The Girl From Everywhere (Heidi Heilig)

Nix’s life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined.

As long as he has a map, Nix’s father can sail his ship, The Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he’s uncovered the one map he’s always sought — 1868 Honolulu, before Nix’s mother died in childbirth.

Nix’s life — her entire existence — is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix’s future, her dreams, her adventures . . . her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who’s been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own.

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First and foremost, I read The Girl from Everywhere with Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much. I love our buddy reads 🙂 . Check out her blog in the next couple of days to read her review of this book.

I have to admit that I haven’t been in a fantasy mood for a little while, so this book took us a little time to get through, but ultimately I really liked and by the end I was really loving it.

The writing is phenomenal! I thought that Heilig found a perfect balance between action and quiet growth, as well as between the different languages and costumes of the different times that The Temptation visits.

Another thing that I was a huge fan about was the diversity. At the beginning of the book we only have one white character, the main character is half chinese, her best friend is persian, then we have Bee who is not only from Africa, but also a lesbian. I loved all this inclusion and the focus (and at the same time, lack of it) on their differences. Most of all, they felt like a family, and I adored them all together.

I really liked Nix, though I wish she was more open about her fears with the people that mattered, but ultimately I really liked her courage and determination. Kashmir was my favorite character though, he was funny and witty and loving, and a thief!!! Slate took me a while to like him, but I did, I think he was just so lost… And I’m still very unsure about Blake.

The plot was really interesting, and I loved the inclusion of historic events and mythology mashed together. The time traveling itself was refreshing, and I really liked the element of the maps and how they worked. There were a few times when all the timey-wimey stuff went a bit over my head, but I think I got it in the end.

I’m really looking forward to the continuation of this series, I want to see more of Nix with Slate and Kash, and see where they go from here.