Review: 100 Sideways Miles

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
Published by Simon & Schuster on December 18, 2014
Genres: Young Adult-Contemporary, Young Adult-Realistic Fiction
Source: Bought
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Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.

Then Julia moves away, and Finn is heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.

I feel that there are no words to describe Andrew Smith as an author. Well at least not enough to bring the proper justice to him. He, to me, is such a superb author that writes stuff that one would not think of and although it is weird, I find myself loving him.

I first read Grasshopper Jungle which blew my mind in all different directions. I was captured by the descriptive scenes, the wording, and the whole story. When meeting Mr. Smith himself and buying his other book 100 Sideways Miles, I was expecting nothing less. When reading the book, I was not disappointed. I was ensnared by everything I was reading.

The storyline for me is unique. It is not fast-paces or slow-paced. It is right in the middle and it proved to be the best book that I have been able to sit in my chair and take in everything around me. Don’t get me wrong, I read through it but I wanted to make sure that I took in every detail and make sure that I did not miss anything.  I had so many feels throughout this book that left me wishing that there was a copy of The Lazarus Door to read.

Finn is a character who when he was seven had a dead horse fall on him. Now every now and then he will have his “blank outs” or “his thing happen” (seizures) which in a way I feel he is calm about. Finn is going through this phase where he feels that his dad made him a character in his best-selling novel The Lazarus Door and throughout this novel; this character identity crisis is slowing becoming an internal problem in which the reader is slowly becoming more and more exposed to as the book comes to an end. Cade seems like he would be a cool friend to have around. He seems really straight forward with things but he also is very sexual.  So this might not be the best friend for younger children.  Julia is someone I would have liked a little more character development but the moments she was in the novel was perfect. I felt that she changed Finn and in a way helped him through his crisis. These characters are perfect for each other and Mr. Smith molded them into the story so perfectly.

The ending was simplistic which made it more memorable. Sometimes something so simple, has more of an impact on the reader.  Andrew Smith is an author I would love to sit down and pick his mind as well as read future books that I come in contact with.

Happy Reading!