Monday 18 February 2013

The Long Way Home , by Karen McQuestion

The Long Way Home
Paperback, 321 pages
Published May 1st 2012 by Amazon Publishing
ISBN
1612183565 (ISBN13: 9781612183565)
edition language
English
Four women bound by chance take the trip of a lifetime in Karen McQuestion's fifth novel The Long Way Home. For Wisconsinites Marnie, Laverne and Rita, life isn't working out so well. Each is biding time, waiting for something better, something to transport them out of what their lives have recently become. And then there's Jazzy: bubbly, positive, and happy even though she hears voices of the departed. Brought together by a chance meeting, the women decide to join Marnie on a road trip from Wisconsin to Las Vegas where she intends to reunite with Troy, the boy she raised as her own ? and who she's been separated from since her boyfriend's death. Little do they know that as the road trip unfolds, so will their lives ? in directions they never anticipated. Humorous, heartwarming, and bittersweet, the journey has something special in store for each woman
My Review
Now this is the sort of chick flick novel that I am more than happy to read, as it really allows the ready to dive into a journey that they had not planned on taking. I think that the book is aimed at a wide variety of audiences and I love the fact that the author has taken on the challenge of matching the different diversities. Perhaps this is what engaged me the most, the sort of almost fantasy style that it had in regards to the psychic, the crime side, and the love side. There just seemed to be a little of something for everyone. I think amny authors find this a hard challenge, and whilst I would say that it has not been perfected I think and feel that the author was pretty close to getting it there.

In this novel we meet four women who have never met before, but somehow they all seem to need each other in there life. In some formation or another they are going to help one another overcome some sort of challenge or obstacle that is holding them back from reaching there dreams and aspirations. Perhaps the most interesting character of the four is jazzy, the girl with the pyschic powers of some formation. I think she is probably the character that I connected most with, not because of her special skill or talent, but because of the age in which she is. I love her boldness and ambitious personality that shines through the words of the author, that gave me this sense of feeling myself young, wild and free. I really felt that she needed the three older women to help her realize that she could be more than just the helping hand at the other end, that actually she could be anything that she wanted to be.

I loved the comedy side that seemed to be there within the pages and a few times I couldn't help but chuckle at what had been written. Yes of course, there are many unrealistic features to the novel, but isnt the sole purpose these days of reading a book, to get away from the concept of reality? or is that just for me? I think that the book represented for me that its ok to get up and take a chance in life, that sometimes its alright to not stick to the chart that we have set out and to go off path. It showed me that life is about making of it what we can and that this can mean facing the deepest of fears even when we don't feel we can.

I do feel that the book was well written because it draws you in and makes you feel like you are a part of it. your not just the reader holding the novel, but you are a character that has not been planned but has been invited into it anyway. Everything about it was engaging and I would love to know what happens to the characters, particularly Jazzy, in the future. Are they all going to meet up again or will they find a new path that gives them something better in life? 

My Rating- 4 of 5 stars false 

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