Title: Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour
Author: Morgan Matson
Narrator: Suzy Jackson
Source: purchased from Audible
Publish date: May 4th 2010 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Buy it from: Amazon
Goodreads summary:
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.
Review:
I listened to all the people who DEMANDED I read Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by taking advantage of the two free Audible books that I got this year. And guess what I learned?
Morgan Matson is extremely skilled in the art of MAKING ME CRY.
Because so many people recommended it to me, I didn’t bother looking up a summary of the plot before diving in. I thought that I was simply in for a fun, roadtrip-filled ROMP.
And while there was lots of romp-like fun to be had, what I didn’t count on was that Amy would go on such a personal journey as she and Roger made their way across the country. She finds her way back to herself and the mother and brother she’s grown increasingly distant from in the wake of her dad’s death, which she blames herself for.
She also finds her way to Roger.
Coincidentally, Morgan Matson is also extremely skilled in the art of making me swoon.
You guys… just. Roger. I recall feeling similarly about Second Chance Summer‘s Henry, but these are just… such nice boys. Cute nice boys. Nice boys who are cute. And funny. So hard to find and even if he wasn’t being particularly “romantic” with Amy during most of the novel, they had such chemistry and he was so sweet and damaged in his own little way that I… well, I swooned.
Audio:
Initially, I felt very ‘meh’ about the audio, but I totally warmed up to Suzy Jackson as the voice of Amy. She didn’t do special “voices” like I’ve come to expect from other audiobooks, but her voice had all of the emotion that Amy felt in it. It was like Amy was really telling me her story. I know that if I ever reread the book in textual form, I’ll hear Jackson’s voice in my head because she was so very Amy.
To sum up: Though I can recommend the audiobook version without any reservations, mostly I just recommend that you read this book in whatever format you prefer. As long as you read it.
