Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour is a story that, at the best of times, can help you visualize a trip across America. Unfortunately, this trip across America can feature clichéd characters, and a romance that some may say is not worth reading.

Our main character of the story is Amy. She's a girl who a few months ago had to face the death of her father due to a car accident that she thought she caused, and face the trauma of her brother going into rehab to help him deal with drugs. Now she's all alone at home while her mother is in Connecticut dealing with her job. Not wanting her to be alone, Amy's mother decides that Amy should go on a road trip with a boy named Roger in order to get to Connecticut. During the road trip, they discovers many different things about America including various fast food restaurants and various historical landmarks. She also discovers how the car accident that killed her father wasn't really her fault, and she discovers love in the form of Roger.

Roger is the main male lead in the story. He's a boy who's in college and is traveling to Philadelphia in order to be with his father for the summer. He is unable to get over his girl friend breaking up with him, and he must too realize that it was something he has no control over much like Amy with her car accident. By the end of the story, we see them as a character who is moved on from his old love-life and is moving towards something new.

I know that that is a very brief and bland description of our two main characters but honestly that is the only thing I was able to get out of this book about them. Their stories are very straightforward, and their personalities are very bland. I don't know anymore about them by the end if the story than when I started. By the time this novel ended I couldn't help but wonder why I had read this book in the first place, as far as character arcs are concerned. In many ways, these characters are almost clichés. We have the girl, Amy, who cannot get over some traumatic event and by the time the story ends, she has been able to get over that event. Then we have the boy, Roger, who is unable to get over his girlfriend breaking up with them and by the end of the story he is not only broken up with his previous girlfriend but added a new one, in this case the main character, Amy. Character wise that's all there is to these two and sadly that's all I want to know about them. I don't feel like I want to know anymore about them later on in another book and I especially don't want to know how they deal with their separation when their journey ends. One thing I would've liked to live seen is the conflict between Amy and her mother over taking a detour that ended up costing them several days of trip. In terms of the plot, this would show how much Amy is changed and we would see it from the viewpoint of her mother however we never get this and so the resolution becomes underwhelming to say the least.

The plot line of this book is less cliché. We see these characters move across America, and we see the various landmarks that they consider to be important. I did like a lot of the little pictures and notes that were put into the novel because this made it more interesting and slightly less cliché. However some reviewers pointed out that this made for a little bit of a jarring narration because they didn't always match up with what was being stated in the text. I can understand this and what's more I feel that if these were not included in the text than this would just become another road trip book that many would pass by. The planning of this book is good, although I must admit that one can't do a plot pyramid about this book, where one would identify the climax, the exposition, moments of final resolution, and so forth. Rather, this book has simple steady pacing that makes it interesting to read although not very exciting. I stated above that the ending was underwhelming, and this is true. Firstly, the ending makes the mistake of being cliché. Of course we know that Roger and Amy are going to end up together by the end of the book, regardless of the validity of them being together in the future. We also don't get to see the ramifications of Amy having to deal with her mother. As stated above this would've been nice to see, since we would be able to see from another person's perspective the effect that this trip has had on Amy. Overall however the plotting of this book is very well done if not exciting and it's well pace throughout.
So what is my rating for this book? Well, while it is true that I like some elements such as how the pictures related to their trip, there are others that I don't like. Along with those stated above, I don't like the flashbacks that occur telling us about Amy and her father because I feel like they were unneeded. And I wish that these characters are more developed. I also do not like the title. I feel that the word “epic” dates it somewhat. But I do like the description of the novel and how it described various historical landmarks. Sadly there's nothing here to make me remember any of these characters, and if I can't remember them there's no choice in my recommending this. Therefore, I give it a 2 out of five.