Road Tripped

by Pete Hautman

Steven Gerald Gabel—a.k.a. Stiggy—needs to get out of Minnesota. His father recently took his own life, his mother is a shell of the person she used to be, and his sort-of-girlfriend ghosted him and skipped town. What does he have left to stick around for? Armed with his mom’s credit card and a tourist map of Great River Road, Stiggy sets off in his dad’s car.

The only problem is, life on his own isn’t exactly what he expected and, soon enough, he finds himself at a crossroads: keep running from his demons, or let them hitch a ride back home with him.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Road Trip, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Travel, Friendship

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2019

About the author

Peter Murray Hautman is an American author best known for his novels for young adults. One of them, Godless, won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The National Book Foundation summary is, "A teenage boy decides to invent a new religion with a new god."

Reviews

[Kateryna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story of a teenage boy on a road trip through Minnesota. The trip comes about after his father's suicide and after his girlfriend has dumped him. I didn't find anything insightful in this book. The main character was unlikable and I wasn't even routing for him to change.. The road trip had no destination, no motive.. he just drove around aimlessly. As for plot, nothing did happen in this story. For a half the book we were along for a frankly boring road trip, and for another half - flashbacks to what lead him going on this trip in the first place. I give this book two stars because I did finish it, and the ending was well deserved.

[Kendall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks so much to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

*long sigh* I really thought this was going somewhere. I really really did.

Road Tripped follows Stiggy, your average, (and I mean REALLY average), teenage boy on a seemingly aimless trip through the American Midwest. The trip comes about after his father's suicide, which has disrupted his relationship with his mother, and after his girlfriend has moved away and not bothered to contact him at all.

Now, I think it's worth noting that I went into this fully expecting to not see a ton of plot. I expected this to be mostly introspective and focus more on character development and Stiggy coming to terms with all that had happened. But OH MAN I was so bored. Not only does nothing happen in this story, (which is fine), but all of the characters are either INCREDIBLY unlikable or, (the women mostly), have absolutely no substance. I couldn't keep any of them straight because they all had no discernible personality, and generally just sucked as people. Also, the way everyone, including Stiggy, talks about women is just...gross.

By the time I had finished the story I felt like there was no point. I suppose Stiggy was a little bit more self-aware, but not enough for me to really consider it development. Also, it's worth noting that this is told in this non-linear way that jumps back and forth between the past and the present, but I found it generally confusing to tell these two timelines apart because nothing was happening in either time line.

I am definitely in the minority in not liking this book, but the whole thing just felt so Bro-y to me, in the same way Wildman felt. Just not my jam, apparently.

Trigger and Content Warnings: Suicide, death of a parent, mentions of depression and other mental illness, attempted rape/sexual assault, I think there might have been underage drinking but I honestly can't remember and I lost my notes, a weird incest comment that I still can't tell whether or not it was a joke????

[Tori · Rating 1 out of 5]

So...you’re telling me that Stiggy had to go on a road trip just to figure out that he is an a-hole and that’s why he has no friends?
I don’t think I’ve ever read about a character more unlikeable than Stiggy, the main character in this book. He is rude and ungrateful throughout the entire book. The problem with this is he never seems to learn from it! If this was supposed to show how Stiggy overcame his past grief and struggles and turned it around, it failed miserably. There was absolutely no character development.
Stiggy was so stupid that I think reading this book lowered my IQ more than watching Spongebob does. He doesn’t see fault in or learn from his behavior or actions and lacks any common sense. It’s all about him and what others do for him. The other characters lacked any development or personality, probably because all that matters is Stiggy.
If you are going to write a story about a problematic character, you need to show how he/ she transformed throughout the book. It seems like Stiggy learned nothing from his little road trip except to “be nice if you want other people to be nice to you.” And, he won’t even follow through with this and will instead continue to be the idiot, annoying, disrespectful character that he is.

[Pipsprite · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roadtripped by Pete Hautman is about a crazy kid named Stiggy. He doesn’t have the best life but decides to take a crazy trip to find his ex girlfriend. She decided to ghost him and moving so he wants to figure out why. This story takes a ton of turns where you meet a crazy amount of characters. Each one crazier than the next. This wasn’t one of my favorites but it wasn’t the worst. ⁣
⁣

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventurous little road trip full of figuring out life..... Great YA Read...

[Leeanne G · Rating 3 out of 5]

"You are your family, you're your friends, you're me and I'm you. You're everybody you know and everybody you've ever met, and if you want to get, like, cosmic, you're also the people you haven't met yet, the places you're gonna go, the things you're gonna do. That's who you are." - Knob

No man is an island.

"...Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee."
- John Donne

[Rebeka E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Road Tripped was a warning to me.
Stiggy was the kind of person who is so un-self-aware that any hinting of a flaw in him confuses him. I do understand how his father played a huge role in his personality, but Stiggy's almost out of high school. He has no reason to lash out at people, and he's definitely old enough to have some sort of theory of mind (any psych nerds out there?) He needed help to sort through his feelings, but he went looking for it in the wrong places.
Frankly, I'm not surprised Gaia left without warning- maybe it was a bit shady, but if I were her I would have done the same thing. Stiggy only liked her because she appeared to be just as cynical as he was. But she grew out of it, and he didn't.
I give this book two stars because I did finish it, and the ending was well deserved. Stiggy's aimless trip did teach me a few things:
1. Sometimes people come into your life because misery loves company, but that doesn't mean those relationships are healthy.
2. If everyone has some sort of issue with you, you need to sit down and ask yourself why. Stiggy was always calling himself an _ magnet... hmm I wonder why
3. The nexus concept was really interesting and I liked it- you can never run away from yourself, even if you go on an aimless road trip, max out your mom's credit cards, and enable people who may or may not be doing questionable things.
4. If the same person you keep coming back to is still pushing you away (Gaia), you need to leave.
5. Road Tripped was a warning to me that no matter how bad life gets, it is NEVER a reason to hurt others, like Stiggy did to Garf and his mom. You have to try to be positive.

I'm not completely knocking this book- read it and hopefully you'll learn something. :)

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fact: I'm a sucker for road trip stories. And this one starts and ends in Minnesota, which is like my second home. It's written in a very easy style with fast pacing and it deals with a heavy topic without making it feel heavy or depressing. All in all, a good, quick read.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Self absorbed white teen learns a few important lessons about kindness, respect and thinking beyond his own needs while road tripping.

Difficult but important self growth.

[K.E. Woodruff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Road Tripped is a complex story of suicide, anger, and self-discovery. The plot is told not in a linear sequence, but rather with plenty of flashback scenes mixed in with the present.

Stiggy’s father has recently died and he is trying to move on from that incident. Yet, he also finds himself struggling in school, keeping a civil relationship with his mother, and retaining friends. Within a short time, Stiggy can no longer stand being in his home town and decides to leave.

However, this isn’t just a somber tale. I found myself laughing at many of Stiggy’s misfortunes and the absurd characters he met in his journey. Coincidentally, I happened to take this novel on my vacation, and perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much. I read so much of this book in the car or in the cabin that it almost felt as though I were taking this trip with the main character.

Reading other reviews, some complained that the plot felt misguided, but I quite enjoyed it. At only seventeen-years-old, the main character is alone and confused, with nowhere to really go. He hadn’t thought out his exodus nearly enough before embarking, so yes, he does wander a bit.

But for me, it was more about how the story was told and the contents of it that I loved. Really, the only disappointment came at the ending. I wanted a stronger conclusion, a finale to this grand tale. Instead, the story wrapped up far too quickly and Stiggy just sort of walked off scene.

Read my full review at: https://sevendaysaweek.co/road-trippe...

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just another generic, boring, coming of age story for another angsty, middle class white boy who gets mad when his goth girlfriend dumps him. The ending was diasatisfying. Reading this book was like eating unseasoned meat.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye

Well, hear me out. Main character Steven Gerald "Stiggy" Gabel has a lot of teenage angst. In fact, he calls himself a magnet for a**holes. Much like Holden Caulfield, he's going through a lot of tough times and finds he needs to isolate himself Stiggy's father has recently committed suicide. His mother and him don't talk and are growing further apart. Stiggy does ask out a loner girl, Gaia, who also has some abandonment issues (her mother up and left the family), and is going through a goth phase. While we don't find out why, until the end of the novel, Gaia ends up ghosting Stiggy, and moving away to Prairie du Chien to live with a friend , and ends up taking a road trip from Saint Andrew Valley, Minn. down the Great River Road, along the Mississippi.

As we flashback to what pushes Stiggy to take this road trip, every other chapter showcases a different person or moment Stiggy has along the Great River Road picking up the hitchhiker Bob "call me Knob" who's always in a good mood, even though he has nothing. He tells Stiggy that he is a nexus. Stiggy runs into Knob at the end of his travels too. The three kids camping, who shoplift a ton of food, and are on their way from Renaissance Festival to Festival, working. One of the guys at the camp, Brandon "Bran," steals his car. So, Stiggy follows him (with an old cell phone receipt he finds), hitchhiking -- getting a ride with two meth heads that get arrest while he is buying them Sudafed -- and taking a Greyhound, to Kansas City. His one day, waiting for the bus, Stiggy meets Dave Quigley, a man who is always smiling, who tells him "nice makes nice".

Stiggy wants to stay in his anger until he realizes that he does have good people around him. People like his mom, friend Garf Nerf, and even Gaia on a date with Stiggy, a few punk guys from their high school hijack their date, and acts like he's going to rape her. After that moment for Gaia doesn't want her first time to be from a rape, so she sleeps with Stiggy. After a pregnancy-scare, and Gaia realizing her choice to have a child or not has been taken away from her, also realizes that she doesn't want to be with Stiggy, who is constantly in a negative mood. That's why she moved and away and changes her number. Stiggy does get the chance to clear the air with her, before going home .

I usually don't like a novel with such an unlikeable protagonist. I probably had a bias to this one because I live along the Great River Road and knew all the places that Stiggy stopped -- including a few calls outs to Kwik Trip and LaCrosse!

This book moved along -- no pun intended. The author had a deep message that I can see a niche market really latching on to. Did I love it, no. But, I also didn't hate it.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to a recording of this book for the Arizona Talking Book library in order to rate it for sex, language, and violence. It kept my attention. I definitely felt a sense of dread during specific parts of the book where I, as the audience, muttered things like..."nope, don't do that 'Stiggy.'" ,With palpable feelings in my gut, I found myself putting off other things to continue on.

Stiggy takes a journey in his father's former car, listening to his father's eclectic music, and handling conflicts that he creates from a combination of grieving and limited life experience. Does he grow by the end of this modern Odyssey? If it was it was looking at his own self-proclaimed superpower (being an asshole magnet) and transforming into a slightly less cantankerous human being...not really. He just realizes he IS an asshole. Or is it just the grief?

Why not 5 stars? Well, listening to it at regular speed would have only been slightly over 6 hrs. It was short. There were many aspects of Stiggy's (aka Steven's) relationship with his mom that left me feeling there was opportunity for more development. Maybe the YA genre choice necessitated that Hautman keep the other person most affected by the father's death out of the story. And the relationships with his "friend" and "girlfriend" were also so shallowly developed, perhaps, because of the short length and Stiggy's limitations as a person. What made it onto the page was good enough, compelling even, but not enough for me to think about the type of reader who would like it.

It is not a book that would fit into my middle school library because most of the kids would be confused by the juxtaposition of the road trip (present time) and memories that paralleled aspects of the road trip. Those were obvious to me, but most are too young to appreciate the ironies. I would read it again for another purpose, to write down the names of the songs on Stiggy's father's iPod and compare the lyrics of each song to the text written for each segment of the book. I would take a deep dive into it for that sort of analysis. Maybe some day I will, but it's unlikely. Too many books, too little time left to read them.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But, alas, this book was not good.

I think the biggest problem is the main character. He's an asshole. Admittedly, the author is very clearly aware of this and it's the hinge of Stiggy's(ugg, that name still annoys me) arc. However, there is not much of an arc. For over half the book, we're along for Stiggy's frankly boring road trip and flashbacks to what lead to him going on this trip in the first place. While the flashbacks are much more interesting, that's not saying much. I feel like the character of Stiggy would work better if we got more moments of him caring about someone other than his girlfriend. Even him just being funnier would have made this book much better.

For the main plot...there really isn't one. It's about Stiggy coming to grips with his father's suicide and his own faults as a person. There's nothing wrong with that in theory. In fact, the moments where we learn more Stiggy's father and the effects his death had on him are by far the best parts of the book. Unfortunately, they are shockingly few and far between until the very end of the book. About 30% of Road Tripped is Stiggy being a dick, 50% of it is him being generally bland and only 20% is about his father.

This book really could have been great. Exploring the effects of grief while on a road trip sounds like an interesting plot. Sadly, the potential of the premise is wasted by a bad main character, worst supporting characters, and a barely-there plot. There's not all of the humor, or at least humor I found funny, in it, the road trip is Stiggy being mopey and lost, only about two characters(Stiggy and his mom. The last part is ironic considering she's practically a non-entity for most of the book) have any kind of depth to them and it's basically just the "the problem...is me" meme dragged out over 300 pages. There chapters about Stiggy's father and some pretty funny jokes are all that's saving this from being a one-star. If you're looking for a fun and/or thoughtful road trip book, sorry but you need to keep looking because it certainly ain't here.

[Jene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stiggy is on the road. In his dad's car, with his mom's credit card, $400 in cash, and a lot on his mind, Stiggy is looking forward to going somewhere. Anywhere. A whole summer after his father committed suicide, and a whole summer spent with a girl named Gaia, a whole summer abandoning his only sort-of-friend, Garf. After that summer, Stiggy tried to go back to school, but junior year did not interest him in the least. Gaia has mysteriously dumped him and moved away, and that seems to be the breaking-point for Stiggy. He just hops in the car and leaves it all behind. Or at least, he tries. But that's the thing about memories - they never really leave you alone.

The timeline flashes between Stiggy on the road, following the Great River Road along the Mississippi, and Stiggy at home over the past few months. The road trip chapters are all titled after songs and their artists, so you can listen along while reading. The song-thing comes from Stiggy's dad - an iPod filled with all kinds of various music that surprises Stiggy. There's a lot about his dad that he didn't know, and a lot that he did know, but just overlooked. Road trips are good for thinking, and meeting lots of unique and familiar American characters along the way. Stiggy meets a stripper in a diner, a pot-smoking hitchhiker, college-dropouts traveling down to Louisiana for a RenFair, meth addicts that con him into buying their Sudafed, and so many more.

There's an opening line from Jack Keroac's On the Road, and the comparisons are certainly there. I also feel a bit of Holden Caulfield. At first, Stiggy is an unlikeable character, but that's the point. His character growth is the story. A trip through the heart of America, and how it changes him. This is a sad book. There are very few moments of genuine laughter, for the readers or the characters. I think it accurately reflects a forgotten or ignored part of America - those who are looking for anything to take away the pain.

Recommended for: young adult
Red flags: unprotected sex, alcohol, drug-use, cursing, suicide, kind-of-maybe-stalking ex-girlfriend
Rating: 4/5

[Samantha (WLABB) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Stiggy believed he was an a-hole magnet. He just attracted negative people and negative attention, or so he thought. An impromptu road trip took him away from his hometown, and gave him the space to reflect on his father's death, the demise of all his relationships, and himself.

I had an interesting relationship with Stiggy. He was very self absorbed, way too cynical for someone so young, and pretty much unlikable. He also often thwarted any kindness by lashing out. I think that's why I appreciated his personal journey so much. It was great to see him grow and have those "a-ha" moments, and I liked the way Hautman went about it.

On his road trip, Stiggy encountered many interesting characters and situations. Each of these events were sandwiched between flashbacks that related to a particular aspect of himself or his life. I thought it was a great way to give us the backstory, while also highlighting the realizations he was coming to.

It was also fun to travel through the midwest. The majority of the books I read are set on the coasts, and if they are in set in the midwest, it's always in Chicago. Therefore, it was a nice change of pace to travel along the Mississippi River with Stiggy.

I do wish a few things would have played out better for him, but I was happy that he got the answers he needed concerning his father's death and his recent breakup. I was also glad he got to atone (sort of) for what he did to his friend Garf, and I was very hopeful for him by the end of the book.

Overall: An engaging personal journey reminding me that you get out of life what you put into it.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

BLOG | INSTAGRAM |TWITTER | BLOGLOVIN | FRIEND ME ON GOODREADS

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has been a long time, maybe decades, maybe never, since I read a book with a protagonist more unlikeable than Stiggy. I read so many books that are inspiring and that center characters with resilience and empathy that reading Road Tripped was an unpleasant splash in the face of reality that we are surrounded by so many people like Stiggy who lack empathy, self-awareness, any ability to see another person's perspective, and basic human decency.

I reserved Road Tripped because of an interest in the stories of survivors of suicide loss, and the two stars that I give Hautman's novel are earned from his deft and heart-rending chapters about Stiggy's father's depression and suicide, especially the chapter when Stiggy realizes that his father's uncharacteristic lack of negativity on the day before his death was a [horrifying, hearbreaking, tragic] peace and contentment caused by his decision to end his life the next day.

I love road trips myself and I thought I would really love the emotional depth of a novel about grief and a road trip. But keeping company with Stiggy for just over a week's journey was SO unpleasant because he was just. so. relentlessly. unpleasant and utterly self-centered. My heart broke for his mother, lost in her own grief, abandoned by her self-absorbed, selfish jerk of a kid, and for his so-called best friend. I don't think I was supposed to be rooting for his girlfriend and best friend to dump him, but here it was.

If Hautman had allowed him to have a slightly longer resolution to show some true character development at the end, maybe I wouldn't be left with such a sour taste in my mouth, but even as a survivor of suicide loss myself, I found Stiggy to be insufferable and the novel itself to be a slog to endure.

[caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Road Tripped, by Pete Hautman, follows a young damaged guy named Stiggy, but when Stiggy decides to run away taking with him only his newly deceased dads car he finds himself grappling with the truth of his past and the hardships of the future. While I understand the meaning behind this story and what it stands for metaphorically in relation to finding yourself and growing, I just thought this particular stories plot was a playoff of too many other things. Which is kind of sad because some of the characters in this story might have had a lot of potential, for instance Stiggy is supposed to be this reserved person emotionally but covers up his insecurities with this idiot, broken, jerk sort of character who really just needs someone to love, and maybe someone to love him. Apart from this story not really being unique, it takes the story a while to pick up, if at all, and then fails to continue anywhere. None of the characters ever developed or changed positively or negatively and when you have a character like Stiggy... Well let's just say that it would've been nice to see some self improvement. And even after all of this while some of the characters might have had the potential to be decent, most of the characters were drastically under developed like Gaia which by itself is a pity. I wouldn't recommend reading this book for obvious reasons I just mentioned, if you want to read a book with a similar plot but better character development and a more satisfying evolvement, go read The Odyssey. This book leaves too much to be desired for an enjoyable read.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

While the plot and writing style of Road Tripped were certainly unremarkable, I’d give it somewhere between a 3.5 - 4 simply because I liked how true to life the teen characters were.

Most YA romances/love interests feel way too cutesy and clever to accurately reflect the painful awkwardness and uncertainty of most teenage relationships. Stiggy and Gaia were refreshingly uncomfortable and confused most of the time. They’re both terrible at communicating because they’re both dealing with fresh trauma that they’re clueless as to how to handle, and because, of course, they are teenagers.

It was also deeply satisfying seeing someone learn that life-changing lesson that some people never learn: if you think almost everyone you meet is an asshole, there’s a very good chance that you are the asshole. I think it’s especially easy to find yourself in this rut when you’re a self-absorbed teenager. I appreciated also the author’s demonstration that, especially as kids, these beliefs and behaviors and blind-spots are very much mirrors of our parents. I think some people realize that early enough to change course, and some people just live their whole lives clueless.

[Sandra Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

YA, relationships and why they go bad
If you know me, you know I am love a good"road trip" book. Although it has a high rating I found the main character, Stiggy, very unlikeable. I mean that is what the author wants, but I wasn't even routing for him to change. Stiggy's Dad has committed suicide, his girlfriend has left him, and his best friend, Garf (who Stiggy treats unkindly) doesn't want to communicate with him anymore. So he goes on a road trip to "find" himself, or try to run away from all the "assholes" (his words) in his life. He meets the standard cast of characters, sage hippie, double crossing people, friendly dude. WOAH! Gotta read the book to understand that one, and it was the best laugh in the book.
I just didn't find anything real insightful in this book, and at the end you don't real know if he "got-it" or not. I think he did, but being the unlikeable character that he was, who knows.

[Mrs. Kenyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stiggy’s life seems to be in a downward spiral and he just feels the need to get out town. His father committed suicide a few months before, his mother is walking around in a fog and his girlfriend has left to stay with a friend. Stiggy takes his mom’s credit card and his father’s Mustang and decides to drive the Great River Road. He quickly finds out that life on his own is not any better than life at home and his road trip changes in ways he never expected.

Road Tripped is a stand-alone coming of age novel with a little bit of humor included. Stiggy runs into a variety of characters that challenge his way of thinking and encourages him to reassess why he isn’t at home. Hautman has taken the classic road trip story and given readers a new spin on teen issues. Road Tripped is a fun escape read that doesn’t take too long to finish.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 *'s

I have to admit that I was really looking forward to diving in to this coming of age journey set to the backdrop of the Great River Road. Unfortunately, I was not impressed - at all. I have an easier time delving into a story when I actually like a character and I absolutely could not stand Stiggy. He's a jerk, a straight-up, "everything in the world revolves around what I want/need," jerk without a single redeeming quality that I could find. He's inconsiderate and flat-out rude to EVERYONE, which is why he doesn't have any real friends and his quote/unquote girlfriend ghosted him.

The teen goes on this journey - which the reader assumes is a journey of self-discovery - but all he winds up accomplishing is realizing that he is a world class jerk. He doesn't really do anything to help fix that issue, he just seems to realize that he is a jerk. The End.

[John Klein-Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't initial certain I would like this book. Stiggy, the main character, was a dick, and he didn't seem to be headed anywhere, although he was taking a road trip. But I've read plenty of Pete Hautman's books, and he's never disappointed me. I'm glad I kept reading.

Stiggy's father committed suicide a short while ago, Stiggy's attitude repels people, and the only girlfriend he's ever had ghosts him. Although he doesn't know it, his road trip is really about dealing with the loss and his grieving. He's not great at saying what's really on his mind, or maybe his grief and relationships with others would be different. He needed the road trip, even if he didn't know it.

Hautman does a masterful job of taking readers back and forth between the road trip and flashbacks that give us just enough backstory to begin to understand Stiggy. It all works.

[Jeffrey Bostick · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this YA novel, a high school senior in Minnesota has difficulty coping after his father's suicide. So he steals his mom's credit card and takes off in his dad's old Mustang down the Great River Road. Along the way he interacts with strippers in diners, hitchhiking drifters, a couple of meth heads who make him buy Sudafed for them, and some rail kids "taking a gap year" from art school. So it's not exactly a glamorous experience. The structure here is your basic brooding-kid-learns-to-be-more-human type plot. But Hautman makes some choices that keep that from feeling rote and his main character is a compelling and witty narrator. So it all works quite well. The book is recommended for ages 12 and up which sounds right to me although some of the situations and topics (sexual assault, abortion, the aforementioned suicide, among others) might be on the heavy side for some.

[Jessica]

Great read. A) I am a very hard sell for road trip novels... but this one was more than tolerable. Alternating flashback chapters really helped. Also the absence of a soon-to-be soulmate road trip buddy. B) I don’t know if I have ever met a guy like Stiggy in YA... but BOY HAVE I MET THIS GUY IN REAL LIFE. The kind of guy who complains to the cashier when he doesn’t like how his smoothie tastes because “it’s my duty as a consumer to let them know their product sucks.” He’s not likeable by any sense of the word, but Hautman dives deep into his character - flaws and all - rendering him just endearing enough to make you root for him. A little. Really well-done.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stiggy's life isn't going well right now. His father recently committed suicide and he learned that he suffered from depression, something no one ever told him. His mother isn't herself. Stiggy's girlfriend just moved and ghosted him. He doesn't understand why. Miserable, he decides to leave town. He takes his father's car and starts driving, without a real destination in mind. Along the way, he meets a variety of people, some good, some not. He begins to wonder if he attracts the awful people and how. Will this trip provide Stiggy some clarity?

[Addy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw a lot of really terrible reviews for this one. While it wasn't my favorite book, I thought it was a nice story about a struggling teen. A lot of people complained about the book having little plot direction. I actually liked the way that Stiggy kind of aimlessly wanders. After all, that's the entire point of the story, for Stiggy to find some final destination, and final peace with his life. My favorite character was definitely Gaia. I thought she was a really wonderful character. honestly, I don't have much to say about this book. I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite. Fun read 3 stars

[Cheryl]

I guess some people need this. But are they readers? If they're Stiggy, probably not. (I only got to p. 34 so I don't know for sure.)

Maybe they're Garf, or Gaia, and want to understand Stiggy? But what if they're Stiggy's mom? To just abandon her like that is unforgivable. (Again, I don't know if she's talked about in the flashbacks because I didn't read the book, but still....) I don't want to read about a character who does that. And I did check the end and we do not see him going back to her. :sigh:

August 2025

[Amy Hautman Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wild ride! I couldn’t put this story down until I knew if Stiggy landed on his feet (or not). Angry, sad, lonely, sensitive Stiggy, having to sort out all kinds of big important things like love and loss, finds himself thinking “I don’t want to die. But I wouldn’t mind being dead for a while.” Hope and desperation at the exact same time. Hautman is brilliant at putting those multi-layered emotional experiences into words. I think I’ll read "Road Tripped" again, tonight.

[Sydney Profant · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was okay. it was super interesting in the beginning but kind of confusing. at the end it got boring and made sense. i would rather it be confusing and interesting then boring and it making sense. i’ve said before i don’t like when books feel like a chore to read and this one didn’t really feel that way i my opinion. i don’t think i would ever read it again and i might recommend it to a friend it depends what there into. it could be worse but it could also be better.