The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

The Girl from Everywhere (The Girl From Everywhere, #1)

by Heidi Heilig

"Heidi Heilig's debut teen fantasy sweeps from modern-day New York City, to nineteenth-century Hawaii, to places of myth and legend. Sixteen-year-old Nix has sailed across the globe and through centuries aboard her time-traveling father's ship. But when he gambles with her very existence, it all may be about to end. The Girl from Everywhere, the first of two books, blends fantasy, history, and a modern sensibility. Its witty, fast-paced dialogue, breathless adventure, multicultural cast, and enchanting romance will dazzle readers of Sabaa Tahir, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman. Nix's life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix's father can sail his ship, The Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he's uncovered the one map he's always sought--1868 Honolulu, before Nix's mother died in childbirth. Nix's life--her entire existence--is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix's future, her dreams, her adventures. her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who's been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own"--

Reviewed by Joséphine on

3 of 5 stars

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April 7, 2016

Full review is up on Word Revel.

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March 31, 2016

Note: I received a finished copy for free from a local distributor in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Initial thoughts: Anyone who's been keeping up with my reading updates will know that I got really stuck on language issues. I'll write a more comprehensive round up in my final review. Other than that, I liked the influences of myths and legends as well as the tropical setting of Hawaii. Kashmir was my favourite character, I wish Blake would've gotten lost before he even entered the book, Slate was plain annoying and Nix was befitting of the story. In terms of time travel, there wasn't quite enough of it, so my excitement levels tapered off after the first few chapters when I realized that they weren't going anywhere for a large section of the book.

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Interim notes (Too long for reading updates)

March 20, 2016

Cultural and linguistic gripes (p.101–2):

欣 (xīn) in Mandarin means happy. That might be all well and good, except in 1880s Hawaii the Chinese didn't conventionally speak Mandarin. Three-quarters of the Chinese immigrants were Cantonese-speaking. The transliteration for 欣 is san. The remaining one-quarter was Hakka-speaking. Xin is a close approximation of how they pronounce 欣. However, there's the reference to the number five (五) as 'wu'. In Mandarin that's wǔ but for Hakka, this doesn't even remotely apply. The Hakka pronunciation of 五 is much closer to 'ng'.

This is why I conclude that neither Cantonese nor Hakka were the Chinese languages used in the context of The Girl from Everywhere. Instead it seems that the author adopted Mandarin as the lingua franca of the Chinese in 1884 Hawaii. That doesn't fit with the historical demography of Chinese immigrants to the island.

References:
+ The Chinese in Hawai'i: A Historical and Demographic Perspective by Eleanor C. Nordyke & Richard K.C. Lee
+ History of the Chinese American Community by H.M. Lai (Him Mark Lai was a scholar of Chinese American culture)

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 31 March, 2016: Finished reading
  • 31 March, 2016: Reviewed