Free Ride

 

Free Ride is an honest, unadorned, chronicle of the circuitous journey to the remote places by you-tube star Noraly Schoenmaker. First published in Dutch in 2024, this English language translation is out 3rd June 2025 from Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint. It's 288 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.  It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

The author is impressively brave (she herself calls it foolhardy in retrospect in several places), honest, and has a rare fortitude. She's a geologist by training, who left her fieldwork behind after a breakup in her personal life in the Netherlands and flew off to India. An incredible series of profound coincidences led her to acquire her first motorcycle, Basanti, and starting her life over as a You-Tube content creator with her Itchy Boots channel (currently at an eye-watering 2.8 million subscribers). 

The writing is plain and quite effective for its directness. Readers who are familiar with her you-tube journey will recognize that this is her authentic voice, it comes across as a more personal, behind-the-scenes version of her episodes with a lot of explanation (why, how, and deeper detail on some of the potentially frightening realities of being a single human traveling alone in *remote* areas, most of the time without a backup plan, completely isolated). 

Apparently the translation work was (mostly?) done by the author herself. Again, for readers who are familiar with her other content, it reads like her authentic voice. For folks unfamiliar with her, it does read like it's been written by someone who is quite fluent at English, but for whom it's not their first (and probably only) language. It's charming and real, like her other content. 

She's tough and unflinching. She could easily be the indomitable heroine of an Agatha Christie novel. 

Four and a half stars. Absolutely recommended for public library acquisition, home library, buddy read, or a book club selection. This will be one of the year's holiday/travel/airport purchases. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.