Paper Aeroplanes Review by Imogene

Paper Aeroplanes

Book Author: Dawn O’ Porter

Publisher: Hot Key Books

So, there’s something new on this blog – a book review. And I have to be perfectly honest, it’s my first, but I hope it levels with my film ones. Dawn O’ Porter is one of my favourite bloggers EVER. I adore her documentaries and work as a journalist – but most of all, her style of writing! This is one of the few things that made me fall in love with her first book “Paper Aeroplanes”.

The story is written in the eyes and language of two teenage girls, Renee and Flo. They are both fifteen and have dysfunctional lives that they both struggle to live with. They both have many things that lie very much in common with one another; however it was a friendship that wasn’t meant to happen.

Renee lives with her grandparents and sister, following the horrifying death of her mother when she was only six years old.  Flo lives with her mother, little sister and big brother.  Her mother and father are separated but she has to take on the role of “mum” to her little sister therefore putting the experiences of a “normal” teenager, far out of sight.

Due to the heartache and burdens in their lives, it was a friendship that ran deep and kept them bonded together. Their meeting changed everything they have ever known about friendship and themselves. Together and separately they experience what teenage life is really like for a fifteen year old in 1994.  

I was very interested in reading this book as soon as I saw that it was available to pre-order. Also, that it was written by Dawn O’ Porter! It looked very cheeky, so all the more reason to read it, yes?
As soon as I turned the first page I couldn’t stop reading. The words flow so easily and made it such a gripping book to keep hold of. I’m all for an emotional book and this had every emotion written in at all times. There were points where you giggled to yourself thinking “I can’t believe it!” and times where you quietly let a few tears slide out as you felt such an attachment to the characters. It’s quite an emotional rollercoaster.

It’s written almost diary-like which makes it all so intense! I liked this as it is narrated at different times by both Renee and Flo – we got to see their personal thoughts about one another and other people in their own way.

I loved reading about Renee and Flo together, the conversations they have and things that they do and it instantly makes you think of your own best friend. I’m glad it was written in this way as it gave depth to the characters and made it so the book had two personalities bouncing off one another!
It was very heartbreaking at times and due to the writing style it made me feel for the characters and sympathise with them (this is always good when you fall in deep with a book!). Also it has a realistic plotline which makes it easy and enjoyable to read, you never feel out of your depth nor struggled to understand. It’s really a story of two ordinary girls with a lot of loneliness and upset in their world, but finds someone to relate – this is what made their friendship special. This is why you pine for them to make up when they fall out and why you want them to succeed in their GCSE’s and make something of their life! Honestly, when stopping the book it was hard to think that they weren’t real people, because the wave of feeling that you had for them wouldn’t let you believe that! There isn’t a page where nothing is happening – so if you’re planning on reading this, have a couple of lazy days set aside!

It’s also important too that it covers lots of important teenage issues such as, Periods, Sex, Friendship, Bullying, Exams, Anorexia and Home-life struggles. It’s simply a book that’ll never be outdated, however so many of this next generation won’t get to experience the importance of note sharing in classes! (I loved the notes in the book – so many great memories!).

It was genuinely a pleasure to read and will forever be highly rated as one of my favourite books. I highly recommend it!

****

I’m pleased to say that it has been announced that Dawn is doing a second book to this tale (YAY!) – From where, I am clueless!

I tried to stay away from reviews on this book as much as I could as I wanted to completely submerge into the story and have my own images and thoughts. However when I was reading through my twitter feed someone mentioned that Dawn used her diary to help her write this story – so one of the characters was her, now which one did you think it was?