In this rich, moving novel, an Amish girl discovers the "fancy" world and must choose between two entirely different ways of life. But whatever choice Eliza makes, she knows she will lose someone she loves.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Very Enjoyable
By A.
For some reason I really enjoy fiction about the Amish people. I was so excited to read this book because it's about a young Amish girl! I don't think I've read YA Amish fiction before. A World Away was just perfect. The book starts with Eliza at home and going stir-crazy. Grossman does a great job of painting the Amish lifestyle but soon enough I felt Eliza's anguish of being cooped up. I wanted out as well.I loved the way Grossman was able to describe our way of life. I'd imagine it would be incredibly hard to look at our life and describe it as an outsider. I loved the way she could describe the media that Eliza experiences and without being too specific. I knew exactly what she was talking about.The characters were fantastic. I really grew to love most of them. They felt like my friends. I felt Eliza's excitement about trying this new life. I was excited for her to experience everything. Josh was sweet without being too creepy (like how guys in romance books can be). Josh's friends all seemed like 100% real kids. I knew those kids in school. I laughed with them, I cried with them, I felt devastated with them.The actual story was good. To a certain extent the plot was a bit predictable. Oh we have an Amish girl living in the English world? You know there's going to be an English boy who falls for her, she's going to be confused with mall, there will be teen drinking, blah, blah, blah. Despite all that, I was completely in love with the story. The author even threw in twists that I never saw coming. I felt just as hurt and confused as I would have if I had been living it. Now that's good writing. The ending was lovely. I was really hoping things would end like that. I was a bit worried that the author might mess things up.The bottom line? I loved it. Highly recommended for YA contemporary fans.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Good Start
By emkachan
Eliza is an Amish teenager, recently turned sixteen and ready to run wild. When Rachel, a woman working on her master's in anthropology asks Eliza to work as a nanny in her home. Eliza jumps at the chance and, after a few fights with her parents, is on her way to the "English" world where people watch television and have no religion at all. Rachel and her family have no community or history, but they do have piles of money that they use to buy their elementary school children video gaming systems and hire off-the-books domestic help. (Everyone in Eliza's nanny family has Jewish first names except the daughter, but their faith background was never mentioned.) Eliza is bored for the first few hours of her new life until a cute boy literally turns up on her doorstep and lets her listen to his iPod. His name is Josh and he is perfect. There are no flaws in his character, he loves Eliza unquestioningly and his mistakes are tiny and he apologizes for them penitently and quickly. Eliza meets other adults in the Chicagoland area and they are all wise and blandly supportive of her choices. Eliza makes teenage decisions and has a couple crises and, in the end, she makes a satisfying decision about where to spend her life.This book is written at a quick, entertaining pace. Eliza is a rich, deep character full of teenage questions as she behaves like a cultural tourist in an affluent suburb. Eliza is happy to tell everyone she meets about the Amish and their ways, and you will learn about them too. Read this book, then watch the 2002 documentary The Devil's Playground, another good source of information about rumspringa. Try tracking down the reality show Amish in the City. And wait for a sequel to this book. I would like to see what kinds of hijinks and drama Eliza gets up to in the Amish world.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.A good read
By C. Wilson
This book was an easy read - the book was written very well and the flow was great. My only complaint was the book was a little too long for my taste. The hard-back book had 394 pages and I was ready to wrap things up about half way through. I finished because I wanted to know how it ended but I did start losing interest. It was very interesting to read about our modern day world being seen through the eyes of a teenage Amish girl.Also I wanted to mention that I was afraid this would be written like Janette Okie's books, where they pray to God every other sentence. I'm a christian and pray myself, but I don't enjoy reading books where they hammer it over your head every 30 seconds. This had just a taste of religion mentioned, not much cursing, and not too much romance either. I'm glad I read it because it was a good story. Just don't expect much action or suspense....
