Trigger warnings: Theft, heartbreak, sibling conflict, memory loss, car accidents, death, trauma, underage drinking, suicidal thoughts, blood, teen death, drug use
Synopsis: Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named Leila. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.
Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth—sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way.
Review: God, I loved the premise of this book so much. We follow Leila as she is making her way "north" to see the northern lights. On the way, she makes some pit stops and forms relationships with a few people. First off, this story wasn't nearly as dark as I expected it to be. I'm not sure what that says about my reading history. I also loved how we aren't bogged down with a bunch of different characters through the entire book. Leila meets Hudson, spends time with him, and moves on. Then she runs into Bree, spends time with her, and moves on. We never spend too much time with any of these characters. That being said, I didn't really like any of them. Hudson was irresponsible and he tried to blame Leila. Bree shoplifted regularly and she and Leila ended up in a really tight spot. Elliot is dealing with heartbreak, and Leila doesn't exactly help him in the best way. Sonia is probably the best character. I didn't have too many problems with her part of the story.
This reads more like a short story collection more than a cohesive novel. Again, that's fine because we don't spend too much time with any particular character. Hudson is a mechanic, but he's also worried about nailing an entrance interview for a college. Leila ends up in his shop, and they spend the night together. This messes things up for Hudson, but he doesn't take responsibility. He wants to just blame Leila. His story is also the only one that doesn't get a "happy ending" so it set a weird tone for the rest of the book.
Bree has run away from her sister and Leila picks her up. They end up riding together and Bree introduces Leila to the shoplifting lifestyle. Bree is a thrill seeker, which is fine. I just wish Adi had done something else rather than shoplifting. It didn't feel like it was taken all that seriously, and I don't want people to read this and think shoplifting is cool or edgy. Even when they do get into actual trouble, the consequences were short lived. Bree is forced to deal with her family issues, but that is the only positive thing I can say about her interaction with Leila.
Elliot's story hit extremely close to home. Leila runs into him on prom night where he is drunk after being rejected. He tells his best friend that he's in love with her and she turns him down. Leila spends the entire rest of her interaction with Elliot convincing him to try again with his best friend. This felt weird to me and it sent a bad message of, "If someone rejects you, keep trying." Again, Elliot's story hit close to home, but Leila should have spent her time with him talking to him and showing him that there's more to life than heartbreak and rejection.
Like I said, Sonia's story was actually not too bad. She is in Canada for the wedding of her ex-boyfriend's sister. Things are weird because her ex died and she is still in love with him, but she's also trying to navigate a new relationship. I appreciated how Adi focused on grief in such a small amount of time. We did get a genuine feel for Sonia's loss. Leila comforts her new friend as Sonia tries to figure out whether or not it''s too soon to move on.
We do find out what Leila's true motives are, and I'll leave that for readers to find out because I thought it was an interesting end. I will say that I appreciated the way Adi put in themes of identity and living in the moment. I just wished he found better avenues.
Interesting story and good pacing, but the characters killed it for me.
3 howls
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