Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a 29 year old single female about to embark on some solo travels and this book popped up and I thought it might be funny/cute. This book was a lot less funny and a lot more depressing than I thought it would be. If you're looking for an interesting travel journal that's more about a person's experience traveling and exploring culture and new places with some personal humor and perhaps an innocent fling or two I would say this is NOT it. Maybe check out Bill Bryson's travel books (although he is a family man who does not have flings). This is first and foremost about someone's life as an aging, afraid, single 30 something year old and traveling is used more like a drug as a form of escapism to evade a narcissistic life in showbiz Los Angeles. The author herself is a self described "Pietra Pan" (she also refers to herself as a 30+ year old "girl" throughout the book). Traveling and the places themselves along with any existential experience and lessons of those places was more of a side note when they did exist at all. Like I said the book is mostly about avoiding her monster and acting out by sleeping with any acceptable locals (even two in one day) while traveling. I found myself cringing through a lot it while reading about the author chasing unavailable guys that often didn't care about her instead of creating more meaningful relationships on the road. The only relationships she really focuses on are those linked to sexual gratification and being desired or validated by men. The author sometimes defends this behavior like "well men can do it and so can I! don't slut shame me!", but that's like saying two wrongs make a right and it doesn't make you any less self destructive or creepy. I'm not criticizing the author's former lifestyle so much, rather I'm warning the reader, that if you want to read something positive and fun about being on the road that doesn't have a rather dark and desperate undertone, this might not be the book for you. The book is supposed to end with a "happy ending" where the author finally finds love in her own city as her fear of growing old and being alone is at an all time high and finally learns how to love. But finally deciding to stop being selfish and emotionally abusive towards the men in her life because age and fear have finally given her a serious reality check is NOT enlightening at all and hardly worth writing about for an audience. If anything, it's mediocre, sad, embarrassing, and cliché. Coming from Los Angeles, myself, these personality types are a dime a dozen so perhaps this was a lot less entertaining and a lot more boring than it will be for you. What she was doing while you were breeding was dealing with a lot of psychological issues and the inability to love that kept her from growing up and leading a meaningful life with meaningful experiences. For me personally the book did not teach or provide anything of real value to be worth purchasing and reading. And one thing it really didn't do is inspire me before my travels. This is a good book on what NOT to seek out or expect while traveling and to ask yourself whether you're traveling for the right reasons.