Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Road Trip

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Road Trip, by Beth O'Leary

306 reviews

hanraee's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Spoiler

This review is a big ol spoiler but I might save you from reading this because it's definitely not worth the time

I had high hopes starting this book as I'd just finished the flat share and decided to work my way through Beth O'Leary's other books. Disappointingly I choose this one. The more I read the more I disliked it. I nearly didn't finish the book but decided to push through it.

First off these characters are pretty horrid. Addie, I honestly don't even know her character all I know is she's short, long hair, wears bracelets, went to France for the summer and is a teacher. That's it. Dylan is constantly making up poems which maybe his whole personality but his personality is being Marcus's door mat and being obsessed with Addie. Finally Marcus is a destructive asshole and I don't think I could possibly dislike a character more.

Dylan and Addie's relationship honestly isn't healthy. Yes them being in france together was kinda cute but once they eventually lived together it was not healthy for either or them. Marcus can 100% be blamed for this and he's either a really good friend to Marcus or he lets Marcus walk all over him and sabotage his relationship. Take your pic. They rely on one another way too much. The relationship is their life and Dylan specifically just wants Addie to tell him what to with with his life. The tipping point was when Addie was sexually assaulted by her boss and dylan wouldn't listen to addie's side of the story. This was after Addies boss spoke to Dylan first and told him Addie was coming onto him not the truth that he sexually assaulted her. I did not want Dyan and Addie to get back together at all. FInding out their history more and more as the book went on too I could not root for these two.

Marcus is the worst character ever he stalked Addie, he got super creepy and didn't like that he couldn't have her because Addie said she wasn't into him. Then constantly sabotaged the relationship. Then it comes out at the end he loved her the whole time......yeah that's not love. He's just so dang creepy, mean and icky

I could keep going, between the creepy comments men make throughout the book objectifying women and the plot which got more and more chaotic as the book went on. It felt like a horrible train wreck or a very bad road trip. I will say one positive is it was easy to keep track of going from the present to the past in the book. One positive. That's it. </spoiler

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bubbles0012's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookforthought's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I read two of Beth O'Leary's other books, The Flatshare and The No-Show, and enjoyed both despite some issues, so I approached The Road Trip with fairly high expectations. Sadly, this one was a bit of a miss for me.

The premise was really interesting: two sisters, one ex, one best friend and a random person are forced to travel to a wedding in a very, very small car. What could ever go wrong? Knowing Beth O'Leary's style by now I was expecting a poignant story wrapped in some humour but, while her writing is flawless as usual, this book didn't really hit the mark. The main issue I had with this was I just couldn't care less about any of the characters. And the main couple I was supposed to be rooting for? I actually wished they would break up for good, so... not a great result.

The story is told in a dual POV (Addie's and Dylan's) and across two timelines, alternating the present-day road trip and the beginning of Addie and Dylan's love story. If I'm being honest, I wasn't too keen on the past timeline except in that it served to slowly unveil the reasons that brought them to break up. This summer romance honestly felt a bit too much like insta-love, with absolutely no reason for either of the characters to be as possessive as they were that early on in a mostly physical and quite superficial relationship. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you're going for, but their actions and thoughts just didn't seem to match up, with them portraying this as the most amazing love story ever when in truth it just wasn't that deep. When the big reveal of the reason behind their break-up came along after being teased for most of the book, I was frankly disappointed and more than a bit annoyed.

The road trip part of the story was much more engaging and had plenty of funny moments as well as some more insightful ones, where characters were given a chance to develop. These were still few and far between though, with the result that I actually did not care about the characters, not even enough to hate the most unlikeable ones. There was also a particularly problematic situation regarding one of the characters, which wasn't really tackled in the way I would have expected having read the author's other works. That being said, I did like the way the conversation around mental health was handled and the way one character matured by the end of the book, even though his behaviour had been appalling up to that point and it didn't really feel as though that was fully addressed.

Despite these issues, Beth O'Leary's writing is captivating, so much so that I was still entertained and had no problem finishing this book. I also alternated the ebook with the audio version, and the narrators made all the difference. Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson were absolutely perfect in this and added loads of charm to characters who would otherwise have had very little. Honestly, I may have enjoyed this book even less had I only read it, but the audiobook improved my experience of this.

I'm still curious to read The Switch and whatever Beth O'Leary writes next, but this one was very disappointing.

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archivofrances's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

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ranjanireviewsreads's review against another edition

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emotional

I want to make this very clear: this book is nothing like O'Leary's other books. It's dark and heavy and is definitely not a lighthearted book to read on the beach for fun.

That being said, I really enjoyed this! It features an alternative timeline narration style - and while I'm usually sceptical about this particular form of writing - I think it's done quite well here.

-- Dual POV
-- Past + Present / Then & Now narration
-- second chance romance
-- forced proximity (road trip, single car!)
-- ensemble cast

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The writing is good and solid and wash to read, the characters are relatable. The romance is very realistic in its ups and downs and I appreciate the author's insistence on not playing the blame-game for the downs of the plot.

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hanjaks's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Similar to Sally Rooney’s Normal People (albeit a more lighthearted, cheery version) the lack of communication between the young, past versions of the couple is incredibly frustrating but this is still an easy, light-hearted read that you can finish in a day or two.

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