Sadly, the writing stile in this one did not mesh well with me. While I’m sure the book is great, and for someone else it might be the perfect read. I simply couldn’t enjoy the writing.

Destination Anywhere is a beautiful coming-of-age story. Peyton never really had real friends and was bullied in High School so when something bad happens with her college "friends", she takes a plane to Canada. It really is an hommage to Canada, and being Canadian, it makes me want to discover my country. Really beautiful ending.

TW: use of drugs, bullying, underage drinking

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook copy in exchange of an honest review.

I'll be honest, the first bit of the book didn't pull me in, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I loved how the main character grew and came into herself and her journey of discovering true friendship.

I also loved all the Canadian bits but I might be biased.

A great story for upper YA, but I enjoyed it as an adult as well.

Destination Anywhere is the story of Peyton, who decides to leave her troubled life in England behind to try and find her way while travelling in Canada. After years of being bullied and falling in with the wrong group of friends, she wants a fresh look at life.

This story hits on many of the poignant issues of being young and feeling lost. Peyton is bullied for years with neither the school nor her parents doing much about it. She finally finds the briefest flit of friendship in college and attaches herself to a group who don't have her best interests at heart. Her parents don't understand her wish to study art and force her into studying for something more reliable. The urge to just leave your life is one many of us have had I'm sure.

I initially picked up this book because I'm a Canadian and got really excited about a book set in Canada. It didn't disappoint. The parts of the story where Peyton is travelling with her new travel friends are really charming and heartwarming. The characters she meets are all written in a very real and honest way. Her life back in England is excellently told, showing us her slow descent into totally losing sight of herself. I felt all the characters were wonderfully written, each managing to feel like a real person with problems and personalities - not just YA tropes of side characters. The story itself was also great, I got sucked in very quickly and definitely had a couple emotional moments while reading it. I felt very invested in all of it right from the beginning.

I would highly recommend picking up this book, teen or not. I think the message in here is strong and holds true to people of any age. I will definitely be checking out more from this author.

I liked the characters for the most part. It was really easy to fall in love with Canada Peyton and her friends. I found the beginning of the book a little hard to get into because it just didn’t feel believable. I kind of just expect what happened to her to be something that would happen to someone older. Mostly because when I was her age I don’t really know anyone who was even thinking of doing drugs and they definitely would not have been able to fly to another country. I also just didn’t really enjoy reading all of the things that happened to Peyton with her British friends because I could see all the signs to know that they were fake friends. I loved everything about her relationship with Beasley and wish I would have been able to read more of their story, rather than the storyline of her fake friends.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Destination Anywhere in exchange for an honest review.

While I like the concept here and the self discovery journey Sara Barnard is going for (also, as a Canadian, I was infinitely amused by the notion of people from the UK coming here to 'find themselves' instead of the other way around), Peyton as a character was really difficult to get behind and since the story is basically just her inner journey, it made it hard to enjoy the novel.

Peyton feels as though she's never really had friends due to longterm bullying and while I get that that kind of thing can heavily impact all of someone's future social interactions, Peyton brings it up in almost the exact same way every few pages and it quickly becomes very tired. I also felt like there wasn't enough non-self pitying reflection on her own role in her previous destructive friend group. The book is told in before and after segments and while Peyton's old friends ultimately make a really bad decision, I was expecting something a lot more intentionally awful than a group of non-sober teenagers in over their head doing something dumb. In the reflections on her past Peyton spends a lot of time vilifying the members of that friend group for partaking in the same risk-taking behaviors she is and while I understand that being in her head means it's important we understand that she fell into those behaviors out of a desperate want for friendship, it rubbed me the wrong way that the narrative was always "these people suck because they did stupid things that I also did because I was desperate to be their friends" instead of "these people suck and I let my desperation turn me into the kind of person I think sucks and need to acknowledge that and try to stop it from happening again".

As a Canadian, this was a delight to read! It took me on a tour all over Western Canada right from my room.
It was very entertaining, but I'd say a roller coaster of emotion. I wasn't bullied or anything, but whenever the focus is on Peyton's past, I keep aching for her - wish I could just hug her and tell her I can be her friend, a real one, not one who would just use her. Needless to say, the characters are very relatable, Sara established each character's backstory, and gave their friendship a fulfilling ending - you wouldn't feel like something's missing, or feel like they should've extended their time together to understand each characters more.

A great coming of age story, I love how Sara went about resolving the "whys" our protagonist has been searching for. The mom finally explaining her side and Peyton finally understanding why their side of the story. It shows us that even adults, much to their age and wisdom, can still come short of it. And Peyton came to accept it.

I'd definitely recommend this to my friends! (and visit all places mentioned in the book, probably).