{Review} Flyaway by Lucy Christopher

Title: Flyaway
Author: Lucy Christopher
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Chicken House
Release date: October 1, 2011
Date Read: May 28, 2013 - June 2, 2013
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭

One cold winter morning, Dad gets sick – and goes into hospital. It’s there I meet Harry, with his scruffy hair and firefly eyes. From his window we watch a wild swan on the frozen lake outside. There’s something different about her, truly different. Almost magical. Perhaps, if we can help her, everything else will begin to make sense.

While visiting her father in hospital, Isla meets Harry, the first boy to understand her and her love of the outdoors. But Harry is ill, and as his health fails, Isla is determined to help him in the only way she knows how.

Together they watch a lone swan struggling to fly on the lake outside Harry’s window. Isla believes that if she can help the damaged swan, somehow she can help Harry. And in doing so, she embarks upon a breathtakingly magical journey of her own.

One of the reasons I love Lucy Christopher's books so much are because they're real. She knows that the teenagers reading her books aren't stupid, and instead of treating her younger teenage readers like they're nine, she gives us a novel that can be read by anyone.

Seeing as the narrator of FLYAWAY is a thirteen year-old girl, Lucy Christopher could've written a juvenile middle-grade book with ridiculously simple writing and stiff dialogue. But she didn't. Lucy Christopher knows teenagers; she knows we're smarter than society thinks we are, and she doesn't fuck around. FLYAWAY was a smart book with beautiful messages and intricate characters.

I had a friend die of leukemia several months ago, and when I learned that Harry, one of the main characters in FLYAWAY, suffered from the same type of cancer, I nearly put the book down because it upset me so much. It brought back memories I wasn't ready to face and I spent most of the time reading this book with watery eyes. 

I've always loved the aspect of bonding with animals (I mean, SPIRIT is probably by favorite animation ever) and FLYAWAY gave me that and so much more. I mean, it also caused me a lot of pain and tears, but it was worth it. Every character is detailed and interesting, and Harry and Isla's romance friendship literally made me squeal and sob and scream at the walls.

I have a feeling a lot of people haven't read this because it's a middle-grade novel, technically, but if you're avoiding this book because of its age group...

GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE AND READ IT

OKAY

Also, a million hugs to Vanessa, for sending me a signed copy of FLYAWAY all the way from England. Thank you so much. I love you.



of course i'm not ugly crying who told you that hahaha

Oceana is a French-blooded teenager who enjoys stalking British boys and asking them to marry her. She was diagnosed with severe fangirl disorder in 2011. Able to curse like a sailor with an angelic voice.