Ask the Passengers

Locations
Call Number: Teen Fiction / King, A. S.
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / King, A. S.	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Astrid Jones copes with her small town's gossip and narrow-mindedness by staring at the sky and imagining that she's sending love to the passengers in the airplanes flying high over her backyard. Maybe they'll know what to do with it. Maybe it'll make them happy. Maybe they'll need it. Her mother doesn't want it, her father's always stoned, her perfect sister's too busy trying to fit in, and the people in her small town would never allow her to love the person she really wants to: another girl named Dee. There's no one Astrid feels she can talk to about this deep secret or the profound questions that she's trying to answer. But little does she know just how much sending her love--and asking the right questions--will affect the passengers' lives, and her own, for the better"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Sending love submitted by yugure on May 21, 2013, 2:55pm Well-crafted with believable characters and dialogue. Loved the conceit of sending love to the passengers on the plane. Astrid's family is both tragic and comic (perhaps tragicomic?) and I felt a great deal of sympathy for her. Sometimes I felt a little irritated with Astrid and what seemed to be excessive waffling, but then, I can't really blame her for that. She's going through quite a tough, confusing time. Also, about 3/4 of the way through I felt like the plot lost some of its momentum; I felt like the characters were just sitting around waiting for something to happen. But maybe that's King's point. Overall, a solid read.

A+ Coming of Age submitted by lcbuday on August 19, 2018, 1:52pm Love is important to seventeen-year-old Astrid Jones. Perhaps that's because she doesn't get much of it at home, ever since her family moved to tiny, closed-minded Unity Valley. Her mother stopped caring about her as soon as Astrid stepped out of her mega-achieving shadow; her dad spends most of his time getting high; and her younger sister Ellis has turned into a mean stereotype of a small-town girl. To make up for her failing relationships with her family, Astrid spends much of her time lying on picnic tables and staring at airplanes, sending all of her love to their passengers- after all, they won't reject it. (She also has frequently-occuring imaginary conversations with Socrates, but that's another story). But there's another reason that love has been on Astrid's mind lately- Dee Roberts. Astrid is captivated by the beautiful, funny, and talented field hockey player, who seems to understand Astrid like no one ever has before. But if Dee is a lesbian, and Astrid is in love with her... well, that makes Astrid a lesbian as well, doesn't it? And in a town as judgmental and vicious as Unity Valley, how can Astrid ever open up enough to be herself, or fall in love?

This is a beautiful, touching, and heartbreaking novel that will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever felt even a little bit like an outcast. Astrid is so real and compelling as a narrator that readers won't be able to help giving her all of the love that she deserves.