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Author: Priyanka Pradhan
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Family Drama
Pages: 192 pages
Ideal for: Readers who enjoy emotional yet light contemporary fiction, complicated family relationships, road-trip stories, friendship, self-discovery and characters who feel real and imperfect.
Summary
Wrong Turns Only is messy, emotional, dramatic and honest, with family drama, complicated relationships, friendship, travel and plenty of unexpected moments. More than anything, it is a story about understanding the people who shape us while figuring out which parts of their stories we want to make our own.
Review:
“If someone tries to tell your story, don’t let them. Your story is yours to tell. Own it.”
There are books that take you on an unexpected journey – one that slowly becomes a lesson, and sometimes, a mirror. Wrong Turns Only by Priyanka Pradhan felt like one such book. Right from the title and the cover, I had a strong feeling that this book was going to take me to places where there would be lessons, reflection and perhaps a few unexpected turns. And true to its title and cover, this book turned out to be a beautiful journey – an emotional rollercoaster filled with love, family, relationships, friendship, laughter and self-discovery.
Wrong Turns Only follows Tashi, who has spent her life pretending that she doesn’t care about her mother abandoning her when she was a child. She has grown up with her father and best friend Dhruv in Nainital, building a life around an absence she has never quite confronted. Then she receives a one-way ticket to Mumbai and an opportunity to meet her mother, Anupama. What begins as a chance at a mother-daughter reunion soon turns into an unexpected road trip. Anupama takes Tashi across Goa, Kokan, the backwaters of Kerala and the surf breaks in Pondicherry, and what follows is a journey filled with new places, new people, arguments, laughter and conversations that slowly make Tashi question what she knows about her mother and herself. I liked that the book doesn’t make the journey only about finding answers. Instead, Tashi encounters situations and people that gradually make her look at her life differently.
What particularly worked for me was how the road trip becomes a metaphor for Tashi’s life. The title Wrong Turns Only isn’t just about travelling down the wrong road. It reflects the choices, relationships and unexpected circumstances that shape our lives. Not every turn is planned, and not every decision makes sense immediately. Sometimes, we only understand where a particular road was taking us after we’ve travelled it. The people Tashi meets along the way add another interesting layer. Many of them leave behind a thought, a lesson or a different perspective, making the journey feel like more than a conventional road trip.
The story also explores an interesting idea: people cannot always be reduced to the roles they play in our lives. A mother can be more than the mother who left. A father can have a life beyond being a father. A best friend can be the person who tells you what you don’t want to hear. Priyanka’s writing is crisp and descriptive, and I liked how easily the different locations came alive. From the calmness of Nainital to the energy of Goa and the thrill of surfing in Pondicherry, the travel portions add colour and movement to the story. Even with its emotional themes, Priyanka keeps the writing light, engaging and easy to connect with.
The pacing works well for the road-trip format, with each new place and encounter adding something to the story and keeping the narrative engaging throughout. The tone of the book is one of its strengths. Despite dealing with family wounds and complicated relationships, it doesn’t become overwhelmingly heavy. There is humour, warmth, adventure and lightness alongside the emotional moments.
That balance makes Tashi’s story easy to settle into. It is dramatic and messy, but never loses its relatability. What I enjoyed most about the events in the story is their unpredictability. Tashi doesn’t simply travel from one destination to another;the people and situations she encounters keep challenging her assumptions. There are arguments, unexpected conversations, moments of laughter, uncomfortable truths and experiences that make her look at the people around her differently.
The journey also gives us a chance to see Tashi outside the life she has always known. Away from Nainital and the familiar comfort of her father and Dhruv, she is forced to make sense of things on her own. And slowly, she begins asking herself questions about what she wants from life, how much of her identity has been shaped by others, what she wants from her relationships and what home really means to her.
The characters are among the strongest aspects of the book. Anupama could easily have been portrayed simply as the mother who abandoned her daughter. Instead, Priyanka allows us to see her as a person with her own choices, flaws, emotions and history. As Tashi gets to know her beyond that one defining act, their relationship becomes more complicated and interesting. Tashi’s father has always been her rock, but he too has a life and experiences beyond his role as her father. I liked that the book allows us to recognise that parents have stories of their own.
And then there is Dhruv, Tashi’s best friend, who isn’t afraid to tell her the truths nobody else will. His presence gives Tashi a sense of familiarity even when everything around her is changing. The characters are strong, relatable, feisty and honest. They aren’t perfect, and their relationships aren’t neat either, perhaps that’s what makes them feel real. The last few chapters take an unexpected direction, and I wasn’t quite prepared for the way the story unfolded. Without giving away the ending, what stayed with me most was the idea of how one person can choose to change the course of generations. Dhruv’s decision and the way that particular thread unfolds was especially interesting to me.
It also brings the book’s larger idea of owning your story into focus. Our parents’ choices, our circumstances and the people around us inevitably become part of our story, but eventually, we have to decide what we want to carry forward and what we want to change. What stayed with me after finishing the book was how differently we may understand people when we finally hear the stories behind their choices. Sometimes, knowing someone’s story doesn’t change what happened, but it can change the way we see it.
Wrong Turns Only is messy, emotional, dramatic and honest, with family drama, complicated relationships, friendship, travel and plenty of unexpected moments. More than anything, it is a story about understanding the people who shape us while figuring out which parts of their stories we want to make our own. In all, if you’re looking for something emotional yet light, dramatic yet honest, with a road-trip backdrop and themes of family, relationships and self-discovery, this is a book you can count on. Because sometimes, the wrong turn is simply a road you hadn’t planned to take.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is Wrong Turns Only by Priyanka Pradhan about?
Wrong Turns Only is a contemporary Young Adult novel about Tashi, a teenager who joins her estranged mother on a road trip across India’s coastline. The story explores family, abandonment, friendship, identity, relationships and self-discovery.
2. What is the genre of Wrong Turns Only?
It is a Contemporary Young Adult / Coming-of-Age novel with elements of family drama, road-trip fiction, friendship and self-discovery.
3. Is Wrong Turns Only a road-trip novel?
Yes. The story takes Tashi and her mother across destinations including Goa, Kerala and Pondicherry. The road trip also becomes an important part of Tashi’s emotional journey.
4. Who would enjoy Wrong Turns Only?
Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories, complicated family relationships, friendship, travel, emotional storytelling and characters who are imperfect and relatable may enjoy this book.
5. What does the title Wrong Turns Only mean?
The title goes beyond the literal road trip. It reflects the unexpected choices, relationships and circumstances that shape our lives, reminding us that not every wrong turn is necessarily a mistake. Sometimes, we only understand where a particular road was taking us after we have travelled it.
Reader_viddh’s Take
Wrong Turns Only is one of those books that looks like a road-trip story but slowly becomes something much more personal. I liked how the journey gave Tashi space to question her relationships, her assumptions and the stories she has always told herself. With its mix of family drama, friendship, travel, humour and self-discovery, this is an emotional yet easy-to-read coming-of-age story that leaves you thinking about the wrong turns in your own life.
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