Birdie's Books: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Published: Simon & Schuster, May 4th, 2010
Pages: 392
Source: Purchased, paperback
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 4/5 (90%)

How I Felt: This was such a good book, but it followed in typical contemporary style; personally I feel like the book needed three more chapters at least. Although I did love the progression of the story, and the development of the characters. I loved how Amy really grew into herself throughout the course of the book, I was so worried because she was so sad all the time; which of course is understandable, I also felt bad for her because she didn't really have anyone to talk to about what happened since her mother and brother started ignoring her. My favourite character would have to be Bronwyn because she was nice and helpful toward Amy from the moment they met and I knew since we were told she had clothes everywhere that should would give a lot to Amy. Amy's reunion with Charlie was so touching, I was waiting the whole time for them to start talking again so I was really happy when they finally did. I would've liked to see her have a conversation with her mom when she finally made it to the house in Connecticut, and have some sort of closure with her before the book ended, because I feel like that aspect was left open-ended. The addition of pictures and receipts in this book was really interesting and cool, it really added to the story and gave readers a better understanding of the character's surroundings, and it was overall just a fun thing to see because they were so unique. The way the flash backs were incorporated really helped to give a better understanding of what happened in Amy's family, and it gave a much better explanation than if we were to have Amy just talk about it in the present. I didn't give this book 5 stars because again I feel like it ended too soon, and also I kept coming across a lot of common descriptions that are in a lot of other books that made this book feel repetitive at times, and for me, took away from some of the uniqueness of the story. (i.e.: "I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding" or "We were so close I just had to turn my head and we would kiss".) Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was a great story told in a very interesting way. As a whole I very much enjoyed Morgan's writing style and I'm interested to read her other books. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a good road trip!

Favourite 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.”
“Saying good-bye is basically an invitation not to see a person again. It's making it okay for that to be the last conversation you have. So if you don't say it--if you leave the conversation open--it means you'll have to see them again."
“It’s not about the destination. It’s getting there that’s the good part."
“You've got to have pride in your home. You are where you're from. Otherwise, you're always going to be lost.”
“If you like everything, that’s basically just saying that you don’t really like anything.”
“Ad astra per aspera, to the stars through adversity”
“He told me that if you yelled out "JAMBA!" at full volume, all the employees would yell back "JUICE!" He lied.”