Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Destination Anywhere

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard

5 reviews

nickoliver's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I didn't know what to expect going into this book, because I'd never heard of it before. It was some random book I'd found at the library when I was in one of my rare "What if I tried reading books in German again?" phases, though I did know the author beforehand. And while there were certain things I didn't like, overall, it was a pleasant surprise!

My favourite thing about it was Barnard's discussion of friendships and how far people would go to have them, even if they had to completely lose themselves in the process. Peyton had gotten bullied at her old school for five whole years, so when she started at a new school, she was determined to not be alone anymore. She ended up befriending a group of friends that weren't good for her and that she didn't even like most of the time, but she was so afraid of being alone and being a victim again that she ignored all the red flags and did things she wasn't proud of. When something bad happened that made it impossible for her to go on like this, she decided to fly to Canada to escape her life. The book followed both her adventure in Canada as well as explaining how she got there in the first place.

The contemplations Peyton had about friendships made me very emotional, because they were so relatable to me. I've never had friends, especially not ones that I'd trust and that I was close with, so a lot of the desperation she felt hit me deep in my core. If I'd read this as a teen, it would have made me hopeful and maybe bittersweet about the future; but as it is, as an adult in his late twenties, it made me want to cry sometimes, and not out of hope. Nevertheless, I loved the way Barnard talked about Peyton's wish to have friends, even friends that weren't good for her. Because despite the fact that as an adult, it's easy to say that she acted stupid, I know in my heart that I would've done the exact same thing as her if I'd been in her situation as a teenager.

Like I mentioned above, the story was told in both the past and the present, which isn't my favourite format. It didn't bother me all too much here, however, because the past chapters made sense and were never all too long. And while it was obvious early on what exactly happened - I knew it the moment Peyton got Casey's apology -, it didn't take away my enjoyment.

What I didn't like about the story were the side characters and the way they were explored - or rather, the way they weren't explored. Peyton met six people in Canada that she went on a road trip with, and not all of them were developed properly. Especially Lars and Stefan felt more like they were thrown in there to have more people; I didn't even realise that they were a couple until I was way into the story (and considering I can usually sniff out queer characters like a bloodhound, that's saying something). So the way Peyton sometimes talked about how close she was to the others didn't feel authentic to me.

Even Beasey wasn't an exception to that rule. He had a bit of a romance with Peyton, and I never quite understood why. At first, he didn't even register as a potential love interest - partly because I didn't expect there to be a romance in the first place, and partly because I somehow thought, at first, that he and Khalil were a couple, not just friends (which kind of makes the fact that I didn't recognise the actual queer couple hilarious). And even later on, when Peyton talked about how he was her best friend - insinuating that she was closer to him than any of the other five people -, I didn't understand where that came from, because while he was sure mentioned more than some of the others, I didn't see the deeper friendship/budding romance he had with Peyton.
It didn't help that I never learnt how much older than Peyton he was, which made me too nervous and uncomfortable to truly enjoy the romance. It was mentioned a lot that Peyton was the youngest at seventeen and Sewa and Maya the oldest at about 25, but I didn't know where in that age range Beasey fell. Was he simply eighteen? Was he nineteen? Way older than that? Would've eased my discomfort a little if Barnard had clarified it more clearly.

Lastly, I wasn't the biggest fan of some of Peyton's spontaneity. I get wanting to leave your life behind, I really do, but the way she flew halfway across the world without so much as a plan - hell, without even enough winter clothing to keep her warm in Canada in October - was insanity. Especially considering she was only seventeen and pretty much still wet behind the ears. It was real lucky for her that the others took her under their wing and she didn't fall prey to a group of guys that wanted to hurt her. Which is something that never even occurred to her.

Overall, I really liked the discussions around friendship in this book, that was definitely a highlight for me. The actual friendships being formed were a bit underdeveloped, however, and the romance really wasn't necessary.

Content Warnings