This review contains absolutely NO spoilers – read without fear!
“I’m not a big fantasy reader”: here’s what I probably would have told you if you asked me a little while ago. But since blogging came around, I got out of my comfort zone and fell more and more in love with fantasy, imaginative worlds and so on. The Girl From Everywhere definitely enters that category and unfortunately, I haven’t been hearing too much about this book – maybe it’s because it was released a year ago, so a lifetime in bookworms’ opinions at times, I’m not sure. ANYHOW, I’m here today to tell you that I really liked this book, for many reasons.
The amazing, well-developed concept of time travel, pirate ships and Hawaii in the 1800’s.
One of the strongest suits of The Girl From Everywhere most definitely is, for me, the idea behind it all: time traveling with a ship, using a map as their only compass, across the oceans, across the world, across times and places where myths come alive. Everything behind this idea is brilliant and I really enjoyed it.
If I thought that most of the action would be set on this great ship, their means of transportation, home to the crew of characters we meet, though, I was wrong. If they travel, the action is mostly set in Hawaii in the 1800’s, and the author manages to make you travel and crave for more in this little island, with vivid descriptions and building of the forests, the people, the little streets and everything.
Diverse and interesting cast of characters
Another thing to gush about in The Girl From Everywhere is this amazing cast of characters we get to meet as we read on. As they travel through time, Nix, the main character, and her father, captain of this crazy ship, picked up some amazing companions along the way. They are from all around the globe and from different times as well: the main character is half-Chinese, Kash is Persian, there were also African and Polynesian characters and more. I really liked how there was a diverse background to each of the characters and how it was used in the story, with Kash speaking his mother tongue – and even others at times. I really liked how unique and vivid every character felt to me, with their own quirks and ways of seeing life around her – from this ship mate Bee, seeing the ghost of her wife Ayen, because she believes in that in her own culture ; to Kash with his very own way of seeing the world with his thief habits and everything.
Interesting and complex relationships, never black or white
“Sometimes a person has to let go of something to take hold of something else. You always have to choose what’s more important.”
The different ties between the characters never felt black or white: they were all nuanced interestingly. Take Nix and her father: they don’t seem to get along at all when the book starts, but as it goes on, we find out some heartwarming moments and discover that there is more to the relationship that these first moments when they seem to basically hate each other (at least, that’s the impression I got). They have a complex relationship for sure that would deserve to be explored a bit more but still is very good to read.
“I should have guessed Kashmir would become a nuisance. And a bad influence. But most importantly, a friend.”
Take now Nix and Kash, a.k.a. my favorite pair of it all: friendship above everything, but you definitely see some other things growing between them as the story goes on…and as Nix meets and spends more time with another guy, Blake. I hear you screaming love triangle! why romance when we want ships and travel and adventure! already, but I thought that this whole romantic aspect of the relationships in the books was done very lightly – the drama, and the main focus of the story always remains on adventure, the heist, that map they want to find to time travel to a particular place and so on. Definitely interesting and complex relationships, but overall, that book was an adventure. Kind of a slow-paced one, I’ll admit it, but still very beautiful.
Also, if you need one more reason here to try and read this book, let me leave you with this quote and the overall awesomeness of one of my favorite characters here, Kash.
“You’re blocking the view.”
“I am the view, amira,” he said, framing himself with his hands.
Final rating: 4 drops!
Do you want to read The Girl From Everywhere? Did you read it and if so, did you enjoy it?
Do you like time traveling stories? Share your thoughts in comments!
Heidi Heilig, The Girl From Everywhere, Published by Hot Key Books, March 3rd 2016.
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.
Love the cover!
Right? It’s sooo pretty!
I love that paperback cover! I wish they stuck with it for the second book. I’m definitely gonna pick it up again sooner. Fantastic review!
Right? It’s so pretty, I love it 🙂 I hope you’ll read it and love it. Thank you so much!
Why have I never heard of this book?!! Thank you so much for blogging about this. I need to pick this up yesterday.
Ohh you’re so welcome, I’m so glad I made you want to pick up this book. Hope you’ll love it 😀
Funny how our tastes evolve and we are drawn to read more from a genre we weren’t that interested about, eh? Loved your review! This book sounds so good for a nice escape from life!
Right? It’s so great though – I’m so happy to have discovered so many different books 🙂 Thank you so much my Sweechie! <3
That book sounds great! I completely forgot that I added it to my TBR a couple months back, but you just re-kindled the flame!
Ohh that makes me so happy! I hope you’ll be able to read it soon and love, Bridget! 🙂
I can’t believe I haven’t read this book yet but now I am more excited to read it! Loved your review! <3
Ohh thank you so much, Poulami! Hope you’ll read it soon 😀
Great review for this book Marie 😀 and oh I am so so glad you enjoyed this one. <3 The Girl from Everywhere is a favourite of mine; I love time travel books and what I loved in this one, like you said in your review, was the concept behind the way they travel. Using maps to navigate seemed like such a unique idea and I just LOVED the fact that it meant they could visit mythical cities too. 🙂
The characters are definitely amazing, Kash was probably my favourite and I loved his relationship with Nix.
Do you plan to pick up the second book soon? I didn't enjoy it as much as this one but overall it was still a good read! 🙂
Thank you so, so much, Beth! Oh yes, I LOVED the whole idea of maps, it was quite unique! Kash is such an amazing character, he always made me smile <3
I think I'll read the second book, yes, I just don't know when ahah 🙂
That’s all right, and yeah I thought that was a brilliant want to explain the travel. I’ve read a lot of time travel books and the method in this one is by far my favourite!
Well I hope you enjoy it when you do get around to it! 😀
I hope so too! Thanks again, Beth! <3
I was like “this sounds familiar…” so I looked it up on GR and I’ve heard of it — just with a different cover. 😛 I definitely need more pirate novels — and this one is SO intriguing, combining time travel and pirates! I’m really glad you enjoyed the characters, because to me, characters are the MOST important parts of a story, and yay for diversity! 😛 Loved your review! <3
Ahah yes, this cover isn’t the most “popular”, I think, or at least I haven’t seen it around too much.
I’m so happy you liked my review! Hope you’ll read it and love it as much as I did 😀
I’m glad you loved this book! I have this book in my tbr but I haven’t read it yet. I’m planning to read it sometime in July.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the second book. Great Review! 🙂
I hope you’ll love it when you finally read it, Raven! Thank you so much 🙂 <3
🙂
Great review !! I, myself am not a fantasy lover but because of all the praise you (and others) have for this book and the gorgeous cover I might have to give it a try 🙂
Ohh thank you, Amelie! I wasn’t too much of a fantasy reader at first, either, but now, thanks to so many good recommendations from other bloggers, I love it more and more 🙂
I hope you’ll want to read it and love it 🙂
I’m currently trying to see where I can get the book, so yay !! And fantasy (besides historical fiction) is my least favorite genre but I’m trying to get better about reading it 🙂
Thank you!
I have a question for you…what is your favorite genre? Because historical fiction is my least favorite genre – after that came fantasy as well, but that was before I started blogging, so I feel like you might be just like me a bit?! Ahah. Since I started blogging I have been getting more and more into fantasy and loving it. I hope the same thing will happen to you! 😀
My favorite genre is probably contemporaries. I’m a sucker for (well-done) prose and so that’s where I find well-done prose usually. Also I find that I’m just more generally attracted to contemporaries for who knows why… (I also enjoy sci-fi/dystopian and mysteries especially of the murder variety 🙂 ) And maybe we’re genre buddies? And I’ve started enjoying fantasy more and I hope so too !! 😉
YAY! <3 Contemporary is my favorite genre just as well, it's my to-go genre well…pretty much all the time. Then I started getting fantasy recs and now I'm reading more of that, but contemporaries always are my loves <3 <3 SO glad we're genre buddies 😀
Yay !! Genre buddies !!
Yaaay <3 <3
I was a bit meh about this one to be completely honest, but I’m so glad that you enjoyed it so much! Time travel is always so fun to read about. 🙂 Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous review! <3
OH I’m sorry to hear you weren’t such a fan. Did you read the sequel as well or not? 🙂 Thank you, Zoe! 🙂
That cover! ?
Right?! It’s SO pretty ?
I’m one of the few people who haven’t read this yet ? I’ve been meaning to for so long, but just haven’t gotten around to it haha. I definitely want to try and get to it soon though especially after reading your review 😀 So glad you enjoyed this, Marie!!
Oh I get it ahah, there are too many books to read, it’s hard to know which ones to prioritize. I hope you’ll read it and love it, Lauren! Thank you 🙂 <3
I soooooo need to read this book. I’ve heard amazing things from so many people and yet it still sits on my shelf. XD
Great review!
Megan @ http://wanderingsofabookbird.blogspot.co.uk/
Oh thank you so much, Megan! I hope you’ll read it soon and love it 🙂
Great review <3 I've never heard of this book before and I myself am not a big fantasy reader so hearing that you enjoyed it really encourages me to read it!
Oh thank you so much, Kirsty! I hope you’ll want to add it to your TBR 🙂
omg I LOVE this book so so much and I’m about to re-read it and then devour the sequel! KASH IS LIFE. I love that quote about him being the view. ?? I shall laugh forever. THEY ARE SO MY OTP HERE. And I love the ships and the time travel and all the diversity. <3 It's such a good book and totally underrated too!
Haha right? That quote was perfect, I laughed so hard. HE’s such an amazing character ; I can’t WAIT to read the sequel and get more of him! Thank you so much, Cait! <3
Ooh i’ve been meaning to read this one for two months now after hearing so many positive things about it! So glad you enjoyed this Marie and thank you for sharing your review! I will defs be reading and reviewing this sometime soon!
OH thank you so much, Anisha! I hope you’ll love it! 🙂
Awesome review! I read this book not too long ago and LOVED it. I’m so looking forward to reading the second one asap 🙂
Oh thank you! I’m so happy you loved it just as well. I’m eager to know what happens in the second book – hope we’ll both love it as much as this one 😀
KASH SOUNDS SO FABULOUS oh my gosh haha. ❤ I’m planning on reading this for sure, but if I wasn’t I think that quote would’ve made me want to haha. ? As it is, now I’m even more excited to pick this up! It sounds amazing and I’ve had this on my TBR foreverrrr. I’m glad you liked it! ❤
Haha right?! Kash really IS fabulous, best character in this book hahaha, you will LOVE him 😛 Thank you so, so much! <3
This sounds great, I’ve wanted to read it for ages but somehow have never gotten around to it. I’ll have to bump it up my TBR!
Oh yay! I’m glad to hear it, I hope you’ll love it whenever you get to it 🙂 Thank you, Emma! 🙂
Okay, that cover edition is gorgeous. *swoons*
I read the sequel to this book first (don’t ask why xD) and didn’t like it, so I lost interest in this first one. I’m glad you liked it, though! But the light romance is tempting me..
Wonderful review!
Right?! It’s so, so pretty <3 Haha you read the sequel BEFORE? Did you notice that it was a sequel, or was the story okay this way?
Thank you so, so much! <3
I did notice that it was a sequel, but someone gave me an arc of it. I was curious, but not curious enough to read the first book xD. The story made sense, but I just didn’t care for it!
Hahaha, I get it. Well if you didn’t care for it too much, no need to bother with another book, it’s better to focus on the books you’re interested in 😀
I would like to read it for sure 🙂
So amazingly written.
http://sagrikajhamb.com
Thank you so much! I hope you’ll read and enjoy it 😀
🙂
ooh I love the premise of this one! And so glad you enjoyed it! Definitely makes me want to pick it up. And that quote at the end… *swoon*!!
Haha right?! That quote is one of the best quotes of the book ahah 🙂 Thank you so much, I hope you’ll read it 😀
You’re welcome!! 😀
I didn’t recognize this book at first cause the version I read had a different cover! I too was really intrigued by the whole map ability and the Hawaii setting… and Kash and the light romance was cool because of the friendship there… I don’t have this review on my blog, I out to dig it out and dust it off ❤️ great review!
OH I get it – when I bought it, I checked twice to be sure it was the right book ahah 😀 I’m so glad you enjoyed this book just as well! Are you planning on reading / or did you already read the second book? 🙂
Thank you so, so much Dani! <3
I have not read the next book… it’s on my never-ending TBR ?
Ahah, oh the endless TBR…I get the struggle 😛
This one’s already on my tbr since it sounds like fun, but I’m glad to know that the love triangle doesn’t take away the focus from the story! I don’t really mind love triangles as long as they don’t take away from the plot too much, so this is good to know 🙂
Ohhh, I hope you’ll love it when you get to it – it was such a good book 🙂 <3