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A review by zanybibliophile
Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
5.0
Amelia (Amy) Curry's mum has put the house up for sale and moved to a new city, leaving Amy to finish up the school year and then drive the car up to live with her mum. Amy feels guilty about her dad's death, bitter towards her mum for moving the family away and disappointed in her brother for living a lifestyle that landed him in rehab. While she is upset about leaving her home, the real problem Amy has with the cross-country road trip is that she hasn't driven since her dad died in a car accident.
Enter Roger, someone Amy apparently knew as a kid but has little to no memory of. Amy's designated driver is upbeat, positive and potentially a bad influence, not to mention good-looking with his light brown hair, dark eyes and broad shoulders. He has a sort-of-but-not-really-girlfriend that he is trying to track down which influences some of the detour locations but Roger also encourages Amy to go to places that mean something to her and may help her heal.
There is a range of characters they meet on their detour, all of which play their part in making the detour "epic", but the one character I truly dislike is Amy's mother, Pamela. She does not seem to be supportive or care at all about how Amy is feeling. When Amy expresses her discomfort about A) driving across the country with someone she does not really know and B) being in a car at all, Amy's mother tells her not to be difficult. This is insensitive and heartbreaking but also explains why Amy stops caring about what her mother wants and just does what she needs to do. What Amy needed, Roger encouraged and the detour facilitated was a break, a bit of freedom and healing. Amy's character is tough, but she still needed time to heal and someone to reassure her that her father's death was not her fault.
Despite my anger towards that element of the story, the book was wonderfully set out with playlists, receipts, facts about the states they were in and pictures of their travels scattered throughout the book. The places they stopped and the conversations they had were interesting, meaningful and fun. I enjoyed the writing style which makes the novel a rather quick read and it was a cute and somewhat lighthearted story which left me wanting a fun road trip buddy.
Overall, I loved this book and, while I didn't like a specific element, it was executed well so it gets full marks from me!
Enter Roger, someone Amy apparently knew as a kid but has little to no memory of. Amy's designated driver is upbeat, positive and potentially a bad influence, not to mention good-looking with his light brown hair, dark eyes and broad shoulders. He has a sort-of-but-not-really-girlfriend that he is trying to track down which influences some of the detour locations but Roger also encourages Amy to go to places that mean something to her and may help her heal.
There is a range of characters they meet on their detour, all of which play their part in making the detour "epic", but the one character I truly dislike is Amy's mother, Pamela. She does not seem to be supportive or care at all about how Amy is feeling. When Amy expresses her discomfort about A) driving across the country with someone she does not really know and B) being in a car at all, Amy's mother tells her not to be difficult. This is insensitive and heartbreaking but also explains why Amy stops caring about what her mother wants and just does what she needs to do. What Amy needed, Roger encouraged and the detour facilitated was a break, a bit of freedom and healing. Amy's character is tough, but she still needed time to heal and someone to reassure her that her father's death was not her fault.
Despite my anger towards that element of the story, the book was wonderfully set out with playlists, receipts, facts about the states they were in and pictures of their travels scattered throughout the book. The places they stopped and the conversations they had were interesting, meaningful and fun. I enjoyed the writing style which makes the novel a rather quick read and it was a cute and somewhat lighthearted story which left me wanting a fun road trip buddy.
Overall, I loved this book and, while I didn't like a specific element, it was executed well so it gets full marks from me!