So it’s been 50 million years since I’ve posted a book review… but it’s also been 75 million since I read a book to review. So. I feel like my excuses here are pretty solid.

Description:

Here are three things to know about Maia:

1. Ever since her mother left, Maia’s struggled with depression—which once got so bad, she had to go to an institution for a while. She doesn’t want to go back.

2. Maia’s sure that if she finds her mother, if the two of them can talk about whale songs and constellations, then everything will be okay again.

3. She’s in love with Billy, the handsome, brooding boy who lives in the group home in town. He doesn’t seem to know that Maia exists…until now.

When Maia sets off on a road trip in search of her mom, Billy unexpectedly comes along. They drive up the East Coast, stopping along the way for lobster rolls and lighthouses. Maia learns that Billy has dark secrets of his own—and wants to outrun his past, too. But what will the future hold if they reach their destination?

I have to be honest, this isn’t the sort of book I would normally read. The road trip part is fine and the mental health rep sounded interesting… but a girl running away in her mom’s old car with a boy she barely knows? That screams the exact type of YA unintelligence that normally makes me roll my eyes, scoff an irritated laugh, and stroll away.

But I had a big project to do, I needed something to listen to, and something about the feeling of the cover and description drew me in despite my logical protests. Long story short, I got the audiobook from the library and finished the entire 8 and a half hours in less than a week. For the record, none of that was commute time and only a little over half of it was actually spent on the project.

So yeah, I kinda loved this book. I mean, the characters are silly, Maia’s attraction to Billy is—factually speaking—borderline obsessive, and sometimes they make decisions that made me roll my eyes, scoff an irritated laugh, and think about strolling away. But at the same time, there was just something very sweet, cute, and lovable about it all. The emotions were very powerful and authentic; and the ending just made me grin from ear to ear. 

So what else is a good reviewer going to do but analyze it?

First: Strong Characters

These two definitely fit the bill for favorite characters of mine! I really loved Maia! She’s inquisitive, very much a dreamer, and her affection for Billy was almost middle-school-ish in form; the reader’s giggly way of saying his name was just adorable. In ways I cant fully explain, I felt for her and I wanted to be there with her and for her on the trip; she was the sort of girl I would love to know and travel with and befriend. Also, I thought the treatment of mental illness was quite good: it is both a constant and prevalent issue throughout the story, yet it isn’t the whole story. It’s simply a part of who she is, an influence on and an extra consideration for all of her actions, but in and of itself, it doesn’t make up her. I thought the balance of that was done well.

On Billy’s side, he was kinda broody but also very boyish and clever, and his care for Maia was just so sweet; I loved that there was a running theme of them actively trying to take care of each other and do what was actually best for the other person. Their relationship wasn’t exclusively based on instalove or even long-nursed “romantic” feelings; they were both—Billy in particular—invested in the other person’s actual wellbeing, whether or not it had anything to do with a romantic relationship.

Second: Foreshadowing

Maia is, in a sense, an unreliable narrator: given both her depression and her closeness to the situation, there are a lot of events and people in her life that she struggles to understand accurately. Me being an older reader and farther from the situation, I could clearly see the tidbits of information that the author left out for the reader to find. It presented a mystery of a different sort: not a whodunnit or a what’s the real story? But a “when will Maia discover the real story and how will it launch her into her next choices”? I thought the sprinkling of small details throughout the book was really skillful: it didn’t tell me the whole story, but it did give me a strong inclination of how this road trip might end.

Third: Reader’s Voice

Technically, this only applies if you’re doing an audiobook, but it was still a major factor for me. The writing itself actually wasn’t my favorite, but the reader’s voice was so calming and sweet, plus she really accessed that innocent-teenage-girl headspace and believably embodied the person Maia seemed be. Bonus points for changing voices whenever new characters came on the scene! Her tone switches were so clear, I didn’t even need most of the ‘said’ tags to know who was speaking!

In a print novel, this could translate to the writing itself: if the writing is engaging and the voice of the main character is strong (not necessarily sassy or dark, or any other popular descriptor. Just unique and strong), then that can also become the defining factor that keeps a reader reading when they normally would not.

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In conclusion… I don’t know that there’s anything specific you’re gonna get out of my analysis, lol. 😉 But I did find it super interesting how these three elements came together to make me adore a story I normally would have laughed at. Great characters, great plotting, and great writing just about always win out, I guess, even if the genre is a different sort.

What have you been reading lately? Any books out of your norm that you couldn’t help but fall in love with? Can’t wait to hear from you, and I will see you in the comment section!