Once Upon a Road Trip by Angela N. Blount

Once Upon A Road Trip by Angela N. Blount
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've always liked books such as these, coming-of-age memoir types. I've read a few in my day and being a seventeen year old girl myself, on the brink of my own future, I often find them to be both entertaining and helpful in reading life from someone else's point of view. Whether it be of their accomplishments,their failures, or something a bit in between-- it's a learning experience any way you slice it. This one, though, I had trouble getting in to.

At the start, Angeli is just not at all likable and I could never find myself relating to her, which was really disappointing. The idea: a girl going on a road trip to meet all of her online friends- most of which she met on an online storytelling website- was an interesting one. What teenager doesn't dream of making that epic, life-changing road trip after graduation? Angeli, however, was quite frankly rude and a bit of a--no, a lot of a-- know-it-all. She lost me pretty early on when talking of how boring driving through the countryside was.I mean, what did you expect from a road trip? I consider it to be a beautiful drive. Yes, it may seem endless, but I see an endless field as an endless opportunity.

It didn't stop there.

Shortly upon arriving to her first "friend's" house(this isn't a spoiler), she talked of nothing much else but how overweight he is, and kept dropping hints about how he can exercise more. Really? Can you have a little more tact? To me, there is a fine line between being helpful and caring about your friend's well-being, and being just plain, over the top, rude. Not to mention, being a home schooled senior myself, it really ticked me off the way she basically referred to home schooled students(and later on private schooled students) as social recluses who don't know how to function in society. I assume she believes, based not only this instance but on other observations I made throughout the book, if you are not exactly like her, you are less than. Hmm... if being like her is being perfect, considering her actions on this road trip, I wish to be nothing like perfect.

As the story went on, she continued her commentary never failing to find something wrong with every single person she came in contact with, and to think that every boy she met was madly in love with her. It really bugged me. Then, despite all odds, somewhere along the way she started to grow up, and somewhat reluctantly, I began to like her. No, if we ran into each other at a coffee shop I don't think we'd be best friends--far from it, but she actually started looking at things differently, and not just through her better-than-you rose-colored glasses. Yes, she was still pretty self-centered, but not as bad as she was at the start.  So, yes, I wasn't too big a fan overall, and I likely won't read this again. But, this truly is a story of growth in a person, and coming to terms with your future. Although well written for the most part, I can't say I would recommend this to anyone at all. Some who've read this may disagree, but my opinion is my own and I'm sorry if it offends the author, who obviously worked hard on this.