A review by liralen
Unaccompanied Minor by Hollis Gillespie
3.0
April, our fearless protagonist. Descended from a long line of airline workers, most recently her mother (off-scene in the book), her father (long since deceased), and her despised stepfather. At 14, April has spent much of her life on planes, and studying planes, and preparing to be a flight attendant as soon as she is legally able. She's smart. She's independent. She's deeply, deeply irritating.
She's also on the run, and it's going to take all her resources to free herself after a kidnapping, evade her stepfather -- and, oh yes, foil a hijacking.
It bears repeating: April is annoying. She has few filters, doesn't tend to apply rules to herself, and knows how to get under the skin of character after long-suffering character. But you also have to admire her -- she's tenacious, and creative, and has a (not entirely believable) understanding of planes to rival any professional. At 14, she's interested in flirting primarily out of curiosity; as a female protagonist in the land of YA literature, she's refreshing.
Plot-wise: Do I believe it? No. Not remotely. I'll believe what the author is telling me about planes (and, sure, trunks and airline regulations and so on) but not so much that April would have such extensive knowledge to draw on. The truly craptastic work of the family court strikes me as over the top. (My knowledge of any court is limited at best, so I could be wrong. But, well, it's kind of catastrophically bad here.) I'm not really sold on Flo's revelation.
Not going on my (hypothetical) list of Best Books Ever. Is going on my (also hypothetical) I Should Read the Sequel list.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
She's also on the run, and it's going to take all her resources to free herself after a kidnapping, evade her stepfather -- and, oh yes, foil a hijacking.
It bears repeating: April is annoying. She has few filters, doesn't tend to apply rules to herself, and knows how to get under the skin of character after long-suffering character. But you also have to admire her -- she's tenacious, and creative, and has a (not entirely believable) understanding of planes to rival any professional. At 14, she's interested in flirting primarily out of curiosity; as a female protagonist in the land of YA literature, she's refreshing.
Plot-wise: Do I believe it? No. Not remotely. I'll believe what the author is telling me about planes (and, sure, trunks and airline regulations and so on) but not so much that April would have such extensive knowledge to draw on. The truly craptastic work of the family court strikes me as over the top. (My knowledge of any court is limited at best, so I could be wrong. But, well, it's kind of catastrophically bad here.) I'm not really sold on Flo's revelation.
Not going on my (hypothetical) list of Best Books Ever. Is going on my (also hypothetical) I Should Read the Sequel list.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.