Published: 15 June 2016 (print)/28 June 2022 (audio) 
Publisher: Ylva Publishing/Tantor Media, Inc
Pages: 274/8 hrs and 43 mins
Narrator: Angela Dawe
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars
Five girls, five tickets overseas. It’s exactly what they all need after the final slog of high school. But when Kit’s suddenly forced to drop out, Liza’s left with three girls she barely knows.
There’s Mai, committed only to partying. There’s Tam, who already has her doubts about leaving her sick father behind. And there’s Olivia, so miserable about screwing up exams she’s not even sure she wants to get out of bed, let alone on a plane. Meanwhile Kit’s stuck working double shifts to pay off a debt, wondering if she’ll ever get it together.
All Liza wants from this trip is to discover a new version of herself. She just hadn’t planned on doing it without Kit by her side.
And they’re all learning that travel isn’t just about the places you go, but who you’re with at the time.
I am no stranger to having a subpar narrator for audiobooks, it’s rare but not unheard of. There have only been maybe two books I couldn’t listen to at all because of the narrator, other times there are narrators who aren’t great at the start but I can get used to by the end of the book. This one, however, annoyed me right until the final minutes. The nasal imitation Australian accent was bad enough when there was dialogue, but the fact the rest of the book was spoken in an American accent was annoying. The main things I kept thinking were why was an American narrating this Australian book and why would you switch between accents?
When I had a small whinge online I did see one response that said audiobooks should be narrated by people who are the nationality of the characters, which would be ideal, support local talent and all that, but if we can’t have that at least can they be vetted that they can do a decent Australian accent that doesn’t make you cringe every time a character spoke? I have to be careful here and not spend the entire time ragging on the narrator, it’s probably not her fault, but it goes to show that the narrator can influence a book’s enjoyment.
I enjoyed that the characters were older teens; they’d finished their schooling and were looking at their open ended future trying to decide what to do with the rest of their lives. It was a great dynamic having the five of them plan this trip with really one person being a key connector between them all. When you remove that connecting point it was interesting to see the interactions these near strangers have as a result.
The story follows multiple points of view but the problem is some characters are a lot more interesting than others. I liked Kit’s story best, and I enjoyed Olivia and Liza, but overall it was a little bit boring. Maybe not boring exactly, but definitely slow. And considering I never got used to the narrator I was very conscious of not letting it impact my enjoyment. Even with an Australian narrator I feel it would still have been slow, under developed, and slightly repetitive.
With multiple points of view you got a little bit of their lives, but their narrative voices mixed together. Kit’s story was the only one that felt separate and her voice unique, and not only because of her isolation at home made her easy to identify. Keeping track of who was who was easier by remember their one defining narrative feature – Liza was a former runner, Olivia worried about her uni scores, and Tam had a sick father. There wasn’t any other way to distinguish them and their voices were non-descript, I don’t think I even got a picture of any of them in my head. The similarities in written voice especially between Liza and Olivia weren’t helped by ?? barely altering her voice either as she switched between the two, and there was definitely an imbalance between perspectives. Olivia and Liza dominated, Kit did as well, Tam barely gets a look in so much I kept forgetting about her, and poor Mai didn’t get a voice at all.
The exploration of European countries, hostels, different approaches and appreciations to each country was a nice insight into how to travel around the world (and how easy it is to jump from country to country when you aren’t girt by sea). Seeing each girl grow and develop friendships through the book and overcome their insecurities, find themselves, and work out who they want to be was nice too.
Overall a nice read, probably one that could have been expanded further in terms of character and balanced better in terms of pace, but it was enjoyable and an interesting look at the older side of young adult and teen lives: not quite complete adults but not bound by schoolyard antics.
You can purchase Points of Departure via the following
Blackwell’s | Wordery | Angus & Robertson
Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
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