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1) A.S. King writes some of my favourite main characters of all time. Characters that I genuinely love and want to hold hands with and hug and talk with.
2) Her use of magical realism is stunning and powerful and I want to write something with mag
So, here's the thing. I finished this book yesterday and I just couldn't tell you guys because IT WAS SO GREAT I CAN'T THINK OF HOW TO EXPLAIN HOW GREAT IT IS. I WILL be doing a video review about it with more thoughts, but here's some current thinkings:1) A.S. King writes some of my favourite main characters of all time. Characters that I genuinely love and want to hold hands with and hug and talk with.
2) Her use of magical realism is stunning and powerful and I want to write something with magical realism now because MAH.
3) A.S. King can be really brutal sometimes and I'm so appreciative.
4) I love that EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. has flaws and serious flaws and flaws they don't get over but flaws that certain people can accept.
<3
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Ask the Passengers is about Astrid, a senior in high school in the small, close-minded town of Unity Valley. Many of the people at her school are bigoted and the whole town is a vicious rumor mill. Her family is not understanding and for the most part they ignore her. So
I did not like this book. Ask the Passengers was disappointing because I wanted to like it, since I was interested in the premise and I knew it was an acclaimed novel. But I just had too many problems with this book to enjoy it.Ask the Passengers is about Astrid, a senior in high school in the small, close-minded town of Unity Valley. Many of the people at her school are bigoted and the whole town is a vicious rumor mill. Her family is not understanding and for the most part they ignore her. So Astrid immerses herself fully in her humanities class and become obsessed with the teachings of philosophers such as Zeno and Socrates. She also spends hours staring up and the sky and watching airplanes. To these airplanes and to the passengers they contain, Astrid sends an outpouring of love. She does this, because she has a secret girlfriend and is confused about her sexuality, so she wants to to give her love away on her own terms.
This book could have been really good. It dealt with important issues like society's expectations, how (and if you should) come out to family and friends, and the pressure of people's expectations. I felt for Astrid because her life was a struggle. But it almost felt unrealistic. Every character but Astrid in this book was pretty much a bad person and they were all so terribly mean to her that they seemed like overdrawn cartoon villains. It felt like a Cinderella story, and not a very convincing one. I was also not convinced by the love story, and in fact it made me uncomfortable. Astrid's girlfriend, Dee, violated Astrid's boundaries several times and exhibited behaviors akin to date rape. A.S. King, as an author, didn't really establish whether we were supposed to like Dee, and many times throughout the novel, Astrid wasn't even sure if she liked her, and she was made to feel intensely uncomfortable by her! She even thinks that Dee is always pushy towards her, and pressuring her, similar to the emotional abuse she suffers at the hands of her family. (view spoiler)[In the end, Astrid ends up with Dee, and King treats it like this is her happy ending. I'm sorry, but if your girlfriend tries not once, but multiple times to force herself on you, that's when you get the fuck out of that relationship. In the end, it felt like once Astrid finally escaped one abusive pattern (by standing up to her family), she just fell into another by sticking with her date rapist girlfriend. I thought this was a bad message. (hide spoiler)]
At first, I was really intrigued by the concept of Astrid sending her love to the passengers. The book is narrated in the first person by Astrid, except for every time she sends her love, it switches to a new first person narrator who is one of the passengers receiving her love. Cool concept, but poorly executed. All the passenger segments felt too cliche and were full of trite platitudes. It was like Bam! Some divorcee/drug user/heartbroken person was suddenly shot through by Astrid's burst of pure love and everything was better. Okie dokie. The plot was also nothing to write home about. For literally one half of the book this was all that happened: Astrid goes to humanities class, she avoids her family, she goes to work on the weekend, she almost gets date raped, she sneaks off to a gay club. Repeat. And then King would introduce things to the plot that would appear to be important, and then never revisit them. Example: (view spoiler)[Astrid meets a college age lesbian named Kim and they hit it off. Kim asks if she can kiss Astrid, and Astrid even thinks that Dee never asks before doing anything. They kiss and Kim gives Astrid her number. This would have been the perfect way for King to redeem the love story. Give Astrid a new love interest who respects her and doesn't physically intimidate her. But no. Kim never reappears. Seriously, I would have rather Astrid end up with this Kim character or just end up single while still aware of her sexuality than end up with her attempted date rapist. Sorry. That part really bothers me. (hide spoiler)]
The book also had a weird imaginative element that I found troubling and misplaced. Astrid is so lonely that she names Socrates (the dead philosopher) Frank, and actually imagines him wherever she goes. She carries on whole conversations with him and is distracted by this figment of her imagination to the point that other people notice. In fact, she seems kind of crazy and this isn't really addressed. To me, this suggests that Astrid is suffering from serious psychological issues, and not just that she's whimsical. Those sequences were just bizarrely executed and made me feel uncomfortable. There are also sequences where Astrid thinks she is being experimented on by aliens. This happens several times, to the point where I was unsure if it was actually happening. I thought that maybe this book was morphing into a weird sci-fi. But no, it's just Astrid's strange hallucinations again. She kind of seemed like a paranoid schizophrenic. But again, mental illness is never even suggested. If the tone of these scenes was supposed to be whimsical, King definitely missed the mark.
So I wouldn't recommend Ask the Passengers. While it had a sympathetic heroine, and I think it's important to have LGBT protagonists in YA lit, this one didn't do it for me. At times the book felt too preachy and pretentious. All the characters besides Astrid were unlikable. And the story delivered a troubling message about putting up with abuse.
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This is a story about Astrid, who's a nerd, loves studying philosophy and humanities and speaking to and sending love to passengers on the plane. More importantly, this book is about her struggling with her sexuality and wanting freedom from labels and wanting to find herself.
I was really enjoying myself reading the first half of this book. I loved Astrid's reflections, the perspective's we would get f
"I freed myself of something I was faking, and now I want to free myself of all my faking."This is a story about Astrid, who's a nerd, loves studying philosophy and humanities and speaking to and sending love to passengers on the plane. More importantly, this book is about her struggling with her sexuality and wanting freedom from labels and wanting to find herself.
I was really enjoying myself reading the first half of this book. I loved Astrid's reflections, the perspective's we would get from the passengers on the plane and how that related to her life. A big part of this story is that Astrid wants to send love to those passengers, wanting them to know they are loved and worthy because so much of it is missing from her life.
Other than Astrid, we get to know her family, friends and the town she lives in. I couldn't tolerate none of them.
Her family, especially her mother, is ridiculous and barely shows any kind of affection to her daughter. Her dad is stoned most of the time, but was tolerable. The relationship with her sister went up and down.
Her friends? They were a toxic lot. I couldn't stand them. Her girlfriend and her friends were pushy, controlling and inconsiderate. And even though we slightly get to know why they are the way they are, it wasn't developed enough for me for me to be understanding about their situation.
Her girlfriend, good lord. They claim they were in love, yet I felt no chemistry between them. That aspect of the plot was poor for me. I just couldn't get on board with them.
After the half-way point things just started to wane and get a bit boring and I just wanted things to wrap up.
Overall, this was an okay read. I appreciated the philosophical narrative that was included in the book, making Astrid question everything in the hopes of finding her own answers. I really liked the reflections we got from the passengers seeing how that related to Astrid's life and her sending love to them believing that it would reverberate back to her.
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This has been on my TBR a while. And from the few chapters I've read, I feel like I'm going to enjoy this book.
Ready for some heartache.
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3.5 stars
If you've read as much YA as I have, I am sure this story will sound VERY familiar to you. I myself have read it once, twice or three times, in one form or another, and each version was of a different quality. I want to repeat the blurb and say that Ask The Passengers is a "truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions," but it just isn't.
Astrid's is a story that's been told before. A teen who lives in a small town full
As seen on The Readventurer3.5 stars
If you've read as much YA as I have, I am sure this story will sound VERY familiar to you. I myself have read it once, twice or three times, in one form or another, and each version was of a different quality. I want to repeat the blurb and say that Ask The Passengers is a "truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions," but it just isn't.
Astrid's is a story that's been told before. A teen who lives in a small town full of close-minded people, possibly falls in love with a girl and questions her sexuality. She keeps her questions to herself for the time being, not sure of her own feelings and fearing reactions from her superficially accepting family and openly intolerant community. But one day Astrid's cover is blown and she is forced to face the fallout...
Although the book is an assemblage of popular tropes, especially the second part, abundant with acts of homophobia and fake gay-supportiveness, King's writing abilities and her unique touches of magical realism and quirk elevate this story from the been-there-done-that level. The novel shines because of its memorable, vivid characters and interesting family dynamics (you can't be bored by Astrid's high-strung NYC-nurtured mother and her laid-back, pot-smoking dad). The elements of magical realism brighten up the story as well. (If you are into that sort of thing; in my relationship with A.S. King's books, it's a hit or miss, sometimes the quirky and weird is too much for me to handle.) In Ask The Passengers imaginary Socrates follows Astrid through her troubles and infuses the book with old time philosophical musings, and Astrid's habit of sending her love to the passengers of flying-by planes adds another layer to the narrative, when these anonymous passengers return the favor by sharing their love and life stories with us, readers. These bits are refreshing and entertaining.
Besides the familiarity of the story I think my most acute concern is the one that Flannery talked about in her recent Something Like Normal review, easy and unearned forgiveness. There are many harsh things Astrid has to go through in this novel, thanks to people closest to her, things she doesn't deserve. But all is forgiven and forgotten in the end. This is not what a realistic resolution entails, at least not for cold-hearted me.
In her last three novels A.S. King has already undertaken the subjects well-used in YA - death and grief (Please Ignore Vera Dietz), bullying (Everybody Sees the Ants) and struggles of gay teens (Ask The Passengers). While I enjoy King's spin on all of these subjects (and she herself is a one cool lady and an author whose approach to her craft I respect immensely, based on this podcast), I wish she would stretch her wings of creativity and write about something... fresher.
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However, I just didn't love it. I didn't ever really root for the characters or connect with them, and though Astrid does develop quite a bit in terms of learning, her overall characterization didn't really expand a lot.
A beautifully written book about acceptance of yourself and others & coming of age/LBQT, but the actual story a As always, AS King's writing is beautiful and her themes and overall messages are great. I also really liked the magical realism aspect - if you can even call it that?
However, I just didn't love it. I didn't ever really root for the characters or connect with them, and though Astrid does develop quite a bit in terms of learning, her overall characterization didn't really expand a lot.
A beautifully written book about acceptance of yourself and others & coming of age/LBQT, but the actual story and characters just didn't do it for me. ...more
It was my first time to read a book that is about a relationship between a girl and a girl and knowing the ups and downs of a homosexual person. Usually, when it comes to this genre, I always read Levithan's work and this book from A.S. King is really an eye-opener for me.
This book is a story about Astrid Jones who is really confused in her sexuality and who is afraid to come out because of the judgmental type o
"I am equal to you. You are equal to me. It's that universal. Except that it's not."It was my first time to read a book that is about a relationship between a girl and a girl and knowing the ups and downs of a homosexual person. Usually, when it comes to this genre, I always read Levithan's work and this book from A.S. King is really an eye-opener for me.
This book is a story about Astrid Jones who is really confused in her sexuality and who is afraid to come out because of the judgmental type of town and family she's living into. She sometimes feels that no one loves her, and however finds happiness and love through her girlfriend and co-worker, Dee.
With this story, it will help you understand the obstacles and problems that the LGBT people feel. Even though in the story, her family especially her Mom can't even support her. I also didn't like Astrid's Mom.
Overall, this book is inspiring. It will teach you not to bothered in what other people are saying and that NOBODY'S PERFECT! :)
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King handles the subject matter PERFECTLY - an incredibly important book about loving yourself, ignoring small-minded people and how unnecessary labels are. *claps forever*
A lot of what teenage sex seems to be about is awkwardness, which leads to a whole lot of teenagers in books not talking about having sex before they have sex. Or else there's the scenario, 'We were thrown together by hormones/alcohol! Now perhaps I have regrets, but clearly it was not ME who made that sex-related decision, but hormones/alcoh
One of my favorite things about this book: it features two teenagers (who are dating) actually having a sensible conversation about sex before they have it.A lot of what teenage sex seems to be about is awkwardness, which leads to a whole lot of teenagers in books not talking about having sex before they have sex. Or else there's the scenario, 'We were thrown together by hormones/alcohol! Now perhaps I have regrets, but clearly it was not ME who made that sex-related decision, but hormones/alcohol, so that decision had nothing to do with either my brain or my emotions.'
However! You will be glad to learn that in this book this is not the case! There are indeed a number of occurrences where the main character thinks everything is too awkward to actually have conversations, but then – in the middle of the book – there is a real, live conversation about how she feels about having sex. This causes several more awkward occurrences and then yet another conversation where her girlfriend has clearly thought about that first conversation and has her own opinions that she'd like them to talk about before they proceed any further with the having-of-sex!
It's so nice to read a teen book where the set-up is not, 'Sex, it'll magically happen at a time when it feels right for both of you which you'll know psychically and without any verbal communication!'
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This is such a beautiful, very meaningful read and I'm kind of hating myself a little that it took me so long to pick this book up. Now I finally understand why Ask the Passengers won so many literary awards because it deserves all of it and more for this book has practically everything in it. It's a contemporary YA but it reads more like a general fiction and I do not find it impossible that one day, this may well become a literary classic as well.
Astrid, our main character is smack–
4.5 starsThis is such a beautiful, very meaningful read and I'm kind of hating myself a little that it took me so long to pick this book up. Now I finally understand why Ask the Passengers won so many literary awards because it deserves all of it and more for this book has practically everything in it. It's a contemporary YA but it reads more like a general fiction and I do not find it impossible that one day, this may well become a literary classic as well.
Astrid, our main character is smack–dab in the middle of the literal and metaphysical unknown. Call it teenage life crisis but I call it a quest for self discovery. She's 17 and all she has are questions and even more questions. Questions about their pretentious small town, about the philosophies of life particularly those of the fundamental ones posed by classic Greek philosophers as Zeno and Socrates, about her dysfunctional family, about her best friends (Justin and Kristina) pretending to be in love with each other when in truth they're both in love with the members of the same sex, and about her own sexuality because she might be in love with a girl but she couldn't know for sure.
It's amazing, the concepts and themes this simple plot is able to pull off with that genius use of life snippets from the different random people on a plane as every day, Astrid lies down her picnic table to watch as each plane goes by, sending her love to the passengers in it.
"It feels good to love a thing and not expect anything back."
Written in the main character's perspective, this is one of the most genuine, all-encompassing YA novels I have read laced with wit, charm, sarcasm, and humor, and a sprinkling of magical-realism and yes, I guess this now makes me automatically an A.S. King fan. Special thanks to Neil for recommending me this book. I've only read one other book by the author but I might agree with him as early as now that this too is my favorite.
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What a voice. Astrid's perception of her surroundings struck me as wise
Astrid Jones sends her love to strangers. She gives it away to passengers in the sky, because that's the only way she'll be free. Her demanding, over-controlling mother talks at her, her dad smokes pot, and her sister worries too much about her reputation to be of any help. Living in a small town has its downsides, and Astrid realizes just how damaging those downsides are when she finds herself falling in love - with a girl.What a voice. Astrid's perception of her surroundings struck me as wise yet authentic; her narration has a relaxed that endured her to me. Through her I witnessed the conflicts within a dysfunctional family and a small town. Ask the Passengers is the wonderful story of a questioning young protagonist searching for her place in the world, and A.S. King's writing supplemented the adventure. The inclusion of philosophy and other quirks within the story make it a unique one amongst the YA LGBT canon.
I also appreciated the magical realism in Ask the Passengers. Magical realism is usually hit or miss for me, so I'm glad that King's subtle use of it in this novel only added to its overall appeal.
Overall this wasn't the most original, earth-shaking coming of age or coming out story I've ever read but I enjoyed it. Even though this is my first A.S. King book I can tell she's a force to be reckoned with in the YA genre.
*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.
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"Equality is obvious. First, to define equality. Then to define obvious. I mean, I can even try to define is if I want, because equality isn't really working in the present tense, is it? Because equality isn't really obvious to most people. And I don't mean to say the world is filled with racists or sexists or homophobes. I mean to say: Everybody's always looking for the person they're better than."
Ask the Passengers is mainly about breaking free about society's definition and label but thi
"Equality is obvious. First, to define equality. Then to define obvious. I mean, I can even try to define is if I want, because equality isn't really working in the present tense, is it? Because equality isn't really obvious to most people. And I don't mean to say the world is filled with racists or sexists or homophobes. I mean to say: Everybody's always looking for the person they're better than."
Ask the Passengers is mainly about breaking free about society's definition and label but this book is surprisingly more than that. A. S. King is one of my favorite authors. And this novel is my favorite among her novels.
I love her other books but in Ask the Passengers, I do felt the rush of hope, happiness and love within me after reading the book. It was like my blood is brimming with positive energy and my whole self was screaming, I am alive.
Though, there are sad parts as well; in the end, it's the joy and hope reigned. I don't know exactly why. Maybe because of the main character, Astrid Jones. Maybe, even I can't relate to her situation (or maybe I quite do) she affected me that big time.
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• Their mother hardly ever leaves the house. But she's stuck-up, and thinks she's above it all for keeping her fancy New York job.
• The dad is a stoner – if he's not making birdhouses, he's taking a toke in the shed.
• Youngest daughter, Ellis, is a mean hockey player. She fits right in here, a real small-town girl.
• That Astrid Jones is a weird one – don't know how she came to be friends with the nice Ho
• Their mother hardly ever leaves the house. But she's stuck-up, and thinks she's above it all for keeping her fancy New York job.
• The dad is a stoner – if he's not making birdhouses, he's taking a toke in the shed.
• Youngest daughter, Ellis, is a mean hockey player. She fits right in here, a real small-town girl.
• That Astrid Jones is a weird one – don't know how she came to be friends with the nice Homecoming couple, Kristina and Justin. Did you know she really enjoyed her philosophy class (but hates Zeno of Elea)? Did you know she lies down on a picnic table in their backyard? Just lies there, for hours, staring at nothing.
But if people in Unity Valley knew the truth about a life in motion and how growing up is already a kaleidoscope of confusing without sexuality being thrown into the mix… they'd probably say something like this:
• That mother has never loved her eldest daughter. She only has 'mummy and me' days with the younger sister, Ellis. Truth is, she doesn't much care for her daughter, Astrid – doesn't really like her all that much.
• The dad smokes weed because he still regrets packing his family up and moving them from New York into this small town where the highlight of his year is the great stapler thief at work.
• Ellis cares about what everyone thinks. Everyone. And she doesn't appreciate other people's assumptions that all hockey players are lesbians (even if she knows of at least two on her team and a rival school's). Gross. Can't they go off and have their lesbian luncheons somewhere else?
• Astrid Jones might be a lesbian. Maybe. Possibly. In all likelihood. Because she loves kissing her co-worker, Dee Roberts, even if she's not yet ready to say 'Abracadabra' and get hotter and heavier with her. But Astrid doesn't want to come out. Because she's seen Kristina and Justin intricately hide their respective boyfriend and girlfriend for two years now – and she can just imagine what Unity Valley would say if they knew how different she really was.
'Ask the Passengers' is the new novel from Printz honour author, A.S. King.
This novel has only been out as of October 23, but it's already made the Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2012 list. And I'm inclined to think that that's just the beginning… because, as usual, A.S. King is a unique force unto herself and 'Ask the Passengers' is truly spectacular for being a quirky, but relatable story, about a girl struggling to find herself.
First of all, it should be noted that there aren't enough LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) young adult books out there. As the Young Adult Library Service Association's blog pointed out recently, "There are 55 queer YA novels being published in in 2012, meaning that queer YA is just 1.6% of all YA coming out this year." That's pretty bloody atrocious. Especially when you think that one of the main reasons anybody reads is to see a little of themselves reflected on the page – to connect to something in a character that they can relate to, struggle through or learn from. It's awful to think that LGBT teens don't have as many books offered to them with characters that reflect their experience or speak to them on an emotional/romantic level. So that's one reason why A.S. King's new novel 'Ask the Passengers' is so refreshing and important – merely for being apart of that 1.6%.
I love A.S. King. I think she's one of the most important YA authors to have emerged in the last ten years or so. I never read a King novel and say "she reminds me of…" No. A.S. King doesn't remind me of anyone but herself – sure, I can see her influences include Kurt Vonnegut but when I crack open an A.S. King novel I always find something wholly original and crazy/beautiful, and come away truly believing that I've just read a little piece of her manic soul on the page. You know that old quote: "Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed"? I really, truly believe that of A.S. King because with all her novels it feels like she's opening wounds and serving up her characters in their raw, bloodiest form. And it also feels like she's slicing open a little part of the reader – opening up a window in us to look through and connect with her characters on the page, and herself by extension. And she does it again with Astrid Jones and 'Ask the Passengers'.
Astrid is in many ways your typical teenage girl. She hates trigonometry (triangles – it's all triangles!), isn't as cool as her best friend Kristina, had a messy break-up with her ex-boyfriend, thinks her younger sister is the 'favourite' and hasn't had a memorable conversation with her mother since she moved the family to Unity Valley from New York when Astrid was nine. But in many ways not easily seen on the surface, Astrid is trying to cope with being a big-minded girl in a small-town. She's keeping Kristina and Justin's homosexuality a secret. She knows her dad is stoned 99% of the time. She thinks her mum is borderline agoraphobic, and that her sister, Ellis, is small-mindedly homophobic. This is particularly troubling since Astrid has recently started kissing her co-worker, Dee Roberts, and liking it. A lot.
Something I love about King's exploration of Astrid's sexuality in this novel is that she asks the taboo questions and explores all aspects of wondering what it means to be kinda-sorta-maybe-possibly gay;
But now all I can think about is Dee and how this all started. How she told me how gorgeous I was. How flattered I felt. How exhilarating it was to be wanted. This is why I doubt. It's the loophole. It's the question no one ever wants to ask.
Am I doing this out of desperation? Is it some weird phase I'm going through? And why, if any of the answers are yes, does it feel so right?
There is a 747 high, leaving a crisp white line through the cloudless autumn sky. I ask the passengers: Am I really gay?
But they don't answer me. They are reading their in-flight magazines and sipping ginger ale. I send them love – as much as I can gather. I ask them: What do I do now?
I think this is distilled particularly brilliantly in an exchange between Astrid and her mum – when her mum says "you're either born gay or you're not." Which is the very accepting notion that 'gayness' isn't a choice, it's who you are. But that doesn't leave much wriggle-room for Astrid to explore how she feels – about Dee, about girls, about dancing at the only gay bar in town, Atlantis.
Of course, this is Unity Valley and King can't go past making a mockery of that name. She pulls some really weighty ideas into this novel without ever preaching to the reader. I was particularly chilled by a scene in Astrid's humanities class; they're learning about the holocaust and the Jews, Gypsies, black, cripples, and homosexuals who were killed. Of that list – a boy pipes up to say the Nazi's "got it right" about the homosexuals. Amazing, isn't it? All these prejudices we've conquered (but not entirely eradicated) often after bloody battles and hard-won freedom rights. But same-sex marriage still isn't recognized and homosexuality is still a crime in some parts of the world – and if some people had their way, it would be illegal in some small-minded towns of America too. How far have we come, really?
I think if we kept a calendar of who gets called gay in high school, there would be a new person on every single day of the 180-day school year. Gay, dyke, fag, lesbo, homo, whatever. Every single one of us has heard it somewhere along the ride. It's more common than the flu. More contagious, too. Nobody gossips about whether you have the flu or not.
King's key to dealing with these rather heavy topics is Astrid. She's a wonderful protagonist – both snarky, clever, thoughtful and lost. She's pitch-perfect in every way, and we're able to navigate the rather awful torrential waters of high school bullying only because we have Astrid's sarcastic defences and thoughtful contemplation to help us through. It also helps that this isn't a strictly LGBT-only book. King draws in a plethora of issues – like a not so great best friend who thinks she has more to lose than Astrid, a distant mother, determinedly ignorant father and Astrid missing the sisterly bond she and Ellis used to have. Yes, this is as an LGBT book – but King doesn't write one-dimensional characters or issues. She's pulling in stories about struggling friendships and a choking home life. Also refreshing in a LGBT novel is the added discussion of sexual pressure – when Astrid's more experienced girlfriend is desperate to get hot n' heavy but Astrid isn't quite ready yet.
This being an aforementioned wholly original A.S. King novel, I guess some people would like to know right away what the 'quirk' is. In 'Please Ignore Vera Dietz' our protagonist was haunted by paper cut outs of her dead best friend, and her father provided helpful flow-charts for the reader to follow. In 'Everybody Sees the Ants' our young Lucky Linderman blurs reality as he dreams of saving his POW grandfather from the jungles of Laos. In 'Ask the Passengers' Astrid has a habit of laying on a picnic table and sending her love up to the airplane passengers flying overhead – and in small vignettes we read the repercussions of all that love. Oh, and she's taken to speaking to an imaginary friend who is actually (Frank) Socrates – the classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Yes, it's trademark King quirky. And I know some people think they don't "get" these little asides that King writes so beautifully and mesmerizingly. But there's really nothing to "get". Life is crazy, A.S. King's characters just so happen to sometimes manifest that craziness.
I loved everything about 'Ask the Passengers'. I always love King's quirky-cool stories in which she offers her heart on the page. Astrid's story is particularly important for being part of the 1.6% of LGBT young adult fiction to come out of 2012 – but that statistic aside, 'Ask the Passengers' is just a damn good story about struggling with small-town minds when you're a burgeoning philosopher.
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Astrid Jones is from a small town called Unity Valley. We meet her at a time when she's struggling to understand her sexual orientation and how and when she wants to make it public to family and friends. She can't quite open up to her mother, which she finds hard to connect with o
Very unique story that was shared with a sense of levity by an immediately likeable character. It was because of the smooth, funny, thoughtful narrative that allowed me to enjoy this novel about a very serious subject.Astrid Jones is from a small town called Unity Valley. We meet her at a time when she's struggling to understand her sexual orientation and how and when she wants to make it public to family and friends. She can't quite open up to her mother, which she finds hard to connect with or her oblivious father, so she spends her time in the yard staring up at the sky and sending her love to the passengers flying above. She shares her feelings with strangers because it's safe and easy. However, one night when she gets caught with her girlfriend and everything comes tumbling around her, friends and family seem to disappoint her, so she resorts back to passengers in the sky.
I REALLY liked Astrid! She kept me busy with her insightful ramblings and philosophical debates. She carried on internal monologues with the passengers in the sky, Frank Socrates, herself, her brain people… just about everyone. Through her musings, I came to understand her frustrations and worries.
Throughout the story, I wanted to yell at everyone around her to just shut up and let Astrid breathe! This poor girl was trying to figure herself out, and I felt like her parents, friends and girlfriend were pushing her to admit and make decisions she just wasn't ready to make. To top it off, she was betrayed by her best friend at the most difficult times, so I felt frustrated for the main character. I wanted them all to cut her break and let her think and breathe.
Overall, Ask the Passengers is a breath of fresh air that grapples with a very real and serious subject in a manner that was relatable and worthy of applause. Well done!
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Okay, it's official. I think A.S. King is one of the very best YA writers out there. Ask the Passengers is only my second experience with King, but I loved it just as much as, perhaps even more than, the first one I read, Everybody Sees the Ants. Even better, King falls into that realm of authors who can do something totally new every time. She has some themes in common, but the books themselves are very different. One has a younger male teen lead, one a
Originally posted on A Reader of Fictions.Okay, it's official. I think A.S. King is one of the very best YA writers out there. Ask the Passengers is only my second experience with King, but I loved it just as much as, perhaps even more than, the first one I read, Everybody Sees the Ants. Even better, King falls into that realm of authors who can do something totally new every time. She has some themes in common, but the books themselves are very different. One has a younger male teen lead, one an older female teen, and both voices come through completely authentic. I am always so incredibly impressed by authors who can vary their subject matter, style and characters so much, sort of reinventing themselves with each book.
I just adore King's writing. She is, for me, one of the most quotable authors. Her writing isn't overly complex, but it gets the feelings and the point across so incredibly strongly. There are so many lines that I wanted to read aloud to my friend on vacation with me so that she could appreciate King's brilliance, but I couldn't because I'm so making her read this book next.
Ask the Passengers focuses on the theme of belonging, of identity, of self-discovery, and of peer pressure. Astrid Jones doesn't want to be put into boxes, doesn't want to be forced to be any one thing. She just wants to be Astrid Jones, whoever that is. Why does it have to matter so much whether we're gay or straight, white or brown, religious or agnostic, male or female, wealthy or poor, popular or unpopular? Astrid struggles with everyone's expectations and perceptions, afraid to be who she is but also unwilling to pretend to be something or someone else.
These themes resonated with me, because, really, who the fuck cares about those things? I mean, COME ON, it's the 21st century and we're still so caught up in defining things one way or another and on what's right that gay marriage is legal hardly anywhere. King brings up a lot of powerful issues and looks at the issue of being a girl in love with a girl in a different way than I have yet seen, and really made me consider the issue from a new angle. Plus, I sympathized with her desire to not have anyone know her business, because that's totally how I am. Why does everyone need to know?
Of course, the book also has humor, because the best issues books are imbued with humor, because a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down. The whole opening plot is about how Astrid is weighed down by all of these secrets, those of her friends, her family and herself. Her friends, Justin and Kristina, are a power couple at school, the kind to be nominated for Homecoming King and Queen. Every Friday, they go on double dates with another couple, Donna and Chad. Actually, though, Justin's dating Chad and Kristina's dating Donna. SCANDAL! The only one who knows is Astrid, who's trying to decide whether to confess that she's actually dating a girl too, Dee, who works with her. I thought the whole situation was a hot mess, but I loved how theatrical it was. This would make a fantastic indie film. Just saying.
Another thing that I loved about the book, one which I could definitely see alienating some readers is Astrid's newly developed fascination with philosophy in general and Socrates in particular. I love philosophy myself, but the frequent discussions of it could put off some people. Even more than that, the philosophy takes a weird turn, in that Astrid creates an imaginary friend version of Socrates, who she dubs Frank Socrates; he helps her out along the way, making her question her behavior and what she holds true. I thought this worked, because of how motivated Astrid was by him and just her sheer exuberance about the class in general, but I do think it's interesting that both of her MCs I've read so far have had imaginary friends. Very odd, that.
My very favorite thing, though, was the part that gave the book its title: Astrid's love of planes and their passengers. Astrid does this thing where she will lie on the ground or on picnic tables and stare up at the sky, watching for planes. When she sees planes, she sends the passengers her love, along with her questions and frustrations, in a way of trying to help other people feel more loved and comfortable than she herself does. That was awesome just in and of itself. Better still, though, were the snippets of other people's stories (though a couple were too off the wall for me), showing the effect her little bits of love sent into the universe had on someone or other on the plane. These were all incredibly touching and moving, and I loved this little dose of magical realism.
I do know that everyone probably won't love A.S. King; I suspect her books will just be too weird for a lot of people. I, however, love them and want to strongly urge everyone who liked thought-provoking, quirky, clever books to read them. From what I can tell, A.S. King does not have anywhere near the name recognition and popularity she deserves.
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Just skip all the passages about airplanes, their passengers, and humanities class. You won't be missing much.
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'It's not a guy?'
I shake my head.
Justin hoots. 'Dude! You're one of us!'
I keep shaking my head, and I add a shrug, but I'd be lying if I told you that his excitement and invitation into -one of them- isn't making me cringe. Because I'm not in this to be a member of some club. I'm not going through this so I can lock myself into the -one of them- box.
'So, you're questioning?' she says.
'I guess.'
Astrid Jones goes to Un
"'I don't know. I'm still not even sure, I don't think. I mean, how do I know?''It's not a guy?'
I shake my head.
Justin hoots. 'Dude! You're one of us!'
I keep shaking my head, and I add a shrug, but I'd be lying if I told you that his excitement and invitation into -one of them- isn't making me cringe. Because I'm not in this to be a member of some club. I'm not going through this so I can lock myself into the -one of them- box.
'So, you're questioning?' she says.
'I guess.'
Astrid Jones goes to Unity Valley High School, in what can best be described as a quaint, and very narrow-minded, small town near Philadelphia. Her family moved to UV from New York City, and the transition has taken its toll on Astrid, her parents, and her younger sister, Ellis, in different ways. Astrid works part-time for a local catering company, and she's been fooling around a little with Dee Roberts, an out lesbian from a neighboring school district. Astrid knows she feels differently about Dee than she has with past boyfriends, and Astrid's friends Justin and Kristina, each secretly seeing a partner, try to pry a definitive "gay or not?" answer out of Astrid. But Astrid simply isn't sure, and she resents the way everyone around her keeps pushing her to choose one side or another. For Astrid, the question of whether she's gay has nothing to do with sex, but is wrapped up in feelings of love.
Astrid copes with the gossip around the town, and her family dynamics, by watching airplanes pass over her house, and sending her love up to the passengers above. She feels she doesn't need it for herself, so she might as well give it away to those who might need it. The interactions between Astrid and the passengers on flights throughout the book will remind King's fans of the chorus of ants, or the talking Pagoda, from earlier novels. That supernatural strain in her work is evident here, but it's most effective (for me) because King introduces it subtly, and doesn't overuse the device.
After a fateful night at a local gay club, where Astrid feels she can finally be herself, events come to a head - Astrid's parents press her for some definition of her identity, as do her friends. And Astrid can't figure out why the boxes that others seek for us need to be so definite and final.
This one has all the trademark elements of King's novels that readers have come to expect - the aforementioned supernatural, the humor, the strong primary and secondary characters, and the crystal-clear depiction of high school culture - are here, to tremendous effect. For me, _Vera Dietz_ and _Everybody Sees the Ants_ were outstanding, and began at points where the plot elements were already stirred up (beginning with Charlie's funeral, etc.); from there, those novels worked to gradually "settle down," and let the plot resolve itself. In this book, it worked in reverse for me - this book started quiet, and got louder as it went along (literally loud, in Astrid's case). The pacing is fantastic, and Astrid's situations with her family, friends, Humanities class are woven together tremendously. I've already read a few reviews of this book, that seem to take King for task for avoiding the word "bisexual," but I think that misses the larger point of the novel. I appreciate the questioning and unsure nature of Astrid - that's what adolescence is, regardless of sexual identity, but it's complicated even more by what Astrid is going through. Really, just read the book - if you've read other King books, you won't be disappointed, If not, this would be a fantastic place to start.
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Astrid Jones feels alone and confused and lost, but rather than wallow in that, rather than try to figure herself or her family out, she sends her love to everyone around her. Sh
Could King be any better? Seriously. This is my favorite of her books, hands down. I also think it might be the most accessible but it does not stray from her style of infusing the real with a bit of the fantastic. There are a striking number of similarities to EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS but it's subtle. Very, very subtle.Astrid Jones feels alone and confused and lost, but rather than wallow in that, rather than try to figure herself or her family out, she sends her love to everyone around her. She loves sending it up to the passengers in the planes who fly over her tiny, rural town. It's her escape from this place, from herself, and from her life.
This is a story about sexuality and about love and acceptance -- all of the self, not of anyone else. Astrid struggles to figure out where she fits in, when the truth is, she just needs to keep a little bit of that love she's sharing for herself. It's also a story about people and individuals and how amazing it is we even exist. That that in and of itself is worth appreciating and loving.
Amid Astrid's narrative are snippets of stories from the passengers in the planes above and I absolutely loved them. They fit so perfectly with Astrid's own struggle. And the plane metaphor in and of itself was brilliant without being over the top. We're all our own pilots but we all carry other people with us. Our destines are our own to control but we aren't alone.
King nails small town life like few are able to do. This book had a shocking number of similarities to M Molly Backes's THE PRINCESSES OF IOWA (down to the way the family operates, the mother-sister relationship, the facade and image needing to be presented to have status in a small town, the need for tolerance and respect for people, sexuality). These would be incredible read alikes because Astrid and Paige are so different and operate so differently from one another. Also, I think this would be an interesting read alike to THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME BUT THE HILLS DON'T MIND by Kirsten Cronn-Mills. Astrid is almost a perfect hybrid of Morgan and Paige and their situations and stories.
There's plenty of philosophy in this one, and there's the voices in Astrid's head which operate a bit like the ants do in Lucky's mind. What I love about King's work is how internally focused it is, how much it's about the individual and what's going in in their minds. When Astrid breaks out though, does she break out.
Readers won't walk away with a story about sexuality or a message about it, even though it's part of what the story's about (that's where this is a smart, smart book). So, there aren't going to be a whole lot of labels tossed around or a real in-depth exploration of bisexuality or homosexuality. This is a story about being a person, not a label.
This book walks a fine line between being utterly sad and utterly hopeful and because of that, I held my breath many times, with the goal of not shedding a tear. But then I read the last couple of pages and knew what side of that sad/hopeful line the story fell and, well, I needed some kleenex.
Longer review to come. One of my favorite reads in a long time.
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Maybe it's the unique touch of magical realism. Here, King creates a perfect balance of the real and the fake, making the story grounded in reality but with an extra touch.
Astrid's family dynamics are also a plus. Her uptight mother and laid-back father make a conflicting dynamic. A.S. King makes all these characters so dynamic and
This is definitely a solid novel of the "gay coming out" genre. Yet there's something about this story that elevates it beyond the typical "I can't come out" angst.Maybe it's the unique touch of magical realism. Here, King creates a perfect balance of the real and the fake, making the story grounded in reality but with an extra touch.
Astrid's family dynamics are also a plus. Her uptight mother and laid-back father make a conflicting dynamic. A.S. King makes all these characters so dynamic and interesting that you can't help but care for all of them.
In the end, I think the main thing that sets this story apart is Astrid's character. Her philosophical questioning, with the help of a maybe-real Socrates, is enjoyable and elevates the novel.
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When I first started this book this summer, I just stopped 30 pages in, for no particular reason. But then I decided that I heard too many good things about it and should give it a new try, so that's what I did, and I'm glad.
Astrid lives in a small town where everybody gossip about everybody, where some people think Holocaust never happened, where being gay is a sin and some people walk around with 'straight pride' t-shirts Wow, this book is the proof that I should give second chances more often.
When I first started this book this summer, I just stopped 30 pages in, for no particular reason. But then I decided that I heard too many good things about it and should give it a new try, so that's what I did, and I'm glad.
Astrid lives in a small town where everybody gossip about everybody, where some people think Holocaust never happened, where being gay is a sin and some people walk around with 'straight pride' t-shirts. And she's trying to figure out what it means, for her, to be in love with a girl, does it mean she's gay or just attracted to this one particular girl ? Let's just say she's having a rough time and her friends being absolutely sure of who they are and pushing her to do things she doesn't want to ain't helping her at all. But if there is one thing she's sure about, it's that she doesn't want to 'get out of the closet' just to be put in another box, she doesn't want that, she wants to take her time and understand who she is. And she does it so well. She's questioning everything and finding her own answers, not the ready-made ones. She's understanding what it means to be gay - or just out - in the 21st century. At the end of this book, she's so damn strong, and if it's not a huge character development I don't know what it is.
I'd really like to talk about Astrid's family, they're so important in this story. Her mom is typically the person who has no problem with people being gay as long as it doesn't apply to one of her daughters, and she always needs to have control over everything and above all over what others think about her and her family. But she's also the embodiment of family comes first, so if one of her daughters is gay, she'll go to war for her, you just have to let her some time to get used to it. Her sister is the person who doesn't have a mind of her own, she'll think what you tell her to think, but not because she's bad, because she afraid of not fitting in. She just needs someone to show her that being strong and independent is and will always be the most important thing ever. And her dad... I really really liked him, because he's just a happy dude, if you're happy then it's the only thing that matters to him.
This book definitely deserves some love, because it's what the story is about, of giving love to people you don't know but who probably need it anyway.
4.25
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Astrid's family was my main problem. Her father is a stoner who acts like he isn't a part of this family, her mother is ignoring Astrid most of the time and when she's finally talking to her it's only to say awful things (t
I've had a hard time trying to rate this book. I did enjoy the first half of the story, but the second half got a bit too depressing and repetitive. There were lots of issues that never got resolved and some characters behaved horribly without any consequences or explanation.Astrid's family was my main problem. Her father is a stoner who acts like he isn't a part of this family, her mother is ignoring Astrid most of the time and when she's finally talking to her it's only to say awful things (to be honest she was almost comically mean) and her sister is a narrow minded asshole.
I know every family has its problems, but I hate unsupportive parents and siblings in books. Maybe that's because my mom and brother have always been supportive or maybe it's just because it makes me really sad when someone is suffering so much and feeling completely alone. It just bugged me that Astrid didn't feel loved by her family for most part of the book and we never even got an explanation why her mother was so terrible to her.
Another thing that bothered me was that everyone (her friends, her girlfriend, her parents) kept pressuring Astrid to come out, even though she said she wasn't ready. She was being treated like shit by everyone and that made me so angry.
For anyone not liking magical realism in contemporary stories: this book has a lot of magical realism. I normally love that, but it didn't work for me here. The passages about airplanes and their passengers bored me, I had to force myself not to skip those parts.
I realize this all sounds very negative, yet I'm giving this book 3 stars (or 2.5 stars really, if goodreads would let me). Yes, a lot of things annoyed me, but Astrid was an interesting character and even though I felt angry and sad I couldn't stop reading. I enjoyed the plot overall, so I think 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars is a fair rating.
TW: absent and toxic parents.
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This was ??? an interesting read, capturing the life of a teenager struggling with her sexuality in a pretty close-minded small town and whilst some parts were great other elements could've been done a lot better.
I LOVED the writing style. The author captures the voice of a teenager struggling with her sexuality v well and Astrid's thoughts are not only genuine but relatable - especially when she holds hypothetical conversations in her head, with herself and other people. I also loved t
3.5 starsThis was ??? an interesting read, capturing the life of a teenager struggling with her sexuality in a pretty close-minded small town and whilst some parts were great other elements could've been done a lot better.
I LOVED the writing style. The author captures the voice of a teenager struggling with her sexuality v well and Astrid's thoughts are not only genuine but relatable - especially when she holds hypothetical conversations in her head, with herself and other people. I also loved the integration of the various lives of passengers often in response to Astrid "speaking" to them idk but it was v interesting to read and executed really well.
I actually really genuinely liked Astrid as well. Sure, she sounds like a John Green character at first - a self-proclaimed nerd whose favourite class is humanities and reads Plato for fun. Still there was something about her character which hit hard, and the fact that she goes around mentally reaching out to people and "giving them love" because she feels like it isn't needed, because nobody loves her, made me smile and weep at the same time.
Unfortunately I can't really say the same for the other characters. Over the course of the book Dee goes from unlikeable to tolerable which unfortunately made it hard for me to feel invested in their relationship and the other characters just kinda drift in the realm of indifference.
The thing which bothered me the most, and probably why I haven't rated this higher, is the fact that not once is bisexuality mentioned, not even when Astrid is questioning her sexuality - everyone in the book acts like the only options were straight or gay. And yeah I get that it's in a small town context et al but it's still a book trying to discuss LGBTQ+ issues whilst effectively erasing bisexuality.
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She doesn't have anyone to love so she sends her love to planes passing over-head, hoping someone will send some back.
This book is one of those 'books with main gay character where the story is all about the character being gay' ones. I still think it was brilliant, and very poignant, in the way it showed how Astrid hated being lab
Astrid desperately wants to talk to someone. Someone other than her overbearing mother, stoner of a father, distant sister, or even her pushy friends and girlfriend.She doesn't have anyone to love so she sends her love to planes passing over-head, hoping someone will send some back.
This book is one of those 'books with main gay character where the story is all about the character being gay' ones. I still think it was brilliant, and very poignant, in the way it showed how Astrid hated being labeled, and that was the reason she didn't want to come out, for fear of constantly being labeled as 'the gay girl'.
Or that gayness is so frequently assumed of being all about sex instead of substance and friendship.
Astrid was very relatable, for me and probably a lot of people. She hated all these boxes people wanted to put her in and just wanted to escape so she could be herself without the judgement and overreactions.
The 'small town, everyone knows everything about you' cliche was a bit annoying (I live in a small town, and the thing about everyone knowing everyone is not true at all).
There was also moments where it felt a bit strange or unrealistic. E.g., the philosophy class was ridiculous. I've never been in public high school but I'm not sure students get that into projects or assignments.
But it was a very important, very real, 'screw labels' story and I really enjoyed it.
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To love this book, you need to love its narrator, and for me at least Astrid is impossible not to love.
Sure, she's a questioning teenager, and she's confused - but she's sensible too. She's hurt, but resilient; emotional, but rational.
Her voice is calm, even through the hurdles she has to overcome, and when she finally loses her cool, she does it in a way that only made me appreciate her more.
T
Lovely story - understated, but incredibly gripping. And my love for A.S. King is confirmed once again.To love this book, you need to love its narrator, and for me at least Astrid is impossible not to love.
Sure, she's a questioning teenager, and she's confused - but she's sensible too. She's hurt, but resilient; emotional, but rational.
Her voice is calm, even through the hurdles she has to overcome, and when she finally loses her cool, she does it in a way that only made me appreciate her more.
Through her eyes, you get to see a cast of characters that's just as interesting as her, though often far less likeable - but then, as objective as Astrid can be, we're still seeing everything through her eyes - and their little journeys right alongside hers only dragged me deeper into the story.
The relationships between the characters feel extremely realistic and their actions are consistent with their personalities all the way through, but that doesn't preclude a certain fluidity and depth in their personalities that makes them that much more authentic.
I love how we got to see some of Astrid's schooldays too. I feel like that's something that's been missing from my last few YA novels, and it's interesting to see how the American school system differs from the Italian one - and how some things are exactly the same. Astrid, Zeno of Elea drove me batshit too - but then that's the fun of it, isn't it?
There are short surprise segments sprinkled throughout the book that I hadn't expected, but absolutely delighted me for some reason. They're a little mysterious (is it Astrid's mind? is it truth? is it fiction?) and often heartwarming, and I don't want to spoil them. Just know they're there and you'll probably love them.
It's not a story that's never been written before, and it's not a story without its share of flaws - a bit of cheesiness here, not enough emotion there; but it's fresh and warm and comforting, and it has a protagonist I'll hold close to my heart for a while.
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Look for Amy's work in anthologies DEAR BULLY, BREAK THESE RULES, ONE DEATH NINE STORIES, and LOSING IT. Two more YA novels to come in 2016 & 2018. Find more at www.as-king.com.
p.s.- If I don't accept your friend request, don't feel sad. It's because I don't really use Goodreads even though I'm completely thrilled that you do!
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