Hitchhike

by Isabelle Holland

Furious with her father for breaking his promise to go camping with her at the end of the school term, sixteen-year-old Pat decides to hitchhike home to teach him a lesson.

Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1977

About the author

Isabelle Christian Holland (born June 16, 1920 in Basel, Switzerland — died February 9, 2002) was an author of children and adult fiction. Her father was the American Consul in Liverpool, England during WWII. She moved to America in 1940 due to the war. She wrote Gothic novels, adult mysteries, romantic thrillers, and many books for children and young adults. She wrote over 50 books in her lifetime, and was still working at the time of her death at age 81 in New York City.

Two of her novels have been made into movies:

Bump in the Night, 1991,
The Man Without a Face, 1993

Both of these novels deal with issues or allegations of pedophilia.

Reviews

[Jessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going back to reread some of the books that I have had in storage for 10 years. I imagine that when I was younger I didn't understand many of the adult themes in this one.

Hitchhike is set in the 70s and while the surface of the book is simply about the dangers of hitchhiking and a girl's relationship with her daughter, there is also the powerful anti establishment ideals of her generation. It was interesting to see everything put so plainly, something I love about YA novels.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is definitely dated, and the main character's bratty anti-establishment attitude is so over the top that I can only hope some of today's teens will one day look back on their own self-righteousness with similar embarrassment. There is a huge hullabaloo about the dangers of young people hitchhiking, to the point that's not only illegal, but cops are cracking down on businesses that facilitate people hitching rides there (to be fair: murdered hitchhikers were a growing victim class this decade). This is a short book, so given its title I bet you can guess that she runs into some trouble on the road.

There is also an annoyingly unresolved plot thread -- she spends several chapters traveling with a man who is desperately convinced that she can give him an idea why his own rebellious teen daughter ran away from home years ago; said daughter never contacted him again and neither he nor us readers can even be sure she's still alive. GIVE ME CLOSURE, HOLLAND. As payment for how boring and philosophical some of these conversations are, if nothing else.

However, the puppy she rescues from some abusive boys is very cute, and he both enlivens every scene he's in and elevates this into a book worth reading.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teen novels from the 70's are an absolute gift. The dated slang, the counter-culture attitudes, all of it wrapped around whatever issue of the week was popular that month is an absolute chef's kiss of fun.