reading some sections felt like I was re-reading Torch, only it was worse since Torch is supposed to be a novel and this was a memoir. And I couldn't believe she actually survived the trail, given her naive and lackadaisical attitude towards a long-haul hike and all the accompanying danger of doing it on your own. As a hiker and a once wilderness ranger, some of her descriptions made me cringe. Overall, it was like watching a train wreck and being surprised that there were hardly any casualties . Granted, some of her attitude changed over the course of the hike, but I came away from the book feeling like she missed her own point of hiking the PCT.
And finally, I do wonder if I ran into her out there - I was working as a wilderness ranger then and the PCT was part of my patrol...at least I didn't have to go out looking for her!
