It’s an okay read but the constant shift between multiple characters' POV's distracted me from the story with having to remember who is who and what their specific issues are, despite a character cheat sheet at the beginning of the book (the cheat sheet might have worked for me if I’d read this story in paperback book format and bookmarked the page, but with an ebook I was not keen to continually refer back to that list with brief bios particularly since not every character is listed there). Although they are away from home, social media and technologies like cell phones and skype keep the girls connected with their family and friends back home so they are away but never fully disconnected from them.

In Points of Departure, five Australian girls who've planned to go trek around Europe after high school have one of them cancel last minute, leaving the remaining four to go without her the one not going is the only one who is friends with all the others so it's essentially four strangers with one friend in common going on a multi country holiday together complete with all the awkwardness and making the best of it thru their travels and adventures you'd expect. I found 'Points of Departure' to be a good, satisfying read. However, there is a lesbian character and perhaps a bi character where a f/f romance develops. And, it's not really a lesfic either since most of the characters are heterosexual and are seeking/developing their own relationships. Any sexual activity is fade-to-black so nothing too racy in that dept. This definitely had a YA feel but there are mature themes explored and it captured the transition from high school to university really well. And there's some ethnic diversity with Liza having a partial Sri Lankan ethnicity. I also liked that this book had 'plain' looking characters without perfect bodies.

I was partial to Liza and kept wanting to stay with her. I think other readers may actually enjoy that aspect. I'm not a fan of ensemble POVs in a book but O'Beirne made it work and I hit my groove about half way through. Sometimes the results are satisfying and sometimes they're not.and I appreciated that the author let things fall the way they did. Four very different from each other and do not know each other 18-year-old girls go on a 5 city travel journey around Europe after graduating high school, with a fifth friend that brought the four together in the first place staying behind at home.Įach character is well-defined and going through her own struggles but nothing is overly dramatic and what is dramatic doesn't necessarily get a rosy, sweet wrap up, either.

Points of Departure by Emily O’Beirne