Review & Giveaway: Destiny Road by Melissa Wray

Title: Destiny Road

Author: Melissa Wray

Published: Morris Publishing Australia August 2012

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from May 29 to 30, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the author}

My Thoughts:

Destiny Road is a small press young adult novel by Australian author, Melissa Wray, based loosely on her own experiences.

After her mother’s career demands a move interstate, sixteen year old Jessica has no choice but to go with her. But leaving behind her best friends and a father she is just getting to know is difficult and she is struggling to settle in to her new situation. As circumstances threaten to overwhelm her, Jessica is offered the opportunity to return to some semblance of her old life by moving in with her father. It’s a difficult choice given their untested relationship, and its consequences are uncertain but it’s a choice only Jessica can make.

While exploring the issues of family, friendship and separation the main theme in Destiny Road relates to choices you make, those that are made for you and the consequences of both. In this character driven novel, Jessica is struggling to come to terms with the decisions made by her mother, most significantly those involving her biological father and their recent move interstate, which now leaves Jessica facing difficult decisions of her own.

To Wray’s credit, Jessica thinks and acts largely as a real teenage girl does, but I struggled with her personality. Despite sympathising with her feelings of confusion, frustration and guilt, I found the continuous circle of angst and passive aggressive behaviour tiring (perhaps because I have a teenage girl in the house whose behaviour is not all that dissimilar). I also felt that with Jessica’s tendency to over think everything and several repetitive internal monologues, the genuine conflict of the choice Jessica makes was, at times, weakened by the heavy handed emphasis.

Generally, Destiny Road is well written with the strength being its realistic dialogue amongst both the teen and adult characters. Occasionally tense, sentence structure and grammar is little muddled but not obviously so.

With its exploration of issues that teens can relate to and realistic characters, Destiny Road is a solid debut most suitable for older teens.

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