By Laura A.H. Elliott
CreateSpace, $9.99, 214 pages

Indie author Laura A. H. Elliott describes her debut novel Winnemucca as “a young-adult novel about a teenage girl’s enchanted road trip to her true self no matter who or what tries to stop her”. Ginny lives in a run down desert town whose economy revolves around a prison. As she nears high school graduation, Ginny finds herself imprisoned by family expectations, a controlling fiancé, and unanswered questions. Ginny hits the highway the day her “road blood ripened”, fleeing a “gone-bad” run in with her fiancé. Leaving him for dead, she puts “one foot in front of the other” heading toward Winnemucca searching for her truth and the mother she has never known. Ginny searches the road for her fairy angel disguised as a 18-wheeler truck driver. She is accompanied by ghosts of the past, and hopes for a fairy tale ending in Winnemucca. She finds salvation in music after being picked up by a Marachai band that has closer ties to her journey than she first realizes.

The story is filled with oddly named one dimensional characters such as Kmart Clyde, Superstar, and Mr. Clean. The plot is often confusing and the dialogue is painfully stilted; both yearn for a sharp editorial eye.

Julie Finley

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