Review by tollivsr -- High Flying by Kaylin McFarren

[tollivsr]

[Following is a volunteer review of "High Flying" by Kaylin McFarren.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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High Flying is a young adult novel written by Kaylin Mcfarren that tells a coming-of-age story about Skylar Haines. The story begins in Reno, Nevada, the year 2013, in her grandfather’s bathroom, where Skylar goes to release her stress by cutting on her arm. Her grandfather, Jessop Haines, unlocks the door to find her hastily cleaning up, on the brink of passing out from blood loss.

To fit in at school, she befriends Adrian, a curly-haired boy at Washoe High School, who she perceives as unaffected by what other people think of him. Roxy Cappellan takes Skylar under her wing, giving her a make-over in confidence and appearance. Adrian commits suicide, which surprised me as a reader. Roxy and her mother both die in a car crash on Skyler’s birthday to see an air show from tickets she gets each year from a mysterious donor named E.Edwards. Roxy’s father accuses Skyler’s grandfather of being responsible for their deaths and tells Skyer it should have been her instead of his daughter and mother.

The story jumps ahead to 2018, where Skylar (Sky Bird) has gotten a lot of therapy, no longer drinks, or self mutilates. Skylar works at an air show in the Ace Flying Circus with Jake Brennan, and during one of their first shows, Skylar spins out of control at the end of a big trick, only to find herself clipped by another plane.

Dylan Haines, the pilot who clipped her, talks Skylar through the landing, and Skylar discovers that she is face to face with no one other than her father from the past! I genuinely enjoyed the time travel twist. I had so much fun reading this book. I especially enjoyed seeing Skylar’s jump in maturity from the beginning of the book to the middle. She sees her parents as just young adults who do not have much figured out for themselves.

Skylar struggles to save her parents from the past, where Dylan, Skylar’s father, dies from smuggling drugs, and her mother, Lilly, ends up as a cocaine-addicted prostitute, leaving Skylar to grow up in the care of her grandfather. Will she be able to change the past for a better future? How will she find her way back to the present time? And why does Skylar’s best friend’s father think her grandfather killed Roxy and her mother? You will have to read High Flying to find out!

I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars due to the book reading as professionally edited and the fun adventure at every turn of the page. Skylar knows how to pack a punch! I only found two minor grammatical errors that could easily be fixed, but other than that, the writing was exceptional. I appreciate the amount of thought and detail that I assume went into Skylar’s personality from 2013 and how much she had matured in 2018. There is nothing to dislike about this book as it is genuinely a fun adventure and kept me thinking about the plot even when I was not reading it.

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High Flying
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[MsH2k]

This sounds like a fun adventure story. I wasn’t expecting that time-travel twist! Thank you for your recommendation.