Review: paper airplane

paper airplane by Kersten L. Kelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

This book has been sitting on my shelf a good long time. As someone who has spent nearly the last decade and a half traveling by plane due to an international long distance relationship, and now due to visiting family and friends in the US, I loved the concept of this book when the author first approached me to review it. I've had a few of these same experiences myself, so I thought I would relate to it well.

Some of the stories were interesting. The story I most enjoyed was the author's experience of her first time skydiving which is intermixed in with the story in the chapter "Kenny the Floating Jeweler." This chapter has the most personal connection to the author's life and the one that felt the most genuine.

Other stories didn't really hold my interest all that well. It felt as though something were missing, in terms of variety.

The book is classified as a memoir, but I wouldn't really call it that. I don't feel that there's enough of the author's experiences outside of her travels to truly be considered a memoir. In all honesty, I liked this book a lot more at the beginning than I did at the end. After a while, the "lessons" learned that were "imparted" at the end of chapters felt repetitive, and I started to get bored, which likely explains why what should have taken me a day or two to read, took 11..

Another thing that took away from the story was the language. It felt too forced, and that hindered my emotional involvement. It felt like the author was trying to write an essay, rather than relate anecdotes and experiences. This could have been pared down both in literal language by about a third of the length, to 10 or 11 chapters instead of 17. It would have been much more impactful. If I were able to use half stars I would have likely given this a 2.5

I really appreciated the concept as a whole, and would recommend this to anyone who likes books about travel.

Does anyone who might read this post have any interesting airplane encounters they want to share?