Date published: March 29th, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-34337-4
Contemporary Memoir
Trade Paperback
Reviewed by Dawn
Obtained by Publisher
Rachel Friedman has always played by the rules, did well in school and safe was her middle name. So it was a big surprise to Rachel when she decides to impulsively buy a ticket to Ireland, all to avoid making choices about her future. Once she gets to Ireland, she meets a free spirited girl who convinces Rachel to explore the world around her. From Ireland to South America to Australia, Rachel finds her adventurous side and discovers that to live means also breaking the rules.
I read the back of this blurb and thought it sounded really interesting until I started reading it. I was expecting a wonderful tale of a young woman’s growth as she experiences new things, meets new people and finds her way in life. What you get is fluff-something light, hardly any substance and not worth finishing. Rachel Friedman tries to deliver a stirring tale of her adventures but falls short of giving me something to sink my teeth in. The setting was quite detailed which gave me a nice overview of where Rachel was traveling and didn’t take away from the story. That was the only good thing about the book. The detailed descriptions of the countries Rachel visited gave those sections of the book life and the rich vividness captured my attention. That was really the only thing that I enjoyed out of the entire story.
What really turned me off was the author would repeatedly mention how she was transformed by all the traveling she did but never really went into details of that transformation. It had a lot of telling but hardly any depth to go with it. I admit, that turned me off from finishing this book. It got quite tiresome to read, repeatedly, over how Rachel was changed when she never went into any details on that said change. It got quite annoying after awhile. It felt like she was just writing whatever she thought the reader might enjoy yet never expanding on what she wrote.
This was really a light read that can either amuse you or annoy you, depending on how you felt while reading it. It’s fairly light, so if you are looking for something along that nature, then this is a perfect book for you. If you are looking for something with more substance, then I would say skip A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO GETTING LOST and look elsewhere.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.
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