I loved this book. I loved the structure, I loved the characters, I just loved it all. It was honest and unflinching and heartbreaking. 

I ended up really enjoying this book, even though i was a bit dubious going in. All of the characters were really interesting, and there was a lot of heart in this story. 

I mainly rated this low because of Ari. I just never got over disliking her. It felt like she never actually learned from her mistakes and processed her issues. I didn’t mind the banter, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. 

I did actually have some problems with this book (namely Ethan and Cameron, two of the most annoying men in literature) but Tova and Marcellus won me over so much that I don’t care. This was a beautifully emotional book, even if some of the plot was far fetched. 

I enjoyed the overall story of Chris McCandless, I just wanted more from the narrative itself. Krakauer meanders, or it feels like he’s filling time. If there was more of a cohesive through line, I would have enjoyed it more. 

I actually really enjoyed the first half of the book. It’s when max became a creepy possessive stalker that I got turned off. He’s almost 40 and determined to manipulate a woman he knew ten years previously? It just didn’t feel like the character that the book started with. Lennix likewise was harder to like the second half. Her stubborn conviction that he lied and she hated him got contrived, even though she was right, and it ended up feeling dramatic. And the ending was just too much for me. There’s cliffhangers, and there’s sequel-bait, and this felt too quick to be worth it. 

I liked a lot about this, except for the romance. It was very much just added it that Cas fell in love with Anna. It felt very contrived and simple. But the action and plot development worked well!

This book was VERY historical, which is just not my thing. It was a fairly interesting topic, but I was mainly bored by the descriptions of making cigars. The two storylines were fine, but never really felt fleshed out. Mostly, this was a book I read.