A time travel book with a vivid setting but at times confusing | The Girl from Everywhere

The Girl from Everywhere (The Girl from Everywhere #1) by Heidi Heilig

Published: February 16th 2016 by Greenwillow Books

Genre: young adult, historical, time travel

Goodreads summary: Nix has spent her entire life aboard her father’s ship, sailing across the centuries, across the world, across myth and imagination.

As long as her father has a map for it, he can sail to any time, any place, real or imagined: nineteenth-century China, the land from One Thousand and One Nights, a mythic version of Africa. Along the way they have found crewmates and friends, and even a disarming thief who could come to mean much more to Nix.

But the end to it all looms closer every day.

Her father is obsessed with obtaining the one map, 1868 Honolulu, that could take him back to his lost love, Nix’s mother. Even though getting it—and going there—could erase Nix’s very existence.

For the first time, Nix is entering unknown waters.

She could find herself, find her family, find her own fantastical ability, her own epic love.

Or she could disappear.

REVIEW

I was anticipating so many debuts this year, and of course, The Girl from Everywhere was one of them, because it included so many elements I usually love in books, such as ships, maps and exotic places.

I think that in the time travel subgenre, this book was quite unique (at least compared to the others I read), because the characters were relying on maps to time travel, and not their unique abilities, which is the case most of the time. Also, they were time traveling on a ship, so it gets bonus points for that reason. However, I would have liked to see more of the time travel? In the beginning we saw it a little and then they stayed at the same place for a <b>looooong</b> time (like, the whole book). But, I liked how everything was intertwined, how everyone's actions had consequences on everyone else's lives. For example, Nix practically helped her mother to exist, like wuuuut?

The plot was interesting, but I think it dragged a little in the middle and that's why it took me three days to read it, when I'm on summer break. I don’t think I was completely immerged into it. I liked the story, but the pacing felt a bit off at times... And I would have liked more action scenes here and then. Furthermore, sometimes it got a little too confusing for my tastes, I had <b>no idea</b> what was going on. I still liked the plot though, because it was about a heist so it was quite fun, and there was a party at some point! The ending was totally open, I don't really know what will happen next, but I'll definitely be reading it.

I loved the setting of this book, I had never read a book set in Hawaii before and I was so excited about it. I feel like the author totally grasped the atmosphere of this place, the descriptions were pretty vivid and I could feel like I was there. Moreover, this book was full of myths, some of them being about Hawaii, some others about other places, and I really liked learning about them.

This book had a cast of diverse characters, Nix being half-Chinese and Kashmir being Persian. By the way, I'm just going to scream for one second: when Kashmir spoke French, it was accurate! I could have said these sentences myself! It's like... The third time it happened in a book written by an American author, so <b>I am pleased</b>. The author totally did her job when using foreign languages. While I liked the characters, especially the main ones, I found that some members of the crew were pretty unmemorable, as I wasn't able to distinguish them for one another for the whole book.

I wasn't entirely sold on the romance in this one, I didn't have <b>the feels</b> and there's a possible love triangle coming? Um, I don't want that... Nevertheless, this book explored relationships, which I really liked, especially Nix and her father's. In the beginning, I hadn't actually understood she was Slate's daughter, because she didn't call him her father, so I was a little confused, but it was because their relationship was so complicated. He basically kind of wanted to erase her entire life, just to be with her mother again. I could understand his motives, but it was still selfish and he took such a long time to understand it. Still, in the end, this book was more about their relationship, which I really liked.

Overall, it was a good debut, but I never completely emerged myself into the story, because I expected more from it. The setting and some elements of the plot definitely made up for it though. I liked the main characters, forgot about the secondary ones every two pages and wasn’t sold out on the romance, but I really enjoyed this book anyway. I’m excited for the next one, especially because we’ll have more time traveling, but I have no idea what will be the plot, this one could definitely be a standalone.

Have you read The Girl from Everywhere yet? What did you think of it? Do you love time travel books? 

A huge disappointment set in one of my favourite eras | Into the Dim

Into the Dim (Into the Dim #1) by Janet B. Taylor

Published: March 1st 2016 by HMH Books for Young Readers

Genre: young adult, time travel, historical

Goodreads summary: Sixteen year-old Hope Walton travels back in time to rescue her mother who is trapped in twelfth century England in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Along the way, she becomes entangled with a secret society of time travelers and a mysterious boy who could be vital to setting her mother free... or the key to Hope's undoing. Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail, "Into the Dim" is an "Outlander "for teens

REVIEW
 

I've never been sadder to write a negative review than for Into the Dim.* It was one of my most anticipated debuts of the year, because it dealt with time travel in the 12th century, which doesn't happen enough in young adult fiction. I feel like a black sheep for this one, because those who finished it seemed to really enjoyed it. For me, it was just a succession of tropes I thought had been eradicated from young adult fiction for the last four years or so. It had started well though, with a catchy first sentence. I can't tell you if it's similar to Outlander, for I haven't read it and don't intend to.

*To make this review happier, all the gifs will be from Harry Potter. Obviously because this book was set in Scotland and because you won't leave since you love Harry Potter, mwahaha.

This couldn't be more cliché. It starts with a homeschooled girl who travels to Scotland to discover mysterious family members and their big secret. the secret part is the beginning of a lot of books, which is fine, but it dragged for so long. They didn't tell Hope the truth before 20-25% in. She was stumbling into things but they were like: "No, we can't tell her right now" for so many chapters, it was frustrating. Then, when they finally told her the truth... It still took a lot of chapters for them to time travel. As a reader, knowing this book was about time travel but not having it was irritating, because I was just waiting. 

When the characters finally arrived in the 12th century, the plot was more interesting, because we discovered a new era and the book had found its purpose. Nevertheless, I had guessed every twist from the beginning of the novel, I found it to be so predictable. I was never left shocked or anything, I was just rolling my eyes and telling the characters to move on. Also, I really liked the concept of this time travel, it was really interesting and felt realistic.

I couldn't bring myself to care about Hope. For me, she was just another Bella Swan, helpless but yet very special from the rest of the world. I thought we were done with that trope but apparently no? I just wanted to cry in frustration. The only cool thing about Hope was her eidetic memory, but that's pretty much it. 

I didn't relate or care for any of the characters, I think the only pleasant ones were Phoebe, Rachel and Eleanor. Hope's father was described as a despicable person in the beginning, because he had already moved on and was just sending Hope away and blah blah blah. Moreover, Sarah was supposed to be a fantastic person and when we met her... She was not. I could understand why, but it was stupid. It was just part of this : "let's make parents look bad so the teenage characters can do whatever they want"... And I'm so done with that.

The romance was cringe-worthy and unrealistic. I'll just tell you how these characters me: the boy was taking pictures of the girl from afar, of course she caught him. But of course, she's attracted right away to him and accept to see him again. Excuse me but no? Who would accept to see this stranger alone after that in real life? Literally no one, he could have been a pervert and Hope was like "okay I'm attracted". No, just no. 

The ending was a little more fast-paced than the rest of the book, so I liked it a little more than the rest of it... But it clearly wasn't enough, since I guessed every twist correctly. I liked that it was harder than expected for them to get home. However, the final scene? Can we get more cheesy? I think not. It just ended on the characters kissing. Like, no.

Overall, this wasn't the book for me, which made me so sad, since I tried so hard to like it, but sometimes that's how it is. I found this book to be predictable and full of tropes, which you probably got from my long rant, haha. Nevertheless, I liked the concept of the time travel and the era they travelled to... Which is why I'm giving it two stars, let's be generous. But it's pretty much because of the Doctor Who reference.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? Do you love Outlander?

A beautiful book on the outside and the inside | The Love That Split the World

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Published: January 26th 2016 by Razorbill
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Time Travel

Goodreads summary: Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

REVIEW

This cover is gorgeous, just for that, you need to read this book, because it'll be so pretty on your shelf. JUST KIDDING. However, a little warning for you: don't get into it all excited for the time travel aspect, because this book was mostly contemporary. I didn't think it would be like that, so it disappointed me, but actually it's my own fault!

THINGS THAT I LOVED

Native Americans' stories

I had no idea it was part of the book, it took me completely by surprised, but I loved it, it opened me to a culture I don't know a lot about. Moreover, who doesn't like to hear a story? It always reminds me of when I was little. These stories had a point, because the more we progressed into the story, the more Natalie understood they were true.

An amazing main character 

As you know, there is this huge movement about diversity in YA books, and this book was right into this path. Natalie was Native American and adopted. Even if she doesn't admit it straight away, she felt like she couldn't be fully understood, because she's from a different culture (she googles Native American reserves at some point and it freaked me out) and she doesn't know her biological family. At the same time, she loves her family more than anything, it was such an important issue, I loved it!

Moreover, Natalie was a smart girl I really enjoyed to read about, she had a purpose and was planning to go to Brown (!!). She was also a feminist and stood for herself and other women. At some point, a really bad thing almost happened to her and I found it was so important that the author choose to talk about it, without saying it was her fault. It's the kind of speech I want to hear more! Oh and you know what? Romance wasn't her priority. At all. She just wanted to get out of where she lived. But it still happened.

A cute romance

Okay, it felt a little instalove-y, but I really enjoyed the relationship between Beau and Natalie. They also made me cry twice, so there's that. I got their ending completely wrong by the way, I thought it would be like The Amber Spyglass by Philipp Pullman and I was preparing myself to suffer SO HARD. I was completely wrong about the ending, which I liked, but I still suffered SO HARD. Have a box of tissues with you while you're reading this. Oh and also: both characters love arts, it's the piano for Beau and dancing for Natalie.

Beautiful writing

I didn't feel like it was a debut novel while I was reading it, because it felt like Emily Henry knew what she was doing. Because of the stories Grandmother was telling Natalie, this book started of as really poetic and Henry managed to keep that up during the entire book. The Love That Split the World was, because of that, a book I wanted to read really slowly to enjoy every word. 

Important issues

This book is mostly a contemporary and dealt with a lot of important issues like:
- The danger of drinking
- Finding who you are
- Sexual consent
- Feminism

Because I didn't know it would be mostly contemporary, I had no idea it would talk about all these important subjects, so yay book!

THINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

The world building

In the beginning, the characters have no clues about what it's going on. Of course, Natalie tries to gather up information during the whole book, which for example leads her to meet Alice. At first, I was eager to discover information along with Natalie, but at some point, I got tired of it. Of course, we understand glimpses of what is happening, but EVERYTHING is revealed at the end in ONE conversation. The explanation felt realistic enough but I didn't care anymore, because it took too long to come.

The pacing

That was the big issue of this book. It started a little slow, mostly because of my problem is the world-building, and it rushed to finish. Like I said, everything was explained in one conversation and then in the last chapter something big happens and then THE END. It was rather brutal and I didn't like this "pacing".

Overall, this was a beautiful book I loved to read, but don't expect a lot of time travel, no matter what this book is shelved on Goodreads. It dealt with important issues and made me cry so hard. I still had issues with the pacing, but it was minor, because I still kept reading until the last page.

Have you read this book or are you planning to do it? What do you think of the cover? Do you have time travel books to recommend?

A long wait for an incredible world-building and adventure | Passenger

Passenger (Passenger #1) by Alexandra Bracken

Published: January 5th 2016 by Disney Hyperion

Genre: Young Adult, Time Travel

Goodreads summary: passage, n.

i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.

ii. A journey by water; a voyage.

iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever

REVIEW

There was a lot of hype around this book and like many of us, I was anticipating this book like a crazy person, since I first heard of it when it didn't even have a synopsis, and hadn't read the Darkest Minds trilogy yet. I was scared I wasn't going to love it, because it wouldn't be as good as what I expected, but I was wrong, even though I had a few issues with the book.

THE PLOT

So, let's start with what bothered me throughout this book… The pacing. This book had one of the most uneven pacing ever and it irritated me. At first, I thought the story would move forward very quickly, because we stayed in modern day New York for one chapter before Etta travelled for the first time and went to 1776. I thought that after that, we would have some big revelations and then her adventure would start. Alas, I was wrong.

In fact, we stayed in 1776 until page 200 I believe? At first, Etta was on the ship -where she met Nicholas- and if you know me, I love when books involve ships. It's like, my favourite thing ever. I wasn't disappointed, being on a ship was so amazing, really. But I felt like they stayed too long on there, and then in New York. I thought we would get more time traveling during those first two hundred pages, but nope. Also, because there is a ship on the cover, I wanted to get back into the ship after, but that wasn't possible. I NEEEEEEED SHIPS, OKAY?

I totally understand why this book took its time, don't get me wrong, guys. While Etta was on the ship, she still learned a lot about time travelling, but her knowledge was also completed by Cyrus Ironwood, the villain of this story. But actually, the fact that his name is Ironwood makes him a villain because "iron"? It sounds creepy, right? Anyway, Etta starts to learn a lot more about her family past and it was really interesting, and then, she's sent on a scavenger hunt to find an object. That aspect reminded me so much of the quest in Percy Jackson, because she even had a deadline, it was kind of funny. Well, not for her, but for me.

When Etta and Nicholas finally started their quest, the book moved so much faster and I couldn't help but turn pages and read as fast as I could, because I needed to know what was happening.

THE WORLD BUILDING

It was an AMAZING part of this book. First of all, Bracken managed to make the concept of time travel easy to follow and realistic. Sometimes, it feels so complicated and is really oriented toward science-fiction, but it wasn't the case at all! I didn't get a headache after the explanation, that's a good point!

Moreover, getting into different cities and time periods was AMAZING. I totally thought the author had done her research, because it actually felt like I was there and I was so excited to discover each location through the characters' eyes. However, I'm sad we only saw some locations only during one chapter -like Angkor- when we went to other locations for a hundred pages. It's an issue that relates to the pacing, I wished we had seen more of those places and less of others, like the long beginning in 1776.

I enjoyed the 'hierarchy' in this world. At first, the travellers were four different families but because of conflicts, Ironwood is the only one remaining and they basically rule the world. The fact it was organized behind a patriarch and that the travellers have to go back to his time reminded me SO MUCH of the Ruby Red trilogy, which I loved. Moreover, there is also a "rebellious" group, the Thorns, and I can't wait to learn more about them, because they were almost just mentioned in this book.

THE CHARACTERS

In The Darkest Minds, the story was told through Ruby's point of view and was written in first person. Here, the author choose to do something different, indeed we had the points of view of both Etta and Nicholas. I thought it worked so well, because being of two different time periods, they didn't have the same views, it was interesting. However, because she writes long chapters, sometimes I just wanted to continue being in the head of the same character and didn't want to wait thirty pages for that.

 I was really interested in having Nicholas' perspective, because he had to get through so many things, because he was a person of colour. I found it really important that Bracken talked about those issues, because in each time period he travelled to… He was judged because of his skin colour and well, it was the time were slavery was common *sigh*. Of course, as a person of the 21th century, it was infuriating and Etta was so mad about it (that scene on the ship was hilarious)! I really liked that Bracken took the time to talk about this issue, because it's not completely resolved today either… But I just want Nicholas to settle down in the 21th century so it'll be way better for him.

I enjoyed both main characters, but I wished we had more secondary characters. In TDM, the secondary characters made the story so much better, but here, it was missing. Some of the characters we saw on the ship were really interesting and I wished I could have gotten to know them more.

THE ROMANCE

Some people might say it was a little instalove-y… And I won't deny it, tbh. But, the fact that we had both characters' perspective made it so much more buyable. From the beginning, those characters had some swoony-worthy moments and I couldn't help but ship them together. It was also a really interesting relationship, because Nicholas was from the 18th century while Etta was from the 21th and it doesn't work the same way. Like, Nicholas was so worried about Etta's reputation, that was fun! I had so many feels about this ship, so really, I don't even care if it had instalove. Those ones are definitely OTP!

THE ENDING

The ending was so fast-paced and full of emotions, this book deserved to be a 4.5 stars just because of that. It's funny how an ending can totally change my view on a book. While I was reading the last chapters, I couldn't stop reading because EVERYTHING was happening. When I finished chapter 21 I was so upset! Luckily there was chapter 22 who offered a little bit more of a closure, it totally felt like the characters were trying to plot something but well… We'll see… It ended on a BIG cliff-hanger, but Bracken is a queen at doing that, so who is even surprised? Seriously, I need Wayfarer NOW.

CONCLUSION

This book took some time to start, but once it picked up, it was a gripping read until the very last pages, which ended on a cliff-hanger (I. NEED. MORE). The world-building was well-detailed, which made me feel like I was in those places with the characters. Speaking of which, our two main characters were really interesting and had a lot of chemistry, as well as a swoony-worthy romance, even though her relationship progressed a little bit too quickly. I wished we had seen more of the secondary characters, but I think it'll happen in the next one. Basically, this book is a must-read, even if I had some issues with it.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?