Review: The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

My Thoughts

An exciting, immersive adventure through time.

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Synopsis

Heidi Heilig’s debut teen fantasy sweeps from modern-day New York City, to nineteenth-century Hawaii, to places of myth and legend. Sixteen-year-old Nix has sailed across the globe and through centuries aboard her time-traveling father’s ship. But when he gambles with her very existence, it all may be about to end. The Girl from Everywhere, the first of two books, blends fantasy, history, and a modern sensibility. Its witty, fast-paced dialogue, breathless adventure, multicultural cast, and enchanting romance will dazzle readers of Sabaa Tahir, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman.

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.

My Review

Heidi Helig’s The Girl From Everywhere is a spellbinding combination of myth and magic, history and fantasy. From present-day New York City to nineteenth-century Hawaii, Heilig takes us on an unforgettable adventure through time as one man desperately reaches into his past to fill the thrumming ache of a loved one lost.

I loved the writing, how it so vividly drew us into a world where with longing and vision you could pierce the veil of time. Enlivened by a multicultural cast of characters, the narrative felt immersive and visceral, as details plucked from history made Slate and Nix’s story feel so real. The story weaves themes of love and loss, destiny and choice, as this adventure sets sail across unchartered waters.

We meet almost sixteen-year-old Nix, aboard the ship The Temptation—the only home she’s ever really known. Along with her father (the Captain), her best friend Kashmir, and a small crew, they have spent the years sailing through time, more specifically, across maps, leaping from the edge of one to another. It’s during these trips that they procure new maps to help them navigate eras, but a certain map has proved elusive.

Her father seeks one which would allow them to return to 1868 Honolulu, to save the love of his life—her mother—who died during childbirth.

“They say love makes fools of us all.”

But if Slate saved Nix’s mother, would Nix cease to exist? Her father seems to neglect even the possibility. Nix longs to get away, wanting to learn the art of Navigation so that she can one day be free of her father’s obsession and Opium addiction.

“I couldn’t spend my life stuck on my father’s ship, tossed by his tempestuous moods, waiting for the day when he managed to steer us directly onto the rocky shore where his siren sang. I wanted my freedom.”

As they sail from place to place, complication becomes the name of the game. They run into trouble every step of the way as her father falls deeper into an obsessive vacuum. When they arrive in 1884 Honolulu (years too late), a plan percolates but not without non-stop action and trouble.

“I had promised myself years ago I’d never make my father’s mistake. I was not mean to drop anchor or seek harbor.”

Meanwhile, Nix’s emotions for her friend Kashi intensify, all the while meeting new people with truths about her own past, present and future.

Heilig’s story is so much fun to read. This spellbinding brew of fantasy, history and myth has definitely been one of my favorite reads this year!

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