October 19 is not going to be a good day.

For some people this would be an educated guess. For Destiny Faraday it is a bleak statement of fact. It is also part of why she tries so hard to never get attached. To anything or anyone.

October 19 has never been a good day for Des, which is why she crumples the day’s calendar page before the day has even started.

What was supposed to be a throw away day suddenly turns into something else. Thanks to an encounter with an odd stranger and the sudden appearance of a car, Destiny and three of her classmates start a road trip searching for one fair day–a day where the good guy wins and everything adds up to something just right. Which might be what will change everything in The Miles Between (2009) by Mary E. Pearson.

Destiny is a broken, lonely character at the start of The Miles Between. Part road trip, part coming of age, this is the story of Des’ one fair day but also her own, literal and figurative, journey to healing. Pearson maintains a sense of wonder throughout this story to temper Destiny’s harsh reality and elevates what could have been a merely maudlin story to a charming, magically complex one filled with surprises where everything really does add up.

Destiny and her wacky classmates (Destiny does not waste time making friends) are lovable and utterly tangible as characters. So much so, in fact, that I hate the cover because it does not accurately capture any of the characters as I conjured them in my mind. So I am going to be a snob and post the cover from my advanced reading copy which I much prefer. Oh fine, the original cover can be found directly beneath the superior ARC version.

Possible Pairings: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, Stealing Henry by Carolyn MacCullough, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee