Major Detours

Major Detours by Zachary Sergi

Synopsis:

It’s the summer before college and four best friends—Amelia, Chase, Cleo, and Logan—are on the first leg of their road trip inspired by the unique tarot deck that Amelia inherited from her grandmother. However, their trip full of visiting occult shops, bonding and sightseeing, takes a major detour as the friends discover that their tarot deck is more valuable—and coveted—than they could’ve ever imagined. As the friends race to finish this mystical scavenger-hunt across the West coast and uncover the mysteries of their tarot deck, it is you who will decide where to go next and how the story will end. With four possible final and romantic endings, you will get to make actual choices to further the friends’ road trip adventure in this unique interactive novel.

Review:

Major Detours was a unique novel that was fun and exciting! I haven’t read a choices novel in quite some time and since this was a YA novel, I feel like the choices you get to make are more interesting than usual. I loved being able to make choices about major plot points and about things like the character’s relationships. Another fun thing about this was in the back of the book there is a really cool reading guide and sorting guide that goes along with it. Of course this is optional to all those who don’t like writing in books, but this reading and sorting guide were made to be complementary to each other and the book. While you make decisions in the story, you can keep track of them in the reading guide. When you finish the book, you can fill out different sorting guides with the decisions you made to see what part of your personality shines through the decisions you made. If I’m being completely honest, I had a hard time making some of the decisions, but I am glad because that added to the level of interest I had in this book. Because you got to make choices, there are several possibilities for the ending you get and I really enjoyed this aspect because it made the reading experience more personal.

Characters:

All of the characters in this novel were unique and really diverse. I loved seeing the four major characters, Chase, Amelia, Cleo, and Logan, interact because they seemed like such great friends that all go well together. They had the kind of relationship you would want with friends where you can be honest about something and even share something you don’t like or don’t feel comfortable about and they would still support you. My favorite characters would have to be Cleo and Logan because they just seemed like overall amazing people. They are definitely people I would want as friends. I hate to admit it but my least favorite character would have to be Amelia. This didn’t cause me to dislike parts where you read from her pov, but instead shined through some of the decisions I made as her character. I felt like she gave me major Katara vibes (from Avatar the Last Airbender) because she was sometimes a hypocrite. Amelia and Chase were going through the exact same thing when it came to making decisions for the group, but she wouldn’t take any accountability and always got upset at Chase whenever he made a decision. It’s one of those things where it felt like she was saying “It’s ok when I do it, but not when you do it” which really had me annoyed. Luckily, this really only added to the story and I didn’t hate reading from her pov.

Conclusion:

In the end, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, exciting, and unique, and I really loved how you got to make choices. If anyone is looking for a unique read, make sure to grab this novel!

Cover Art:

This awesome cover art is by Karl Mountford!

Let’s Talk:

• Do you know any other YA choices novels?
• Have you read Major Detours?
  • If so, did you enjoy it?