I’m a bit torn on this book.

The author includes many beautiful and awe-inspiring descriptions of the places and wildlife he and his family experienced throughout his life. Any nature lover or adventure enthusiast will probably enjoy this aspect. I savored the nature descriptions and especially appreciated his descriptions of places I’ve explored with my family, including Yosemite and parts of Australia.

There are a few times the author seems to present this story as a reflection and examination of self-guilt over life choices that led to the events relating to his son’s disappearance, but it felt more like a thorough play-by-play without much in the way of emotional depth. The emotional sentiments were laid a bit thick, so that they sounded cliched and hollow instead of sounding like an authentic look at the very real grief and terror and regret that the family must have felt.

I enjoyed his writing style for the most part and attribute the emotional disconnect to his profession and the fact that his other works are more related to expository nonfiction topics or scientific research papers (some of which I downloaded for future reading through my school’s research databases). I cannot pretend to know what it’s like to write a memoir, especially one surrounding a world-shattering tragedy such as this. I don’t for a second doubt the author’s love for his son or his grief over what happened, but the emotional parts of the book didn’t quite land for me.

I enjoyed it overall, and I hope that everyone in his family has found some semblance of peace.