The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor Heilig, Heidi The Girl from Everywhere. Greenwillow, 2016 [464p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-238075-3 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-238077-7 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 Although Nixie was born in Hawaii in 1868, she has traveled through time and space on her father’s ship since she was an infant. Now she’s the procurer and reader of the maps that her father, the Navigator, follows to move the ship back and forth along the space-time continuum. Her father directs the ship from eighteenth century India to 1980s New York to fictional lands with one purpose: to find the map that will return him to Hawaii, 1868, to save Nixie’s mother from the infection that killed her after Nixie’s birth. So far none of the maps from Nixie’s time and birthplace of birth has worked, and the latest one lands the ship and its crew in 1884 in the Kingdom of Hawaii and a chain of events that gets Nixie involved with the Hawaiian League and their attempts to annex Hawaii. Unfortunately, details of the time travel are vague and convenient, and the plot winds around itself in a frustratingly disorienting way, closing readers out of the puzzle and instead offering a finished product that seems more “gotcha” than satisfying. Additionally, Nixie’s voice is rather bland, and the love triangle between Nixie, a fellow crewmate, and the son of colonist is tepid at best. The historical details are interesting, though, and they are enhanced by an informative author’s note. Though the time-travel plot disappoints, history buffs may be intrigued enough to follow the twisting line of Nixie’s story. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois