Amy & Roger's Epic Detour [Hardcover]

Morgan Matson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 4, 2010

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—After Amy's father dies in a car crash, everything that this California girl took for granted changes overnight. Her twin brother Charlie is shipped off to rehab in North Carolina. Her mother accepts a teaching position in Connecticut, leaving Amy home alone to finish her junior year of high school. Then her mom arranges to get Amy to Connecticut via a cross-country drive with a family friend, 19-year-old Roger. The pair quickly ditches the pre-planned itinerary in favor of more spontaneous detours to Yosemite, Colorado, and Graceland. Amy's mother is predictably furious and cuts off her credit card, leaving the teens on a shoestring budget. Along the way Amy gradually opens up to Roger about her father's accident and her repressed feelings about it. During a stop in Louisville, Roger finds closure with the girl who recently dumped him, leaving him available for a relationship with Amy. The theme of her emotional journey meshes well with the realistically rendered physical journey across the U.S. Playlists, pages from a travel scrapbook, well-drawn supporting characters, and unique regional details enhance the narrative. Flashback chapters shed light on Amy's life before her father's death, without breaking the steady pacing. One sexual situation is discreetly described. Overall, this is an emotionally rewarding road novel with a satisfying, if not totally surprising, conclusion. It's similar in theme and tone to Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever (Viking, 2004).—Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA
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Review

"The narrative keeps its momentum even through flashbacks that gradually reveal more about Amy’s family tragedy and interspersed pages from Amy’s travel scrapbook, which includes jotted state overviews, souvenir menus, and long, keenly apt music playlists that’ll send readers off to downloading. If all road trips were like this, nobody’d ever stay home."--Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books

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Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (May 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416990658
• ISBN-13: 978-1416990659
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Debut May 2, 2010

By Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf

Format:Hardcover

I don't know about you but I love debut novels. One of the main reasons why I do is because you seriously do not know what to expect, unlike, say, picking a novel up by one of your favorite authors. They can rock your socks and make you have a new favorite author or you can end up detesting the book and have an author you're not too sure about. Though either way you still get a taste of something new and exciting. Thankfully, Amy & Roger's Epic Detour was one of the former of those two ways debut novels can go because, quite honestly, it was outright amazing in a way that I loved.

This book was sweet, funny, touching, and, well, basically all the positive adjectives out there, which made this one book I could not get enough of and sure many others will feel the same exact way!

In the start of Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, I wasn't too found of Amy. I didn't like how closed off she was from the world around her and how awkward she was around others. I mean I understand why she was that way, I would be too if I was her, but it just bothered me a bit. Though as the novel progressed she began to be a better improved version of her prior self as she made amends with her past, learning how to move on yet remember, and shinned in result, leaving her to become someone I truly cared about. Adding to this, I adored Roger! He was swoon-worthy in a way that only literary male characters can be and I loved how he ended up being one of the main people along the trip who made Amy come out of her shell. While the minor characters parts were small, they still ended up leaving a big punch and made you wish that they had page space a bit longer than what they did.

As you can probably tell from the title, cover, and summary, road trips, one in particular, played a huge part in this novel and boy did I love that part. Since through Amy's POV and travel notes, you get to feel like you're also part of the road trip along with her and Roger as they go through state after state facing drama and romance along the way. Lastly I loved the fact that there was bits and pieces of different state's history throughout.

And how I loved the ending, even though I hated to see this one end, since it gave you true hope of what's to come for the characters down the road and left me with one big smile on my face!

In all, Amy & Roger's Epic Detour is a debut that you shouldn't miss for anything! Though, word of warning, you'll be dying to go on a road trip along with someone as adorable as Roger when your'e done like I am now.

Grade: A+

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book NOW! July 20, 2010

By Katie Dahlberg

Format:Hardcover

Oh gosh, how do I even sum up my love for this book with words? To start off with, I wasn't expecting it. A book about a road trip? How exciting and enthralling could that possibly be? But it completely took me by surprise and left me flabbergasted when I found that putting it down was nearly impossible.

Amy's character is closed-off and quiet, while Roger is a bit more outgoing and boisterous. The first few chapters of the road trip are a bit awkward, but instead of their personalities clashing, they start to rely on each other. After that, the relationship that forms is one that will be on a lot of my favorite lists for a long time. Roger is funny and Amy is sarcastic, and I loved every second of it.

Another thing I absolutely loved was the visuals. Several pages of the book are devoted to flyers, schedules, emails, purchases/lodgings receipts and pictures of the places that they visit. It also included hand-written pages of Amy & Roger's road trip play-lists, which featured hilarious doodles from Roger. The book still would've been amazing without it, but I thought it was incredibly neat to actually see what we were reading and I hope more novels take notice! (At first, I thought somebody actually drawn Roger's doodles into my copy before sending it to me!)

Overall, I thought this book was fantastic. Cracked into my top ten favorite list, even! Amy's slow but progressing reveal of her past and Roger's determination for his uncertain future with his ex-girlfriend makes for a great adventure that will evoke so many emotions. I definitely recommend this to anyone and everyone.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, engrossing and philosophical novel June 22, 2010

By Megan Snider VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Morgan Matson's AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR is an engaging, touching and ultimately hopeful novel centering around one broken girl and the adventure that begins to heal her. On par with Justina Chen Headley's NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL, one of my favorite young adult novels, this DETOUR was a welcome respite from mundane plots and static characters that can plague contemporary fiction.

There isn't too much to dislike in a fast-paced, engrossing novel like this. Amy's growth from cover to cover is astounding, culminating in all of the daring experiences she wouldn't have even thought of attempting months before. Watching the progression of her feelings for Roger was really sweet and powerful, and it was just as clear that Roger's affection was mutual.

At the heart of the novel is the road trip itself -- unpredictable, wild. While Amy's mom had carefully planned the entire journey from start to finish, complete with hotel reservations, Amy and Roger leap wildly off the path from the start. I loved reading about places I've visited through the eyes of our travelers, relishing in all the funny anecdotes (like having to stuff food or anything attractive to bears in a bear locker while camping at Yosemite) and new friendships. Roger exposes Amy to a whole world -- a world outside herself -- and gently tugs her from the cell of her grief. While sometimes I wanted to shake Amy, screaming that her dad's death was not her fault, I greatly empathized with her. The trip was what she needed to escape, grow and heal.

Multi-layered and boasting a cast of memorable characters, even on the periphery, AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR provided plenty of entertainment while still getting me to hastily wipe tears from my eyes. The incorporation of "real" photos from the trip -- scrapbook pages, receipts, itineraries, Roger's playlists -- added another dimension of the story that really made me feel like I, too, had gone on a trip. And by the time I closed the last page, I didn't want it to end.

Fans of young adult and realistic fiction will enjoy this fresh look at family and love, life and death, and find plenty of humorous moments to balance out the serious, often philosophical tone of the book. Not your average "road trip" novel -- and that's what I loved most about it. Don't hesitate to pick this one up -- especially not with a cover that gorgeous.