Release Date: August 7th, 2018
Finished Date: April 1st, 2018
Publishers: HarperTeen
Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary
Source: For Review
Format: eARC
Pages: 320Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary
Source: For Review
Format: eARC
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo
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.
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.
The Review: Summer is the perfect time to read contemporary books and Jessi Kirby’s books always manage to leave me satisfied and The Other Side of Lost is definitely one to read this summer.
The story follows Mari whose days are filled with taking ‘fake’ daily life photos for Instagram page which include fake boyfriends, fake special birthdays, so pretty much fake everything. But since her cousin passed away Mari realises she needs to stop hiding behind her online persona and start journey in with the real world. When the opportunity arrives for her to go hiking in her cousin’s place, hesitant as she may be, Mari decides to take the plunge and do the one thing her cousin always wanted to do, the 200 mile hike that she died training for.
I really enjoyed Mari’s story. She was an easy character to connect to and as really likable. As a blogger and Instagrammer I could totally relate to her feelings about trying to make photos/reviews perfect and it was really refreshing to read about a character I could relate to and the pressures you can sometimes feel by using social media.
Mari’s story really starts when she starts the hike that her cousin was supposed to do. I think it was such a nice idea for Mari to this seems as her cousin could no longer, however, it was totally unrealistic. Mari had no training, she’s inexperienced, she didn’t know the terrain and she didn’t have a clue how to hike. For me this was my major gripe about this story because every time something came up relating to the hike it didn’t feel real enough. Especially considering her cousin died while training for this.
I did like however when Mari meets a group while hiking and I enjoyed their scenes together more than when Mari is on her own walking in her cloud of grief. This group helped her overcome things or deal with her issues better. There is a hint of a romance which I really wanted more of – seriously more and I also wanted an epilogue.
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