Week 7 Review: The Other Side of Lost

From Goodreads:
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 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 to the girl she fears may be too lost to find: herself. 

My Review:
Yeah, this book was pretty awesome to read! I read it in about 3 hours, and the last hour, standing, and didn't even really notice the time going by. It was a really engaging read, but an easy one, which is a pretty enjoyable combo!

Part of this book is about getting away from social media, getting out in nature and giving yourself time to find out who you are. Another part is healing from past hurts, like how her relationship with Bri was when Bri died. So there was some melancholy, but there was also a quiet joy in the beauty of her surroundings.

The idea of hiking over 200 miles, that scares me. So the idea that Mari goes on this adventure with only the preparations that Bri made, not knowing how to camp, is both scary and impressive, no matter what Mari thinks about it, personally.

My few negatives, one is that we didn't really get to know the other characters. We had the uncertainty of Mari, the positive and make the most of every second Bri, and a bit about Josh. The others, Vanessa, Jack, Beau, Jack, and Colin. They were really understanding and supportive of Mari, that they had all their reasons for being there. But we weren't given their reasons.

The other is that Mari had a pretty bad relationship with food and her body, which was linked with her social media identity, but it shouldn't have gone away so quickly by taking a media sabbatical and doing this hike. It just wasn't mentioned again.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a fantastic read!

Author: Jessi Kirby
Read: February 9th, 2019
Source: Edelweiss/Library
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a SAC 2019 Book!
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: August 7th 2018

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars