Ahoy me mateys! My First Mate and I usually have different reading tastes. However we both read this book. I enjoyed his viewpoint when we were discussing this novel and ordered him to write a review too. So ye get one from me and one from him. Enjoy!

The Captain says:

This Captain can say one of the true pleasures in life is standing at the helm, wind in your hair, and the next port on the horizon. But what if you could sail not only across the world but across centuries and into myth? Then you would find yourself in a situation like Nix. And oh how truly beautiful this story was.

I adored this novel. Nix is right up my alley. Intelligent, hard working, clever, loyal, and fabulous. The crew on the ship Temptation (Arrr! Awesome name) is equally fun. I am particularly fond of Bee due to her relationship with her old tribe. Kash and Nix have a lovely friendship that was enjoyable to witness. I wouldn’t mind any of those salty dogs on me crew.
But the biggest joy for me overall was how varied the author’s research was. The novel had maps, culture, myths, treasure, history, fun creatures, and more. Some of the myths and discussions of items, like Qin’s tomb and golems, I knew about. Other items drawn from Swedish, Welsh, and Hawaiian tradition I knew little about. And, of course, I always love reading about the superstitions of the sea . . .

The plot and myths and characters were pretty much seamlessly put together. Some of the language was just so stirring. It can be read as a “simple” adventure or you can add in other themes. There were larger themes of the dangers of time travel, familial loyalty, fate, choice, etc. The book is the author’s debut and is supposedly part of a duology. I cannot wait! I want more of Nix’s adventures through time and space.

The First Mate says:

Time travel and causality predicaments. Perhaps my favorite of all sci-fi/fantasy tropes. Something about the utility of time travel smashing directly into the possible consequence of undoing everything (perhaps even your very existence) has fascinated me ever since I watched with terror as Marty McFly slowly faded away at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance a score of years ago. And so, of course, when I read the description of this book, I had to ask the Captain if it was worth reading. It ‘twas. Oh, my, was it.

The Girl From Everywhere is a delightful temporal romp that fairly deftly explores the differences between personal and familial responsibility while still managing to fit in some sweet romance, mystical creatures, and one of the more delightful causality loops I’ve read in quite some time. Our protagonist, Nix, is a sharp and quirky sixteen-year-old whose loyalties are both stuck and shifting at any given moment. The potential existential threat that her father’s plans put her in lead to much of the drama in the tale, and I found it quite easy in most cases to empathize with Nix’s position. Slate and Kash lacking well rounded characters seemed acceptable when considering that the story was told in the first person by Nix, so it made sense that she be the most well developed of the characters. It is sad, though, that the rest of the crew (both of them) were little more then mentioned in passing.

The only quibbles I had with the book were quite minor. It seemed highly unlikely that such a small crew could handle the ship as described. One of the central rules of the time travel that Nix learns halfway through seems like the type of thing that Slate would’ve learned fairly early on in his travels. And, like in most time travel stories, the book spends far too much time in one location than I would’ve preferred. Again, very minor quibbles that barely detract from an otherwise highly enjoyable tale. Highly recommended.

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