Review: Anywhere but Here by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Title: Anywhere but Here 

Author: Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada

Publication date: October 15, 2013

Genre(s): Young Adult/New Adult (Contemporary)

Source: Publisher

Format: ARC

Pages: 320

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Cole’s small town is a trap he’s determined to escape in this fresh and moving debut novel that balances loss with humor.

Ever since his mom died, Cole just feels stuck. His dad acts like a stranger, and Lauren, his picture-perfect girlfriend of two years, doesn’t understand him anymore. He can’t ditch his dad, so Cole breaks up with Lauren. She doesn’t take the news very well, and Cole’s best friend won’t get off his case about it.

Now more than ever, Cole wants to graduate and leave his small, suffocating town. And everything is going according to plan—until Cole discovers the one secret that could keep him there…forever.

I've always been a sucker for realistic fictions, and this one started pretty good. Oh oh, you're probably thinking "why did she just say started?", because it went pretty downhill after that. Yes, I was disappointed. I really liked the idea, and the plot was interesting, it just didn't go into the direction I wanted it to be. I'm not saying it was a bad book or anything, I enjoyed it, but it just wasn't as good as I had hoped it would have been. The main protagonist, Cole, lives in a small town called Webster. After his mother passed away last year, he's been wanting to get out of the "Web", as they call it. His guidance then gives him a pamphlet of film school in vancouver, and he decides to start the short film for the application, and then study there. 

The characters were great. To me, Cole seemed like a very confused kid. He has a great girlfriend, who he suddenly decides to break up with. He doesn't even bother speaking with his dad, or try to communicate with him as family members should do. Cole's best friend, Greg, doesn't even like the fact that Cole broke up with Lauren, and everything is just messed up. Towards the middle, somethings were just confusing in this book. The plot was all over the place, and I didn't really get much of anything. I still read on though, and I was glad that things weren't confusing anymore.  Another important factor is the romance, and let me tell you, the romance was literally all over the place! I was not happy with how it ended in the romance part, and I just did NOT understand Cole. It really frustrated me. 

Overall, this book was good. You might think I hated it from my review, but it was an ok book. There were somethings I hoped would have been different, but I really liked the ending (aside from the romance). If I had to give this book a mood, it would be quiet. It felt very quiet to me. I would definitely look into Tanya's future books, and I would recommend this to any of those who like realistic fiction/contemporary books.