{Audiobook} Review: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Author: Morgan Matson
Series: stand-alone
Publisher: Audible, Inc.
Publication Date: December 10, 2010
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

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.

This audiobook was flippin' adorable!  It's about love and loss and everything in between, but it still remains quirky and totally fun-filled in the process.  I adore road trip books, maybe more than any other subject matter, because they are so filled with possibilities.  You just never know what's going to happen, what catastrophe might be right around the bend or what beautiful opportunity might present itself.  Like I said, endless possibilities.

I really enjoyed the audio for this novel.  The narrator had a youthful voice but her narration didn't come off as childish.  At times she sounded heartbroken and sad as the story took a darker turn than I was expecting, but she seemed to have grown into this part, as if she had been through the traumatic events that Amy had survived.  Her portrayal of the other characters was well done, too, even the Southern accent she gave to Lucian.  It seemed appropriate, considering his Southern gentlemanly ways.  I had a great time listening to this audiobook.  However, after browsing the inside on Amazon, I really want my own hard copy because of all of the little trip "goodies" -- diner menus, notes, email conversations, etc. -- included.  Those trinkets make a good road trip book that much better.

There weren't a lot of characters to sort through in this story since it basically follows Amy and Roger's trip to Connecticut from California.  But what the book lacks in characters, it makes up for in actual character growth.  I love how these two kids were thrown together, practically strangers, and expected to drive across the country.  Amy starts out rather sullen about the whole thing, and Roger seems indifferent to the situation.  But I think if it hadn't been for Roger's re-entrance into Amy's life, she might have continued to isolate herself from the world and convinced herself she could never be happy again after her devastating loss.  And she wouldn't have realized just how much the family she had left needed her.

As I said, this is a road trip book, which means tons of fun little mini-adventures along the way.  Worrying about bear attacks in Yosemite, sleeping in the car in a Wal-mart parking lot, and running out of money along the way are all viable concerns.  But there's also the chance to meet new people, try new foods, and fall in and out of love.  I love road trip books almost as much as I love road trips!  There were moments that I found almost unbelievable -- really, there are people who've never tried sweet tea, let alone heard of it? -- and moments that I found too powerful or too beautiful for words.  But it was always an adventure, and I was sorry to see it end.  I'd like to meet up with these two again in the future.

Cute, thought-provoking, and fun, I'd recommend Amy & Roger's Epic Detour to fans of Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist and Dash & Lily's Book of Dares.  And if you haven't read those yet, well, I'd definitely recommend them, too.

Rating:  

Favorite Quotes:

“Tomorrow will be better.”
“But what if it’s not?” I asked.
“Then you say it again tomorrow. Because it might be. You never know, right? At some point, tomorrow will be better.”

“The best discoveries always happened to the people who weren't looking for them. Columbus and America. Pinzón who stumbled on Brazil while looking for the West Indies. Stanley happening on Victoria Falls. And you. Amy Curry when I was least expecting her.”

“I’d found out that when you’re never going to see someone again, it’s not the good-bye that matters. What matters is that you’re never going to be able to say anything else to them, and you’re left with an eternal unfinished conversation.”

“It was like there was an elephant in the room. An elephant that expected us to have sex.”  *snickers*