Four teenagers are on the verge of exploding. The anxieties they face at every turn have nearly pushed them to the point of surrender: senseless high-stakes testing, the lingering damage of past trauma, the buried grief and guilt of tragic loss. They are desperate to cope, but no one is listening.
So they will lie. They will split in two. They will turn inside out. They will even build an invisible helicopter to fly themselves far away...but nothing releases the pressure. Because, as they discover, the only way to truly escape their world is to fly right into it.
The genius of acclaimed author A.S. King reaches new heights in this groundbreaking work of surrealist fiction; it will mesmerize readers with its deeply affecting exploration of how we crawl through traumatic experience-and find the way out.
This was a cleverly written and fascinating book; however, it completely failed to grip me.
I've been reading this between books for over a month now, and every time I tell myself I'll just read a chapter of another book and go back. Sadly, there was never any point in this book where I really cared if I kept reading or not.
I did really adore the concept and some of the messages that were conveyed. I think a lot of people who went to my high school would relate to these characters and their coping mechanisms. This sends a powerful message about the stresses that teenagers these days go through.
King's writing is quite evocative, and I felt like every chapter in itself could be a prose poem--in fact, I probably would have adored certain chapters had they stood alone.
I'm not quite sure what just happened (I swear, on Tuesdays I will be seeing helicopters from now on) but I'll be thinking about these characters for a while yer.
If you can't pay attention to anything like me, then don't read this. I really recommend this to anyone who has a strong attention span and the ability to take their time. King's writing is very strong and I admire what she's done here.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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