Book: The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Published February 2016 by Greenwillow Books|464 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: The Girl From Everywhere #1

Genre: YA Historical Fiction/Fantasy

Heidi Heilig’s debut teen fantasy sweeps from modern-day New York City, to nineteenth-century Hawaii, to places of myth and legend. Sixteen-year-old Nix has sailed across the globe and through centuries aboard her time-traveling father’s ship. But when he gambles with her very existence, it all may be about to end. The Girl from Everywhere, the first of two books, blends fantasy, history, and a modern sensibility. Its witty, fast-paced dialogue, breathless adventure, multicultural cast, and enchanting romance will dazzle readers of Sabaa Tahir, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman.

Nix’s life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix’s father can sail his ship, The Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he’s uncovered the one map he’s always sought—1868 Honolulu, before Nix’s mother died in childbirth. Nix’s life—her entire existence—is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix’s future, her dreams, her adventures…her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who’s been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own.

I want to like The Girl From Everywhere so much, because it’s such a cool and interesting idea.  But it ended up because okay.

I loved the idea of being able to sail anywhere and anytime, as long as you have the map to get there.  I wanted more of that, and instead, I felt like we barely saw or the adventures that they previously had.  I get that her dad wanted to get back to Nix’s mom before her mom died giving birth to her, but I wanted more of the traveling anywhere by map. Instead, the book was mostly planning a heist.

It’s definitely a very slow story, and it definitely dragged for a good chunk of the book.  And even though I didn’t skim, my attention wandered a lot because of how bored I got when I was reading.  Pirates and time travel had the potential to be really interesting and full of adventure, and I felt like we got none of that.  I don’t mind long books (even though I don’t read long books often), but this book felt longer than it really was.

Also: I got really frustrated by the love triangle, because, from the summary, I felt like there was one clear direction the romance was going to go.  And I was wrong, so very, very wrong.  Kash definitely has a personality, and the other guy does not, because the only thing I remember about him is that he exists.

There are too many things going on in this book, and it made everything seem really confusing.  Dragons and time travel and fortune tellers and all sorts of other stuff.  I really wish Heilig had focused on a few things, and really fleshed them out.  Like the crew, and the actual time travel (which showed up a lot later than I thought) and how they manage to time travel by maps.  I can’t remember when the time travel actually shows up, but it’s at least halfway through the book.  And I don’t remember it ever being explained as anything other then if you believe it will happen, it will.  Seriously, that’s the explanation for why they can do it?  I really wanted more than that.

Things did get really confusing, and there are all of these backstories that come together in a way that doesn’t make sense.  Not only that, but there seem to be a lot of different timelines, and they too don’t come together in a way that makes sense.  I wasn’t really sure how everything tied together and where they were going or what they wanted to do.

Nix wasn’t completely flat and boring but at the same time, I could care less about her.  I feel like we know nothing about her than she’s really good with maps.  I also didn’t get her relationship with her dad: she wants to leave him, then she doesn’t, and he wants to find her mom until he seemingly doesn’t want to anymore…it was just strange to me.  And Nix…even though she’s supposedly traveled to all these different

2 stars.  The time travel didn’t make any sense and had a horrible explanation, plus, most of the book doesn’t even focus on the time travelling.  I felt like the summary described a very different book than the book we got.