Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Sex Education: The Road Trip

Rate this book
The only official Sex Education novel. When the screen binge is over, return to the world of Moordale with a brand-new story featuring the show's most popular characters.

Maeve gets an unexpected call from her brother Sean. It's no surprise to her that he is in trouble again. But she's the only family he's got, so she must saddle up and ride to the rescue. Or at least, scrounge a lift from Aimee and drive there. . . . Otis and Eric insist they can help, and Maeve's mission becomes a summer holiday road trip. Sean's been partying with a group of decadent rich kids who have no accused him of a crime. The evidence against him is pretty damning. Trying to clear his name, Maeve and friends integrate themselves into the rich kids' circle--it's time to go undercover. Thanks to Eric's dance floor moves, Aimee's easy charm, and Otis's ability to offer good advice, they get to know the group. And they soon discover that Sean is not the only one with a motive for getting even with beautiful party girl Tabitha.

This standalone YA/crossover story has everything fans love about the show: favorite characters with real emotional depth, no-holds-barred honesty about teenage relationships, brilliant humor, and a great new storyline, plus a compelling whodunit at its heart.

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

43 people are currently reading
1499 people want to read

About the author

Katy Birchall

51 books718 followers
Katy is the author of several young adult novels including The It Girl series, the Hotel Royale series and Morgan Charmley: Teen Witch. She is the co-author of the middle grade Lightning Girl series and Star Switch with Alesha Dixon, and the Find the Girl teen series with YouTube stars Lucy and Lydia Connell. Katy was proud to be the author of a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma for the Awesomely Austen series, a collection of Austen's novels retold for younger readers. She has also written a non-fiction book, How to be a Princess: Real-Life Fairy Tales for Modern Heroines.

Katy lives in London with her partner, Ben, and her rescue dog, Bono.

The Secret Bridesmaid is her adult fiction debut.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
113 (15%)
4 stars
237 (32%)
3 stars
261 (36%)
2 stars
92 (12%)
1 star
18 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
Profile Image for Evelin.
264 reviews19 followers
October 15, 2021
Perhaps one of Netflix’s most popular series is Sex Education, a lot of people love it and millions have seen it, but I’m one of those people who hasn’t reached the big hype yet and who doesn’t have much idea about the series, I don’t really know anything about it, but this volume gave me a little taste of what I can expect from Sex Education. After reading, I got really excited about it, and if I know it well, it has already made its three-season debut. I think it was perfect for catching up and having an insight. It was neither too serious nor too funny. It fun, turns off and gives a kind of picture.

The volume itself is not something long, but it is all the more meaningful. Pretty much everything happens through about 280 pages. We get a riddle here, we can get to know the characters better, unravel a mystery, and drop into a medium that a lot of people have already liked thanks to the series. In the first few pages of the volume we can get to know the main characters, I was happy about it only because, to tell the truth, based on the cover, I had no idea who it was and it took a while for the picture to come together about who it was. But once that was done, I felt like we were racing forward in the plot, and every little detail was neatly in place. The picture came together and I saw the whole thing. From start to finish. What caught me for the first time was that the writer didn’t put simple, boring characters in the spotlight, but people who were interesting and who were able to take the plot on their backs. There’s Maeve, who at first seemed weird at first, it turned out that in the end it wasn’t at all, he just thinks differently than the others, but it’s a huge point because of his passion for reading. Otis remained a huge question mark for me all along, not only because he was a little philosophical or just too weird the way he spoke, but also because I couldn’t get to a vineyard about him. Typically the character we can identify as socially awkward.

Then there’s, of course, Eric and Amiee, whom I love, but really. Incredibly large shapes, even if they’re a little weird, but that’s exactly what’s beautiful about them. It seems that Sex Education likes to focus on not-so-ordinary, slightly more bizarre characters. Everyone should prescribe friends like Eric and Aimee because nothing is ever boring with them, something always happens and they are able to shake one up so that it is not true. They are lovable, loose and special. Aimee is simply brilliant, a bit of a boob, but that's fine for him.

What came incredibly along with the story’s rapid course was that the writer had forged teens from different social backgrounds and shown that friendship breaks down all norms and rules. Serving as a perfect addition to the series, as if I knew for sure it would have made me even more passionate than it did by default.

The story itself has to do with Sean, which makes the plot exciting, mysterious and really wild, which is a bit windy, mysterious, but also really phenomenal at times. It’s typically the story that shuts off for a few hours and then sits down in front of Netflix in the evening to start, or just restarting the series if you’ve already seen it. It is also an addictive and fun recreation. No wonder he has so many fans and has already taken so many people off his feet.
Profile Image for Skylar.
189 reviews35 followers
August 6, 2022
3,5 Stars

(This review contains some mild spoilers, so for those who still want to read this book, you might want to skip this review for now)

I'm afraid I'm going to rant a little bit in this review. And just to be clear, it's not that this book was bad... It was just nothing like what I expected it to be, so I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed by it. I mean, the book is called "Sex Education: The Road Trip," so you would expect it to be about a road trip, right? Well, you thought wrong. It turns out the actual road trip portion of this book only lasted 13 pages. And that's not even an exaggeration, that's literally how long the road trip was. They left on page 27, and on page 41 the road trip was over and they arrived at their destination. I was looking forward to this book because I wanted to read about these four characters going on a road trip. I expected lots of traveling, car shenanigans, and funny road trip situations, but what I actually got was... not that. Instead, I got a story about solving a mystery. And the thing is, usually I love mysteries, and I love stories about solving crimes. And it's not like the crime storyline was bad, but it was just not what I wanted from a Sex Education Road Trip book at all. So in that sense, I'm just very disappointed that the title is so misleading. The story itself was decent, and I still liked reading about these characters and their interactions, because I like these characters a lot, but I just don't think this book fits its own description, nor does it suit the vibe of the original show. So, unfortunately, I was just a bit disappointed.
One thing I do have to give credit for is that the characters were very well captured. Often, I could literally hear these characters say these lines in my head, and their mannerisms were captured really well too. They all felt like the same characters from the show, which I thought was really impressive!
However, one other thing that did annoy me was the fact that the point of view was constantly changing. One moment you'd be in Maeve's head, the next you were suddenly reading from Eric's point of view, then suddenly it was Aimee whose thoughts would be described, and there was often no logical reason for this switch. These constant POV switches kind of bothered me. They were very confusing at first and kept throwing me off. I'd be thinking I was reading Maeve's thoughts, only to realise two or three sentences later that they were actually Otis's, and that just really annoyed me. It's also just not really good writing, as far as I know. There are better ways to capture the points of view of multiple characters.
Still, the book was a very easy read overall. I got through the pages very quickly, and as soon as I had resigned myself to the mystery storyline, I had a pretty good time reading this book. Especially towards the end the story did pull me in, and there were quite some moments between the main characters that were actually really good, so it's not a bad book overall. It just did not meet my expectations.
Profile Image for Alicia.
2,560 reviews82 followers
August 10, 2022
I think this captures the characters perfectly! It was their voices I heard whenever I read the dialogue, and you could truly picture them doing all this.
That said, it starts out really flat, and almost script-like in the descriptions. Like a step by step of where Maeve is sitting, the description of the furniture, and every movement she takes. There's no showing at all in the beginning, it's entirely tell. But it does eventually move into a groove of storytelling and got a lot better. There is a head hopping epidemic that takes place too, so be forewarned.
145 reviews
October 14, 2021
A fun little detour into the world of sex education. Though I wasn't totally sold on the premise at first, the wonderful dialogue and awesome characterisation reminded me why I loved Maeve, Otis, Eric and Amy in the first place, and I laughed out loud at some moments. If you're a fan of Sex Education and are impatient for season 4 (a.ka. ME!!!), this book is definitely worth a read
Profile Image for Єлізавета Максименко.
Author 2 books180 followers
December 13, 2022
Серіал за мотивами книги - звична справа) А от коли пишуть книгу за мотивами серіалу - це вже інше. Краще чи гірше? У випадку з цією книгою - на рівні.

Я сприйняла цю історію, як додатковий детективний епізод серіалу. Така собі літня серія про пригоди компашки друзів.

Мейв, Отіс, Еймі та Ерік відправляються до іншого міста, щоб витягти Шона - брата Мейв із халепи. Не слід було йому зв‘язуватися з компанією підлітків-мажорів, які після короткої дружби звинували його у крадіжці.

Шон має свої грішки (приторговує пігулками🤫), але в даній ситуації його руки чисті.

Принаймні, він так стверджує.

І коли сестра таки повірить йому, то разом зі своїми друзями проведе власне розслідування і знайде справжнього злодюжку.

➡️ Особливістю книги є те, що авторка не витрачає час на знайомство читачів з персонажами. А чи є в цьому потреба? Думаю, ні. Бо книжка розрахована на фанатів серіалу.

До речі, я не є поціновувачкою серіалу, але взяла цю книжку, щоб почитати щось легке і без зайвого навантаження.

Вийшло ідеально! 🔥 Тому, якщо бажаєте такого ж ефекту - читайте. Але якщо хочете серйозного дорослого детективу - оберіть щось інше😉
Profile Image for Alison Peters.
203 reviews4 followers
October 19, 2021
I can't say I didn't enjoy it but I did find it predictable, some good twists may have gone a long way. The author has done a particularly good job with the characters they are just like the TV show, especially aimee, though I did find it annoying how Sean and Eric use maeve and otis' nicknames everytime they spoke to them, sometimes yes but not all the time.

I also struggling figuring where it fit in the timeline of the show, between seasons 2 and 3 seems rights for most of the facts but some bits don't add up with that time frame (especially when it comes to maeve and otis friendship). Since the book avoids any potential spoilers for the show its hard to fully judge its placement. I miss other characters not being mentioned too, like if it fits where I think surely Adam should have at least been mentioned by Eric, or even Ruby, but not a single mention of them.
Profile Image for Ryan Grenier.
33 reviews
January 28, 2023
The story takes awhile to get rolling and I never really felt like I was invested in it to the point where I couldn’t put the book down. Most of the characters are written as extremely flanderized versions of their televised-selves, and the same jokes were recycled throughout the entire novel. Aimee repeats the same “Yeah, that’s what I said” bit almost 10 times and the setup is always painfully predictable. Eric’s character was probably written the best. The plot is a bit hard to follow at times, but the climax of the book was surprisingly good.
Profile Image for Noah Lyons.
14 reviews
April 18, 2022
J’ai des mixed feelings pour ce livre, j’adore la série et les personnages,mais dans ce livre c’est vraiment différent. J’ai aimé d’un côté parce que je suis attaché aux personnages, mais de l’autre côté l’histoire est enfantine (et n’a pas du tout rapport avec la série). Sommes toute c’était léger et �� certains moments drôle, mais je ne recommande pas nécessairement.
Profile Image for Pauline.
Author 10 books1,385 followers
Read
November 28, 2021
Loin d’être inoubliable, cette petite histoire qui se déroule en dehors de la série a au moins le mérite d’être bienveillante et agréable à lire. Très chouette de commencer à trouver les premières occurrences des pronoms non-binaires en français. Merci et bravo à mon amie Charlotte Faraday, traductrice de ce roman, pour son travail et ce cadeau !
Profile Image for Marta Demianiuk.
887 reviews620 followers
November 7, 2021
Całkiem przyjemna historia. Trzeba przyznać, że autorce udało się zachować 100% charakteru serialowych postaci i w tej książce czuć odpowiedni klimat.
Profile Image for Lara.
330 reviews
May 19, 2022
3,5

Allereerst uitgeverij Moon young adult, dankjewel dat ik dit recensie exemplaar heb gekregen!

Dit was een echte quick read waar je doorheen vliegt! Het was een leuke mysterie vol spectaculaire outfits en feestjes met rijke mensen (ik ging ook van al die personages houden!). En daarbuiten was het natuurlijk ook enorm grappig, net als de serie. Ik vond het knap hoe de auteur de personages precies zoals in de serie op papier heeft weten te zetten! Ik zag helemaal voor me wat ze deden in het boek, want het klopte precies.

De levenslessen van Otis waren ook daadwerkelijk heel mooi en nuttig en je kan gewoon niet niet lachen om het enthousiasme en de uitbundigheid van Eric! Aimee’s domme opmerkingen waren on point en Maeve was nog steeds haar mysterieuze en sarcastische zelf. De groeiende spanning tussen Maeve en Otis was ook heel leuk om te lezen!

Dus als je fan bent van Sex education, is dit zeker de moeite waard om te lezen!
Profile Image for Zara.
156 reviews
January 17, 2022
Not sure why other people have rated this book so low. This was a Christmas present and as I am a HUGE fan of the Netflix series Sex Education, I found the book to be just what was needed to fill the void until series 4 comes out ☺️

The characters were spot on; I could hear every single one of them speaking every line they were given. Their mannerisms were captured so well. Yes the storyline was kind of straightforward but so what! It was a nice easy read and I was able to pick it up, already knowing the characters and their backgrounds so I didn’t get lost in all of the explanations/humour.

The new characters were ok too; but all in all I really loved it. It was a nice easy and satisfying read & I definitely recommend it to anyone who’s a Sex Education fan.
Profile Image for booksbybookaholic.
642 reviews3 followers
July 24, 2024
Nie spodziewałam się wiele sięgając po tę książkę. W sumie zależało mi tylko na lekkiej historii, które zrelaksowałaby mnie przed snem. I w zasadzie to dostałam, ale jednocześnie całość była tak przeciętna, że nie mogę ocenić książki inaczej.

Postacie, które w serialu były wielowymiarowe i barwne, tutaj zostały sprowadzone do jednej cechy i utraciły swój indywidualny charakter. Aimee została zredukowana do bycia niezbyt inteligentną dziewczyną, która przekręca co drugie słowo, Otis potrafi tylko dawać złote rady wyjęte z podręcznika, a Eric to w ogóle nie jest on. Przez to historia wypada dość blado.
Dodatkowo mam duży problem z ustaleniem targetu tej książki, bo jest tak prosta i niewymagająca, że nadaje się do czytania dla 10 latków. Jednocześnie grupa wiekowa odbiorców serialu jest zdecydowanie wyższa, więc nie widzę sensu w tworzeniu historii, która dla osób, które nie oglądały serialu może być nieinteresująca, a dla pozostałych zwyczajnie nudna i naiwna.

Wątki zagadki może i były ciekawe, a styl w miarę lekki i książka spełniła swoje zadanie, ale zdecydowanie uważam ją za niepotrzebny dodatek, o którym raczej szybko zapomnę.
Profile Image for Jake Aston.
80 reviews
June 13, 2023
I’d just finished the Netflix series when I came across this book. I forgot I had it for a while, but came across it and decided to give it a read.

It’s a pretty good WhoDunIt story, I’m never any good at guessing, so I was shocked to say the least; who doesn’t love a plot twist! I liked that the author references the show on numerous occasions and builds on their relationships that you don’t see on screen- it feels more personal and in-depth while also being canon to the show.

I couldn’t stop reading, and it’s officially the quickest I’ve read a book from cover to cover. I would recommend for fans of the show who are looking to get their fix of “Sex Kid” while they wait for the new season.
64 reviews
November 5, 2023
Jeśli liczycie na vibe Sex Education to możecie się trochę przeliczyć. Pod kątem zagadkowym/kryminalnym dno. Pod względem nawiązań do serialu dno. Postacie nie były takie jak w serialu (pls z Aimee zrobili głupią blondynkę, gdzie tak naprawdę ma ona swój własny oryginalny charakter). Jedyne co było spoko w tej książce to to że się ją szybko czytało. Podsumowując nie polecam.
Profile Image for Ziky :o).
165 reviews
November 1, 2023
3,5 *

Nic jsem od toho neočekávala a asi je to i dobře. Je to taková průměrovka a lepší je od toho nic extra nečekat.

Tato kniha byla vecpána mezi první a druhou sérií Sex education, takže se v podstatě nemusíte bát spoilerů. Každopádně jako v seriálu i tady se řeší různá témata, která řeší převážně puberťáci (sexuální k nim však nepatří :/). Ač detektivky nemusím, tak tahle byla pohodová a dokonce mě i překvapilo odhalení pachatele.

Profile Image for YoSoyLiviaa.
10 reviews1 follower
August 12, 2025
2,5/5 ⭐️

Podczas czytania trudno było wyzbyć się wrażenia, że nieco lepiej działałaby na ekranie, jako film bądź odcinek specjalny serialu. Mnóstwo dialogów, znani z serialu bohaterowie i jeden główny wątek – koniec końców rozwiązany całkiem okej, choć raczej nie był odkrywczym rozwiązaniem kryminalnym.

Przyjemnie spędzone dwie godzinki, choć raczej nie zapamiętam jej na dłużej.
Profile Image for Nynke.
17 reviews
September 12, 2023
Losstaand verhaal van de serie. MAAR VOLGENDE WEEK SEIZOEN 4!!!!!!!!
Profile Image for Emma.
36 reviews
January 3, 2024
this was fuuuun!! (auch wenn ich ziemlich schnell wusste, wer der dieb ist)
Profile Image for Ania.
1 review
March 1, 2024
Reads easily, nice plot.
Sometimes feels like trying too hard to get the characters personalities the same as in the series but I guess it is hard to go from a tv show to a book.
Profile Image for Sarah Drews.
65 reviews
October 5, 2021
SPANNUNG? DRAMA? SEX EDUCATION? Für Fans der Serie sicher ein Highlight, aber wie so oft, finde ich die Serie besser als das Buch. Es lässt sich gut lesen, aber ist eben nicht so nah dran.
Profile Image for Lisette.
42 reviews
September 1, 2023
The story was okay. It was definitely fun to read but the plottwist was a bit predictable. I did really like how the characters were portrayed! They were very on point!
Profile Image for Ema Brașoveanu.
22 reviews1 follower
February 21, 2025
E o carte cozy, mi se pare foarte bună atunci când vrei ceva light și o acțiune care să îți arate ca prietenia este cu adevărat foarte importantă, iar prietenii sunt de neprețuit
Nu este o literatură sau o scriere nemaintâlnita, ci este fix genul de carte pe care să o citești când dorești ceva relaxant, ușor de citit
Îmi place ca poți vizualiza personajele( dacă ai văzut serialul), dar cumva nu poți preconiza acțiunea și mi se pare foarte interesant din acest punct de vedere
Profile Image for Carenza.
469 reviews
January 10, 2022
I am a big Sex Education fan, so I was buzzed when they announced a tie in novel. Personally, I think the story from this would have worked better as a longer episode for the show. Maeve was a good choice for the central character and it was nice that it didn't focus on Otis that much. The perspective we were reading from would bounce from character to character in a very random way. The author did a good job of capturing the characters, but making them slightly different from the show. It was an okay and easy read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.