Author: Morgan Matson
Publish date: 2010
Source: Library
"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. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road—diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards—this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself."
I kept reading on other book blogs that this was fantastic, but I was a little "eh" about reading it. I was browsing the new YA book section at my library when I found it and decided to try it out. I don't think I liked it as much as everyone else did. I like the premise of a road trip and I liked the pictures and lists and notes that were included in the story. The author includes black and white photos of receipts to show what they ate at diners and I actually thought the first one in there was a real receipt and tried to pick it up. I am smart.
The writing was excellent and the premise was good, but I just didn't find the love story believable. Yes, Amy thought Roger was cute and all that, but I did not sense a big emotional connection and didn't even find Roger's jealousy at Lucien that believable. At the end, it seemed like they made out, spent the night in the hotel "together" (left to the readers' imagination), and then it was time for them to go their separate ways. They have a short conversation about "what to do now," but it all seemed so rushed, like the author had to cram it in before the end of the book. Who knows, maybe I am too old and cynical to think something like that could happen. But that's the point of reading fiction, isn't it?
Currently reading: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty and Bossypants by Tina Fey
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