Book review: Set in Guernsey in 1994 "Paper Aeroplanes" is about a friendship between two 15-year-old girls, Renée and Flo, united by their "loneliness and their dysfunctional families".
They're not friends at the beginning though. They're not yet throwing paper aeroplanes with messages written in them to each other during lessons at school. Instead they have different friends. Renée has Carla and Gem, but is their "tag along", and Flo has the mean and bossy Sally. But Renée and Flo find each other and become friends, although it isn't always smooth.
The book is in part inspired by the author's teenage diaries, and I think this works well as you can definitely feel that the two voices that the story is told through, those of Renée and Flo, are those of two 15-year-olds. But other parts are quite deep as the characters explore their inner thoughts, and those bits do feel like you are reading bits pulled directly from someone's diary rather than bits of a story.
The blurb says this is an edgy book which is presumably because of some of the language and the things that go on, the sort of things 15-year-olds do for the first time. And the story is a bit girly in places, boyfriends, clothes, period pains, but that's probably to be expected. The story is gripping, and moving, and you do root for the two main characters. It is well worth a read.
Published on 3 May 2013.
Available on AMAZON
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