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Overview
Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because . . . you can't be trusted. ROSE WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN TO GET AWAY. Last year she'd had it all: pre-law in the fall, a budding romance, and her best friend, Zoe. Now Zoe will never forgive her, her family is crumbling, and the secret that's been boiling up inside her is bubbling a little too close to the surface. All Rose needs to escape are an old van, her surfboard, the road, the ocean, and . . . mom? When Rose's mother jumps in the passenger seat right as Rose is about to set off, her trip takes an unexpected turn, filled with nagging memories of last year, and the looming scandal that refuses to be ignored. A twisting plot that keeps you guessing, told from the viewpoint of a realistically flawed yet snarky main character, makes this a book that just can't be put down.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Australian author McCarthy crafts a juicy family melodrama in her American debut. Set in her native country, McCarthy's novel unfolds from the point of view of Rose, a no-nonsense 19-year-old whose happy, orderly life is destroyed when her father leaves her mother for another woman. Coping with their own grief, Rose and her three older sisters struggle to keep their mom from falling apart. Alternating between a present-day road trip taken by Rose and her mom and flashbacks from a year earlier detailing the shocking events that precipitate their trip, the book hurtles its audience onto an emotional roller coaster. Right after Rose kisses a cute new boy and is about to fall in love, she comes home to find her mother in a ball on the floor, crying; this is how Rose learns of her father's plans. The changes in tone are jarring but also gripping, and readers won't know what's going to happen next. Occasionally all the flashbacks to varying times can be confusing, and Rose's older sisters seem like stereotypes. But there is an authenticity to the flawed and conflicted Rose that will draw readers into her world. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)
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We learn early on that Rose does not feel her name aptly describes her. It would fit one of her three older sisters perhaps, but not her. We also learn that she used to be on the fast track for college and was going to be a lawyer like her father. What we do not learn until much later is why she has fallen from this path. While reluctant readers might find the suspense to be drawn out a tad too long, any reader will be rewarded by completing the story of Rose's eighteenth year and how she comes to accept the life-changing events that have occurred. The road trip with her mother is presented in a way that every teen will understand, including the constant parental irritation spawning abrasive teen retorts, followed by remorse, particularly when your mother is going through an agonizing divorce. McCarthy aptly captures the angst of wanting to support the mother you love but resenting having to do so. In the end, Rose learns that she can weather rough times in spite of and because of both her family's strength and her own. Reviewer: Kathryn ErskineKLIATT -
McCarthy is a popular Australian author and this is her debut novel published in the US. I think American YAs (and adults who like family stories) will like it. The narrator is Rose. Nineteen years old, she finished prep school a year before, is brilliant and accepted at university, and yet she is wounded, angry and isolated. Why? The story moves back and forth in time over the course of the year, and slowly we understand why Rose is as she is. We learn, fairly early on, that Rose's family has broken apart, with her father leaving because he is in love with another woman. Rose's older sisters and mother each react in different ways. Something else has happened in Rose's life, however, and it involves her best friend Zoe and Zoe's father. As the reader finds out what this secret is, we understand some of the dynamics of Rose's behavior and feelings. With Rose's grandmother dying, the family gathers together for the first time in months around the deathbed. A physical journey, with Rose driving her mother to the grandmother's, becomes a metaphor for Rose's larger journey of reconciliation and healing. Rose's story is her family's story, after all, since before she can go off to live her own life, she must come to terms with her parents and sisters…and her best friend. Challenging, like an adult novel, really, but with solid YA themes. Reviewer: Claire RosserSchool Library Journal
Gr 9 Up- Rose's grandmother is dying, prompting the high school grad and current waitress to hit the road in her beat-up old van, with Mum in the passenger seat. Rose is less than thrilled, having successfully avoided her family for the past year. A stellar student, she was set to study law and follow in her father's footsteps, but when he left her mother, everything fell apart. McCarthy alternates chapters of the trip, during which they pick up a hitchhiker, with flashbacks to the previous year: Rose's parents' divorce, the teen's crush on Nat, and her friend Zoe's fling with him. The book steadily builds up to the revelation that Rose was seduced by Zoe's father, and thus the collapse of the young women's friendship. Still, this is a story about redemption. While readers glimpse Zoe through the flashbacks, they finally meet her when Rose visits her in the hospital; the cancer she fought as a child has returned. Their reconciliation is mirrored elsewhere; Rose's parents learn to be civil around one another, and the hitchhiker they pick up returns to his young son, whom he hasn't seen in two years. While readers may be baffled by some of the Aussie terms and the fact that Christmas takes place in the summer, these are hurdles they can easily overcome, all the while rooting for likable and complicated Rose. There is some raw language and mature content, but this novel should be an easy sell to fans of authors like Deb Caletti.-Jennifer Barnes, Homewood Library, IL