Now more than ever, Cole wants to graduate and leave his small, suffocating town. And everything is going according to plan—until Cole discovers the one secret that could keep him there…forever.
I’m enamored with this book, because I think it told me what
I needed, more than what I wanted, to hear. It deals with the pain and
frustration that are attached to coming of age, where you must first be disillusioned
and then have your world view rebuilt. As Cole goes through this process, I
recognized a realization I had come to years ago but had never really put words
to, so I left Cole’s life understanding my own a bit better.
Cole, and actually all of the characters in Anywhere But Here, are so difficult
sometimes because they really can’t get out of their own way. Cole has a
cynical view of his friends, his town, and especially of his family since his
mother died. Although, even cynical, Cole’s voice is fresh and his perspective
is unique. He sorts through his thoughts with imagined conversations with his
mother and sees reality through a documentary lens. In some way, spinning his own
story through an artistic form helps him see his world clearly. So while he
doesn’t seem to be learning from his mistakes and really keeps making bad
choices, I was okay with him because he was turning all those things into
something and really pulling us through his process of growing up and building
a future.
The cast of characters surrounding Cole are really colorful,
but equally frustrating. His ex-girlfriend can’t seem to pull herself together,
has some serious issues with communication and has a crazy best friend who you
have no choice but to love and hate at the same time. Then there’s Hannah, who
also has communication issues and doesn’t seem to know how to demand that Cole
treat her with respect. He ditches all of her sneaky efforts to get closer to
him and you kind of just want to take her hand and help her walk away from him.
And of course, his dad seems to be having a mid-life crisis of the most cringe-worthy
kind.
So there’s a lot of understated drama that’s happening. The
big things aren’t really discussed and often the focus is just slightly off
where it needs to be (which ties beautifully back into the parts where Cole is
trying to film a documentary and keeps missing key moments). But what I think
is important in this book, or at least what really made it worth something for
me, was really demonstrating the way people need each other. Cole is from a
small town and wants out (thus the title) and if I can relate to anything, it’s
that feeling. I am an anywhere-but-here girl, which is something I grew up
thinking was just my small town, but it turns out I just always need to know
what else is out there. I’ve read a lot of books with the anywhere-but-here
sentiment, and they generally grow into an angry get-me-out-now or a defeated
stuck-here-forever tone. This book did something different and it takes that
trapped feeling and redraws it as something beautiful and important.
I hadn’t heard much about this book until it crossed my
path, but I think it’s one that deserves some attention. It has a strong voice and it really puts a small piece of the world into perspective. I read this story really quickly mostly because the longer I stayed in the story without breaking for real life, the closer I felt to Cole and all the people that make up the web around him. There's depth and meaning in this book that actually doesn't seem to go past the surface when you look too quickly. But I really think it's going to mean something different to everyone who reads it.
