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.
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 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!
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?
