The Great Indoors

I started listening to *The Great Indoors* fully expecting another overdone “city girl finds herself in nature” trope, and Hogan immediately subverted my expectations. Alice isn’t a wide-eyed dreamer; she’s a disaster in trail shoes, her sobriety and personal growth journey constantly undermined by her own terrible decisions. The audiobook thrives on its specificity—Hogan nails the absurd details of trail life (the “pee funnel” dilemma, the existential dread of freeze-dried meals) and Alice’s desperate attempts to cling to control, even as the Pacific Crest Trail conspires to unravel her. Whitman’s performance is a masterclass in comedic timing. She nails Alice’s passive-aggressive inner voice, the way she’ll mentally roast a fellow hiker while still offering them a granola bar out of guilt. My only critique? Some of the secondary characters blur together—it’s hard to remember who’s who when everyone’s covered in dust and sharing trail names like “Sunshine” and “Dirtbag Dave.” But that’s also part of the charm; the real star is Alice’s unraveling, and Whitman sells it with heart and humor. The pacing occasionally stumbles when Hogan leans too hard into Alice’s pre-hike breakdowns, but it’s a minor quibble in an otherwise uproarious listen. If you love dark comedy with a side of existential dread, this is your audiobook.