Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

“Hold on. You’re not an androgynous bookworm?” she asks, 

and pulls out her phone. “Shit. I need to update my files.”

ASK THE PASSENGERS

by A.S. King
Published October 2012 by Little, Brown
YA Contemporary - Hardcover, 304p.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions--like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.

In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything--and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK:

A few years ago, I read Please Ignore Vera Dietz and said it was one of the best books I've ever read and I stand by that. A.S. King is an auto-buy author for me, and ASK THE PASSENGERS only re-confirms that. When I want contemporary YA that will make me think, and struggle with emotions, and latch onto and love a flawed character, I pick up an A.S. King book.

In ASK THE PASSENGERS, Astrid struggles with her identity, being true to what she feels, and how to share herself with the world. She's coming to terms with her sexuality and dealing with a dysfunctional family on top of the usual teenaged high school troubles. She spends a lot of time lying on the picnic table in her backyard sending her love to the passengers of planes as they fly by overhead. The book jumps into the planes for a quick glimpse into different passengers' lives, which sounds like it might be distracting and pull the reader out of the story, but it's actually done really well. The connections made between Astrid and her struggles, and the passengers to whom she sends her love, are interesting, sometimes poignant, and add an extra dimension to the story.

Astrid's family is odd, and yet it's basically reflective of how every family has its own issues and ways of dealing with things. Her mom talks at her, her dad is pretty checked out, and her younger sister is reputation-obsessed. She struggles to find anyone to confide in and uses her time sending love up to the passengers above as a way to cope with what she's going through.

ASK THE PASSENGERS is as fantastically written as one expects an A.S. King novel to be and will take you through feeling both hopeless and hopeful, and wishing you could help Astrid out. The only problem with the book is it makes you remember you'll have to wait a while before the author's next is available (Glory O'Brien's History of the Future -- October 2014).

GET THE BOOK: Goodreads | Amazon | IndieBound

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

“Because with Charlie, nothing was ever easy. Everything was windswept and

octagonal and finger-combed. Everything was difficult and odd, and the theme

songs all had minor chords.”

PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ

by A.S. King
Published in 2010 by Knopf
YA - Hardcover, 336p.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK:

PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ is one of the best books I've ever read. Something about it just really grabbed me. It's both quirky and heart-wrenching. It's unpredictable, yet routine. It's like nothing I've seen before, but not at all hard to follow. I had to stop halfway through to sleep and then spent the entire next day at work wishing for a spare minute so I could pull the book out of my bag and read just one more page.

The story is mostly told by Vera Dietz, at present and in the past. She's supremely sarcastic, lovable, and sad. Her lifelong best friend, Charlie, dies months after betraying her, before they can make up, and you'll want to hate him. But you'll also sort of love him. You will absolutely feel sorry that he died. Every once in a while, the story is told by Vera's dad (and his flow charts), Charlie (from beyond the grave), and The Pagoda (a local spot, built from "delusional optimism and folly"), which sounds weird, but is actually perfect.

As Vera lives on after Charlie's death, and uncovers what happened on the night he died, we meet Jenny Flick. I've never hated a character in a book more than her. She's a heartless, manipulative liar. Sociopath? Probably. Whatever she is, I hated every second of her on the page, and that's the point, which means that she was written perfectly. You will want to punch her lights out.

By the end, I was simultaneously sad and proud. I spent the last several pages trying not to cry because of both feelings. I grew to love Vera Dietz and I wish I didn't have to let her go.

PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ with its interesting manner of storytelling and sensitive, smart-alecky main character will capture your heart right from the beginning and pull you along on an emotional, rewarding ride. Fans of John Green can't go wrong with this one.

GET THE BOOK: Goodreads | Amazon | IndieBound