Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I heard so many glowing reviews about this book that I picked it up without knowing much about the story and ... yikes. I honestly could not get through this book. Cheryl's story from page one just oozed self-destruction. Yes, she experienced some serious difficulties and it sounds like she didn't have a great support system around her. However, she blames all of her problems on others and misplaces the blame on the people she drove away with her behavior. It truly breaks my heart that she has such a self-hate for her body and her life. For a self-proclaimed feminist, she uses her body as if it's a tool rather than her own flesh. I skipped to the end of the book to see how it ends and sadly although she learned lessons about perseverance, it sounds like she still has a lot of work to do on her heart before she can ever be happy on her own. She writes the story years later and glorifies all the horribly depressing bits as if they were fond memories. It sounds like someone who has not accepted their past and really refused to learn from her destructive ways. If this were a close friend I would have interrupted her story, pray for her and hope that she finds a good therapist to work through the amount of emotional baggage she clearly shoved into her backpack and never took off.