reviews, blurbs, and mentions
for
what a trip

What a Trip: A Novel by Susen Edwards is a well-crafted coming-of- age tale with solid characters and a gripping plot. . . . (The novel) is flavorful, a balanced story that brims with realism and features intelligently written characters.

---Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

"A coming-of-age slice-of-life in which a young woman finds herself in the turbulent 1960s. . . . Their talk and fears and conflicts. . . are highly specific and yet in many ways also timeless, ​the hearts and minds of young people convincingly rendered, feeling towards their own truths and tragedies as their nation verges on a crackup."

"Spare and uncompromising, What a Trip is a historical novel about a young woman’s tumultuous, painful coming-of- age. "

--Eileen Gonzalez for Foreward Reviews November / December 2022

"Wow, this book was named perfectly because it was a trip of a story. This was an epic historical story that was a crazy read from my mother's time. It was like being transported back. It was a great read that I could not put down." http://www.crossroadreviews.com/2022/10/bookreview-what-trip-by-susen-edwards.html?fbclid=IwAR108Ji3LUrm-jKNen-F7Cqerr-WewHuWs3Rd9qEkXZmwLP2LsVpbmHdrvY

Ms. Career Girl has selected "What a Trip" as one of "10 Women's Fiction Books to Cozy Up With This Fall." https://www.mscareergirl.com/10-womens-fiction-books-to-cozy-up-with-this-fall/

WE Magazine for Women has included "What a Trip" in a roundup of "Fall Worth Reading List." https://wemagazineforwomen.com/fall-worth-reading-list/?bclid=wAR17B4g5kE1

"In this ambitious and skillfully written novel, Edwards presents three intriguing protagonists and delivers some rich period details, including...the Vietnam War and abortion laws." — Kirkus Reviews

"What A Trip celebrates and explores the universal complexity of female friendships. But it doesn’t stop there. It interrogates those tender and vulnerable places where a girl becomes a woman and whether or not those friends can survive the obstacles of youth. Told with beauty, grace, and a sharp insightfulness, Susen Edwards makes an unforgettable debut." — Krystal A. Sital, author of Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad and PEN Award Finalist

Susen Edwards takes us on the ‘70s, wild, generational jailbreak ride in her novel, What A Trip. Vietnam, the draft lottery, Woodstock, witchcraft, protests, acid . . . it’s all here! Through the eyes of the wide-eyed Fiona O’Brien, the story is a sensorial immersion in the unhinged explosion of consciousness of the times, I could almost taste the iceberg lettuce salads with fluorescent French dressing, hear the lyrics of a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune and smell the home-grown weed. – J. Dylan Yates, author of THE BELIEF IN ANGELS

What A Trip takes us back to the late 1960s when a college girl tests the limits of free love, drugs, and the occult against her political views, family loyalty, and deep-rooted friendships. This nostalgic and gripping coming-of-age novel from debut author Susen Edwards is storytelling at its finest. —Valerie Taylor, author of What’s Not Said and What’s Not True

People say that if you remember the 60s, you weren't really there. I do remember them, probably because I was almost more a witness than a participant. Sex, drugs, war protests, and Woodstock -- I managed to be oblivious. Not so the characters whose story unfolds in Susen Edwards' fast-paced story. . . .

Swept along in the rhythms of the 60s and the society-changing turmoil, Fiona and Reuben share a love replete with the challenges of the era. This page-turner is highly recommended, whether or not you were there for the 60s."

--Esther Erman, Ed.D, author Rebecca of Salerno: A Novel of Rogue Crusaders, a Jewish Female Physician, and a Murder

"What a trip! What a story! Set against the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, the author spins a tale of love, uncertainty, black magic, life and death, with a nail-biting plot twist I never saw coming. Fasten your seatbelts and go along for the ride. For anyone who came of age in the '60 and '70s--and those who wish they had."

--Deborah K. Shepherd,

author, "So Happy Together"