The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
Pages: 343
Publish date: April 27 2016
Publisher: Hot Key Books
ISBN: 1471405109
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks
Sixteen-year-old Nix Song is a time-traveller. She, her father and their crew of time refugees travel the world aboard The Temptation, a glorious pirate ship stuffed with treasures both typical and mythical. Old maps allow Nix and her father to navigate not just to distant lands, but distant times – although a map will only take you somewhere once. And Nix’s father is only interested in one time, and one place: Honolulu 1868. A time before Nix was born, and her mother was alive. Something that puts Nix’s existence rather dangerously in question…
Nix has grown used to her father’s obsession, but only because she’s convinced it can’t work. But then a map falls into her father’s lap that changes everything. And when Nix refuses to help, her father threatens to maroon Kashmir, her only friend (and perhaps, only love) in a time where Nix will never be able to find him. And if Nix has learned one thing, it’s that losing the person you love is a torment that no one can withstand. Nix must work out what she wants, who she is, and where she really belongs before time runs out on her forever.
The Girl From Everywhere:
I received a free copy of The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig from Hot Key Books in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.
I heard quite a bit of conflicting thoughts about this one, some people didn’t like it, and some loved it. It’s one of those books that you just need to pick up and make the decision yourself. In saying all this, I truly did love The Girl from Everywhere and I am so excited to read more.
The Girl from Everywhere follows protagonist Nix Song as along her father and his crew time travel around the world. They are all aboard The Temptation, a pirate ship that is filled with treasures from all around the world, from all different times.
First, I adored the world of this book. Time travelling on a ship, through maps; yes please. I was just so intrigued and that alone kept me wanting to know more. I thought that the world building was well written and didn’t give everything away, but just enough that we had an idea of how the world worked.
The thing is that you can only travel through a map once and Nix’s father only wants to go to one place; Honolulu 1868. Where Nix’s mother is alive and she doesn’t exist. But no one knows what would happen if they go.
I enjoy Nix as a protagonist in The Girl from Everywhere. She was easy to get along with and I sometimes laughed at her naivety, because it got her into situations that were entertaining. I loved her characterisation and seeing her grow throughout the novel. She is quite strong at the start, but she learns how to stand up for herself and the people that she loves.
I loved the dynamic of all the characters and how they interacted with each other. The banter was perfect and I could read scenes with just the characters talking and bouncing off each other.
Though I loved a lot of the character’s I wasn’t the biggest fan of Nix’s father, but I didn’t hate him. He has his reasons for what he wanted to do and he was too blinded by love, grief and even guilt to think any other way. However, we also see him grow through the novel. We see him realise things that he didn’t know or what to believe before and that was nice to see.
Another problem that I had with Nix’s father is that he is referred as different names throughout the novel by Nix herself. Sometimes she calls him father and other times by his name and this confused me a little.
The romance wasn’t my favourite thing in The Girl from Everywhere. I am not a massive fan of love triangles, like I hate them most of the time. But it was different in The Girl from Everywhere. It was a love triangle of sorts –ish. It is hard to explain. I didn’t hate it, but then again, I didn’t love it.
Kash was my favourite character after Nix. He’s just so loveable and I want to give him a big hug. He was full of sass and banter, and made light of situations, but was also good to have a talk with. The friendship that he has with Nix was truly nice to see and yes, you do end up shipping them eventually, but I loved that we got to see a friendship first.
One of my favourite things about The Girl from Everywhere is that it’s set in Hawaii. I love that place to bits and I am so intrigued and interested in its history, that this was just perfect to read.
The Girl from Everywhere is also hella diverse. I LOVED it. It was so great to see such a diverse cast that were intriguing, fun to read about and didn’t slip into stereotypes.
There were some parts that did drag and I may have gotten a little bored, but overall it was an entertaining and fun read.
Overall The Girl from Everywhere is about friendship, family and love, about what would you do for those that mean so much to you, and that sometimes you have to give up one thing for another.
Have you read The Girl from Everywhere? Did you like it? Are you going to read it? Let’s Chat.
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