Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Author: Morgan Matson
Series: N/A
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: May 2010
Format: ebook | 352 pages
Genre: YA | Contemporary
Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn't seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she's coming to terms with her father's death and how to put her own life back together after the accident.
My thoughts:
Following her father's death, Amy's family moves to Connecticut for a fresh start, but because of money troubles, Amy's mother decides she has to drive there with a friend's son, Roger. Amy's mother sets the route, books the hotels and hands over her credit card, but Amy and Roger are disappointed to see that the route set isn't one that inspires any sense of adventure…they decide to liven things up a little.
This was a great, feel good read. I really enjoyed it. I've only read a couple of books with a road trip as the main focus but it seems to be a really great way to tell a story. Especially for characters that have to get to know one another and maybe even themselves again - plenty of time to be left alone with your thoughts, close quarters with more or less a stranger and lots of things that can go wrong.
I loved how gentle the story was. Matson really took her time with the characters I think, I felt like I really got to know them. Amy was very vulnerable and the trip was her way of getting a little bit of her old self back but it took a lot of time. Nothing in this read was rushed, not one thing - not the friendships, not the romance and definitely not the closure of all the characters involved.
The characters were beyond lovely. I don't know why I'm using that word to describe them, but it seems to fit them perfectly. They gave each other so much space at first because they each had their own problems. I adored how they took their time to get to know each other, because really, doesn't it just make sense that way? Who rushes into any kind of relationship? Even of the friendly sort.
I also thought it ended in such a lovely manner. It might have annoyed me if the read was any different, but I loved the fact that it was an open ending. It wasn't a bad ending in the sense that nothing was resolved - things were resolved and it ended on a good note, but it was also open to interpretation a little. I thought that for characters who had a long way to go, it would have been hypocritical in a way to end the book with full description of where the characters are going to end up and where they all stand with each other. Like Amy's mother for example, I would have liked to see how things between Amy and her changed, but I also knew that they had a hell of a lot to work out. Seeing them work it out in a couple of pages wouldn't have sit well with me I think. It was a great way to end the book.
Overall I loved this read and I don't have a bad thing to say about it. Not one. I'm definitely going to keep watching this author.
My rating: 10/10
Morgan Matson:
1 comment:
Great review! I really liked this one, too and I liked the other book I've read by this author -- Since You've Been Gone! She has a new one coming out this summer and it looks great!
Post a Comment