Name: Destination Anywhere
ISBN: 9781529003581

Sara Barnard

A breathtaking novel about finding yourself and finding a friend by the award-winning author of Beautiful Broken Things Sometimes you have to leave your life behind to find your place in the world After five years at secondary school spent without any friends, Peyton King starts sixth form college determined that things will be different. Whatever happens, she will make friends at any cost. When she finds the friends she's always dreamed of, including an actual boyfriend, she's happier than she's ever been. But when they let her down in the worst way, Peyton is left no better off than when she started. Now Peyton knows the only chance she has of finding happiness is to look for it somewhere else. Her life may feel small, but it doesn't have to be. With nothing but her sketchpad and a backpack, she buys a one-way ticket and gets on a plane. . . In Destination Anywhere, Sara Barnard explores love, life and friendship in this exquisite tale of the lengths one girl will go to to change her story.

Destination Anywhere

Lee Yi Hsean

This was a good read; I was hooked from start to finish. Sara Barnard's writing style was definitely interesting, and I rather enjoyed the skips from the present to the past. 

When what Peyton's friends did to her was finally revealed, I will say I was slightly disappointed as I was expecting something bigger. Yes, leaving your friend to supposedly die is horrible, but that honestly was not what I had in mind. 

To sum it up, I think 'Destination Anywhere' is an amazing story of self discovery with just a pinch of romance thrown in, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of YA romance.

Emma Kamer

Much better than I expected! Normally I'm not a big fan of whole chapters of flashbacks. However, this book was well written and had a fun storyline! It was an interesting story, and the characters had a beautiful development. 

Eleanor Luhar

I love Sara Barnard's writing so had no doubt I would enjoy this to some degree. However, it's not my usual style; yes, I love YA, and I love travel, but I usually like a bit more of a mystery or thriller aspect to my books. I don't particularly like romance, and this does have some aspects of romance in it, but is not centred around it which I definitely appreciated.
First of all, I have to say I related to Peyton in a few ways. No, I never experienced exactly what she did (I'll avoid spoilers, but it was certainly dramatic). But I get the feeling of needing to run away, to start over. I also understand her struggle of finding friends, of wanting to fit in and be liked; it's really quite sad how it all backfired on her. And of course, no 17-year-old should really drop out of school and run away from home, but I'm sure a lot of us had times when we were tempted, right?
The journey that Peyton undertakes is quite wonderful. It made me want to travel more myself. At times, Peyton did get emotional and overwhelmed, and I don't blame her. It wasn't a holiday. She had literally run away. But she managed to enjoy herself, meet some wonderful people, and even patch things up with her family who were halfway around the world from her. (Plus, meeting some family that's not so far away, for the very first time.)
It was a pretty feel-good book overall, despite the rather emotional and traumatic backstory. Peyton was certainly a flawed character, as every single one of us is. That made it so much easier to like her and relate to her. It was really easy to read and just enjoyable. 5 stars, though I wouldn't quite put it on my 'favourites' list.

Irin 

“You can’t set your self esteem by other people. It is never your fault if people don’t see what’s good in you.”

***Content Warnings : Bullying, drug abuse and verbal abuse.
This book was a very, very emotional experience. It was my first Sara Barnard novel too, and I am so impressed with the author’s ability to make emotions come alive through the pages of a book. We follow Peyton as she leaves UK to travel to Canada on her own, because she needs to find her true self. The cover might seem fluffy and all ~ but  the book deals with many complex issues like abandonment and bullying. The story is divided into two timelines : before and after. The plot layout was very interestingly done, since we get to see Peyton discovering what true friendship truly is at present time, compared to the way she was awfully treated by her so-called friends in the past timeline. It made me empathize with her in a way I didn’t expect to.

My favourite part of the book was how it represented a well-known lesson : ” A little bit of kindness goes a very long way. ” Peyton found a group of people to travel throughout Canada with, and they were so unconditionally supportive of her. It made her see a new version of herself. AND I WAS SO HAPPY FOR HER. Peyton, for me  wasn’t a character I always liked (you’ll know why when you read the book) but man, her character development made me so, so happy. 🤧

Destination Anywhere was a very thoughtfully written coming-of-age story, and I’d highly recommend it if the mentioned content warnings don’t bother you. On top of the book being a story about friendship and self-development, we get a free ticket to a fictional trip all throughout Canada too. ♥️ Peyton, the protagonist is a very talented artist, and many of her artworks were included in the book. I loved visualizing the story through her artworks. This made reading the book so much more special to me. :’) 

• Things I didn’t like : It seemed unreasonable to me that Peyton’s parents or her brother didn’t help her out against the bullying she faced, since they were all very nice people. The grandfather plotline could have been explored a little more earlier in the book as well.

*Many thanks to Macmillian Kids UK for the review copy of Destination Anywhere 💞*