Road Trip Wednesday (It’s NOBODY BUT US!)

This is Cora. She just wanted me to share with you how gorgeous she is.

This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday question was inspired by NOBODY BUT US, a debut novel that came out yesterday by Kristin Halbrook.

Bonus. I read this yesterday! I bought it and read it and loved it. So I’m going to answer the Road Trip Wednesday question and then talk about NOBODY BUT US.

“This Week’s Topic is: In celebration of the release of Kristin Halbrook’s NOBODY BUT US (hooray!!) we’re asking: Zoe and Will set off on the road to seek a better life and encounter loads of drama on the way. What’s the most dramatic road trip you’ve ever been on?”

 EASY ANSWER: I’ve never been on a legitimate road trip. I’ve been on family vacations that require a lot of time in the car (Nova Scotia, the Pacific Northwest, and Arizona). And I mean, my best friend Carrie and I drove my horse a couple of times back and forth from college (which resulted in a lot of inside jokes and people asking us what we were transporting because my horse used to rear and slam down in the trailer when we were stopped for gas, and the whole damn thing would shake violently). I guess the closest I’ve ever gotten to a roadtrip was driving from Erie, PA to St. Petersburg, Florida with two college friends for spring break. No, it wasn’t THAT spring break. I met up with a friend, Alex, who lived down there at the time and we hung out with horses in West Palm Beach. The boys sat on the dock of one of their uncles’ houses and lazed around. We went to a nerdy school, okay? It wasn’t particularly dramatic. We drove a really long way and we all got along and it was relatively painfree.

Yes, I do need to get out more.

nobodybutus

(courtesy of Goodreads.com)

 

 NOBODY BUT US time!
From Goodreads: “Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger….

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love…and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.”

WELL OKAY THEN.
Honestly, reading that blurb, I really thought this was going to turn FLUFFY. You know. Where they successfully save each other and come some pivotal moments where they’re like “oh man, love can stop everything bad from happening ever”.
If you think that’s going to happen, please, put down the book, and walk away. This is not the book for you if you WANT that to happen. If you think it’s going to happen, but you hope that it doesn’t, and you don’t mind a lot of dark, raw, angst, then stop reading this blog, pick up the book, and read that instead. You’re welcome.
NOBODY BUT US is a compelling, page turning, heartstopping, heartwrenching, raw, painful story of two teens who were screwed by the world and make some bad decisions. Their bad decisions come from a place of pain, and they are realistic options for these two kids, and reasonable ones. They’re just not rational. Because these kids aren’t rational. They are angry and hurting and troubled and have Issues with a capital I. And that’s what makes them real. Because you want to scream at them and, yes, sometimes, you want to hit them, and you want to cry and you want to rage at them because you know what they are doing is not going to work out for them, but you are also desperately hopeful that it will because every one of us wants the disturbed, troubled, screwed over kids to get their happy endings. And this story’s happy ending is more of a darkly hopeful ending, which makes it real. (See also, my recent post about Hannah Moskowitz’s TEETH about books that are about reality and are not fairytales).
This was a stunning and powerful debut. I sincerely look forward to reading more of Halbrook’s work in the future.

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