Nix lives a very unique life. As long as her father has a map, he can sail his ship to any place or time, real or imagined. Can you imagine the possibilities? Traveling to anywhere in the world, visiting your favorite fictional lands. Sounds absolutely amazing.

I'll be honest...when I first read The Girl from Everywhere, I enjoyed it. Was it life-changing? No. But it was a fun, quick read that let me escape from the real world for a bit. It was well-written and a fun story. But when I took a step back and started looking at this book critically, there were a lot of places where it fell flat.

This book had so much hype around it when it first released, and I have to admit, I was really excited for it. I was so excited to travel the world (and the fictional world) with Nix and the crew of her father's ship. But unfortunately, I didn't get the adventure that I was hoping for. The majority of the book took place in Hawaii, which is an awesome setting, but not what I had been led to believe was waiting for me. There was very little time spent in other lands. There were only a couple chapters spent in India, China, and modern-day New York. We spent a lot of time in Hawaii, and although it was awesome to read about a place that isn't often discussed in YA literature, there was one very important thing missing.....the Hawaiians! I understand that the book is about the daughter of an immigrant to Hawaii, but seriously, there were barely any actual Hawaiian natives in the story. How can a book take place in one place and not include any natives to that area??? I feel like that was such a missed opportunity because Hawaii has such an interesting history and rich culture.

I didn't feel very connected to Nix as a character, but I actually really enjoyed the supporting characters. Kashmir was amazing and I would have loved to learn more about him. I would definitely read a story just dedicated to his backstory. The rag-tag crew on the ship was also made up of other people from various times, places, and fictional worlds. I wish so much that we had been able to learn more about their stories. They were a really cool group, but they weren't developed as much as they could have been.

One other thing that I found a little annoying was the magic(?) system. I personally don't like unanswered questions, so this might not bother you if you are ok with that. But there wasn't really any explanation of why Nix's father can travel via map, or how it works, or if it is even magic or something else. I would have liked to learn more about Navigators, but I never got any answers. Perhaps these questions will be addressed in the next book? I probably won't ever find out.

Honestly, if I had read this series when the second book was already published and I could marathon them, maybe I would have continued on with Nix's story. But the next book won't be out for a while and I am already starting to forget a lot of details about the book. While I enjoyed The Girl from Everywhere while I was reading it, I don't feel connected to the characters or the story and I don't think I will pick up the next book.

A strange book that never quite coalesces into what it promises to be. Some things were fantastic, the ideas were intriguing and I liked the characters, but the plot just seemed to not quite know where it wanted to go and what it wanted to be. I had hoped to see more use of the primary element of the plot (the time travelling), but instead we discover a fairly typical YA novel with the usual romance. Slightly disappointing, but a good read nevertheless.