Sometimes, characters in books make you wish you had been even half as mature as them at their age. In this case, it’s “The Distance From Me To You’s” eighteen-year-old McKenna, who aims a little beyond the typical immediate college-after-high-school path.

McKenna is a hiker like her father, and her big post-high school, pre-college plan is to hike the Appalachian Trail, starting from Maine and ending in Georgia. While it’s supposedly one of the easier trails to traverse, it’s still a six-month trip on foot. Originally, McKenna planned to take the hike with her best friend, but when she backs out in order to make amends with her boyfriend, McKenna decides to face the trail alone. Along the way, she meets a lot of people, including a boy named Sam with a damaged past.

Like many, this young adult book had the cringingly obvious love interest introduced in the synopsis. However, the hiking aspect really intrigued me and I wanted to see what was going to happen. My inner teenager also was itching to see how McKenna was going to handle such a daunting adventure on her own.

Just by reading the first few chapters, it’s clear the author has done a lot of research on the Appalachian Trail. At times, it was almost like reading a biography.

“The Distance From Me to You” is tame and somewhat juvenile, but not in a negative way. Seeing a teenager fresh out of high school deal with such adult situations was kind of refreshing.

As McKenna and her newfound friend Sam got closer on the trail, they started to make less than great choices. I thought the author did a great job of putting these characters into serious situations and having them react accordingly, but when they were in life-threatening danger, they seemed to make the most nonsensical decisions.

This was probably a purposeful decision by the author, as they’re teenagers and don’t know everything. I found myself shaking my head at their conversations and decisions constantly in the last half of the book.

The romance aspect of the book was a bit of a rollercoaster. At times, I felt like the author was purposefully straying away from stereotypes in young adult novels, but at others, it was a total 360.

In the end, I was impressed. I could see that McKenna had developed a lot throughout the book and made a really important, worthwhile choice in the end.

Overall, this book was definitely worth the read! It was a little long at 350 pages, but it was fast-paced, simple to read, and perfect to curl up with on a weekend. I give it 4 out of 5 spurs.