Book Review: The Girl from Everywhere

The Girl from Everywhere

By: Heidi Heilig

Published by: Greenwillow Books

Release date: February 16, 2016

Genre: YA fantasy

464 pages

Buy it at Amazon, IndieBound, Book Depository, or Barnes & Noble

Source: galley kindly provided by publisher

We were pleased to take part in the blog tour for this book last week! This is such a fun fantasy that plays with warping time while the main character grapples with who she is and what her place is in this world.

Nix feels like she's lived her whole life in her dead mother's shadow, since her father continuously chases a way to navigate to another place and time, where she is still alive. Her dad is leads a rag-tag group of sailors across seas and time in search of a map that will get him back to Lin's side before it all went wrong. The problem is, Nix is what went wrong; her mother died in childbirth. She wonders if her dad finds a way to get back to her mom, if she will even exist at all.


The idea of "belonging" in another time is fun to play with, but Nix doesn't really belong to any time at all- though she has learned how to blend in nearly any-time she goes. She has knowledge of conversational language, style of dress, and social conventions of nearly any time she may visit. She knows the myths and legends of most cultures, and uses that information to help herself and her ship mates. She belongs everywhere, and no where at all. Until, that is, her father gets close to the prize, and brings them all to Hawaii, where Nix was born.

One of my favorite characters was one who I despised in the beginning of the book. Joss is painted as a pretty despicable person early on. She's a criminal, preying upon others. She's deceitful. She may even be responsible for the Captain's drug habit. The last third of the book, though, shows that there's more going on with her- and I ended up liking her, despite myself.

I always enjoy unconventionally strong teen girl characters. Nix fits the bill. She's a capable sailor, an adventurer, a problem solver. She figures ways out of messes that should leave them trapped. And when it comes to matters of the heart, she isn't one to pine over a boy; she's not sure what (or who) she wants when it comes to romance, so she focuses on the task at hand rather than getting caught up in a wave of emotion that will be a dead end. 

Book 1 wraps up in a good place. There are definitely openings for a sequel, which is planned for 2017, but thankfully this isn't a cliffhanger that will drive you crazy for months on end. I'll be glad to return to The Temptation with Nix and company, and look forward to seeing what's over the horizon for them.

Summary:

It was the kind of August day that hinted at monsoons, and the year was 1774, though not for very much longer.

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.