What do readers think of The Sunset Route by Carrot Quinn? Write your own review.

I truly wanted to like this book, and parts of it I liked very much. However I felt like it jumped all over the place and I had a difficult time staying interested.

If you're looking for a true life adventure story, then The Sunset Route by Carrot (Jenni) Quinn is for you. Quinn grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, with her schizophrenic Mother and her brother in extreme poverty. Her absentee father had no contact with his family. When Carrot was 14, she went to live with her grandparents in Colorado. She lived with them for 3 years and then hit the road, traveling on freight trains in the American West. She felt "lost and confused": and throughout her travels was looking for "a way to be in the world". The only solace she got was from the "natural world, the incredible unknowable ever present machinations of the natural world..the wonder and the magic". Throughout her many travels, she seemed to be running away from herself rather than trying to find herself. She says that while traveling, "I wouldn't have to hear my own thoughts, wouldn't have to feel the rough waves of grief crashing against my shore, threatening to pull me out to sea".
At the end she comes to the conclusion that "life is suffering".
The writing style was amateurish, disjointed, and choppy.
The book disappointed me in that there was no meaningful character development-no sign of emotional or intellectual growth on Quinn's part. At the end she concludes that "you couldn't escape the darkness entirely, but you could learn to live above it". She says that, "I am new. I am as clean and empty as the wind". In my judgment, she may be "clean", but she appears to be as "empty" as she was in the beginning of her journey.

Carrot Quinn's The Sunset Route is filled with decadent language and settings that reflect upon the narrator's internal struggle, offering her a tie to the physical world as she sails through a whirlwind of emotions and trauma. A tale about a journey to not only find oneself but to find solace in the world, Quinn paints a rich picture of her travels across the United States in an attempt to find release in nature. Moving as fast as the train she travels on, Quinn delivers us through the darkness that pooled throughout her life to find the ever sought light at the end of the tunnel.