Tripping to Somewhere

Life is going nowhere fast... until the night some freak wanders into the convenience store where Sam and Gilly are hanging out. He lets them in on a secret; The Witches'Carnival is nearby. If they travel fast, they might catch it.

Tripping to Somewhere is the debut novel by Kristopher Reisz. It was described to me as a cross between Gaiman and Kerouac. While that may be what the author was aiming for, I think its too lofty of a goal for his first book.

The story follows Gilly and Sam a pair of angst filled teenage girls as they run away from home to join the fabled Witches' Carnival.
Their chase takes them on a trip across not only the country, but across the ocean. Along the way they run the gambit of sex, drugs, rock & roll, and even throw in a few felonies for good measure. They find the Carnival, but the cost to join in might just be too much to pay.

Tripping was published by Simon Pulse which is an imprint of Simon and Schuster generally aimed at younger readers. I think I was outside the key demographic audience for this book. While I found it fairly enjoyable, and a fun easy read, It did nothing to particularly grab me. Perhaps I'm just not capable of empathizing with an angst filled teenage lesbian, but the characters did not make me care about them. The situations they got into and out of seemed too unrealistic for me, even in a fantasy novel.

All in all, while I don't think its a great novel, I think that it will appeal to many teens, who are looking to live vicariously through the protagonists. As I said it was a fun read despite the flaws.

6 out of 10