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kimily's review against another edition
3.0
This book was provided to me as a digital review copy by the publisher, via Edelweiss.
Mana is your typical teenage girl: crushing on cute boys, not overly concerned about school, and cheering for the basketball team. It’s during a basketball game that Mana begins to think that maybe her world isn’t as normal as she thought. First, the boy she has a huge crush on is kidnapped right out of the bleachers, and then, when she tracks the kidnapper and cute boy to the girls’ locker room, she exhibits skills that she has never had before. After the basketball game, Mana discovers her house ransacked and her mother missing. Now she has to figure out how to find her mother, who to trust, and whether it’s okay to be maybe almost in love with her best guy friend.
Flying was a quick, easy read. It had some nice action scenes, and the interactions were pretty funny at times. I worried at first that this would just be a Buffy re-run, but was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I liked the characters and the story, but there is something about it that niggles at me. It feels that the author went a little overboard making Mana believably teenager-y. Seppie and Lyle came across as realistic, but Mana seems almost inane. This is possibly because the book is written from her point of view, and therefore we are privy to her thoughts, and honestly, who really knows what’s going on inside a teenager’s head?
Mana is your typical teenage girl: crushing on cute boys, not overly concerned about school, and cheering for the basketball team. It’s during a basketball game that Mana begins to think that maybe her world isn’t as normal as she thought. First, the boy she has a huge crush on is kidnapped right out of the bleachers, and then, when she tracks the kidnapper and cute boy to the girls’ locker room, she exhibits skills that she has never had before. After the basketball game, Mana discovers her house ransacked and her mother missing. Now she has to figure out how to find her mother, who to trust, and whether it’s okay to be maybe almost in love with her best guy friend.
Flying was a quick, easy read. It had some nice action scenes, and the interactions were pretty funny at times. I worried at first that this would just be a Buffy re-run, but was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I liked the characters and the story, but there is something about it that niggles at me. It feels that the author went a little overboard making Mana believably teenager-y. Seppie and Lyle came across as realistic, but Mana seems almost inane. This is possibly because the book is written from her point of view, and therefore we are privy to her thoughts, and honestly, who really knows what’s going on inside a teenager’s head?
libscote's review against another edition
4.0
I think this is one of my favorite Carrie Jones books. I love the "Men in Black" aspects of it, and I love the way the cheerleader skills help her fight off bad guys. I was hoping for a lighthearted romp and I got one!
bookbrig's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
2.75
A sci-fi thriller with solid friendships, weird alien conspiracy stuff, and an engaging main character. This is fairly light and fluffy, and the plot jumped around a fair amount, but I think it could be a good fit for fans of Dangerous by Shannon Hale, Men in Black, or Stranger Things. It's a bit more silly, but not really in a bad way.
That said, a character tells another character to stop being "so spazzy," and I'm pretty disappointed that got by both the author and presumably an editor. As the word spastic and its shortened forms are often used as slurs, and it's perhaps more predominant in the UK than the US, but it's not unheard of here either. Here's a good blog post that breaks this down with resources. I'd much prefer ANY other word choice, particularly when there's no acknowledgement in the text about how problematic the word is.
That said, a character tells another character to stop being "so spazzy," and I'm pretty disappointed that got by both the author and presumably an editor. As the word spastic and its shortened forms are often used as slurs, and it's perhaps more predominant in the UK than the US, but it's not unheard of here either. Here's a good blog post that breaks this down with resources. I'd much prefer ANY other word choice, particularly when there's no acknowledgement in the text about how problematic the word is.
chelsjulian's review against another edition
3.0
I expected B-movie quality and that's what it delivered.
pacey1927's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. It is light and silly fun. The style it is written in remind me of Marlene Perez's "Dead is" series. It also reminds me of a a YA version of Julie Kenner's "Demon Hunting Soccer Mom" series. However, this book still has some style uniquely its own. This is a quick and easy read that should be suitable for most ages. Mana is a cheerleader who lives with her single mother. She is teased for not being too bright but she is much smarter than she is given credit for. She has two best friends, Seppie and Lyle. Everything is all normal high school living until one day Mana realizes her mom isn't at her cheerleading event, and her mom never misses one. Then she sees her crush Dakota being forcibly removed from the game but a suspicious looking man in glasses. She follows them and bam! She sees Dakota spitting green acid and suddenly she doesn't know who is really the bad guy. And her mom's been kidnapped? By Aliens! Mana teams up with her friends and her mom's work partner to try to find her mom and she learns more about her friends, her parents and aliens than she ever intended. The pace is just great. The book can be finished in a matter of hours. The writing in engaging and the characters are pretty well written. There are a lot of clues readers should be able to pick up on starting from the very beginning of the book which turn into plot reveals toward the end of the story so if the book has a real fault, it is the fact that the ending is fairly predictable. Still a good, solid fun novel and definitely one I would pick up the sequel to.
diamondxgirl's review against another edition
4.0
When I started this book, I had one thought: it's going to be terrible or awesomely campy. That's really my favorite kind of sci-fi. With 4 hearts, I bet you can imagine which conclusion I came to. Flying became more enjoyable as the story went on and I'm excited to find out it's the first in a series!
"People have no faith in cheerleaders."
Mana (yes, like the magic potential in games) is your typical cheerleader type but with a whole lot sass. I love that Flying doesn't take itself too seriously (and you shouldn't, either). With a tagline like "Cheerleader vs Alien - Who will win?" you just can't afford to go into this with anything but a light attitude.
The aliens in Flying are more akin to the paranormal creatures we see in fantasy novels. There are fae, wendigo, and acid spitting creatures that start off as hot high school boys. There are references to all sorts of nerdy/geeky things such as Doctor Who. There's even a bit of romance that I hope is further developed in the next book.
There's a pretty big revelation at the end that leaves you wanting more and with the makings of a sequel so be on the lookout for that! Oh, and you can totally be allergic to caffeine...I used to be when I was younger. Or maybe that was the alien side of me. Who knows.
"People have no faith in cheerleaders."
Mana (yes, like the magic potential in games) is your typical cheerleader type but with a whole lot sass. I love that Flying doesn't take itself too seriously (and you shouldn't, either). With a tagline like "Cheerleader vs Alien - Who will win?" you just can't afford to go into this with anything but a light attitude.
The aliens in Flying are more akin to the paranormal creatures we see in fantasy novels. There are fae, wendigo, and acid spitting creatures that start off as hot high school boys. There are references to all sorts of nerdy/geeky things such as Doctor Who. There's even a bit of romance that I hope is further developed in the next book.
There's a pretty big revelation at the end that leaves you wanting more and with the makings of a sequel so be on the lookout for that! Oh, and you can totally be allergic to caffeine...I used to be when I was younger. Or maybe that was the alien side of me. Who knows.
lpcoolgirl's review
5.0
Loved reading this book! It was hilarious and awesome, and the aliens, yeah, such a great book! Can't wait to read the sequel!
shanbear16's review against another edition
3.0
Kind of a "meh" book for me. Not particularly memorable. I was excited to read something that was Buffy crossed with Men in Black, but it just fell kind of flat.
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
2.0
The slang was completely over the top and outdated. Words like whacked, beyotch, and pshaw are mid-90s to early naughts slang that has no business in a book that’s presumably set in the present and was published in 2016. Not only does it date the book, but it dates it incorrectly. I think it’s more so the author writing in the wrong setting because there were a few mentions of flipping phones out that had me going WTF. Again, there is nothing here that would lead me to believe this story is set anytime other than the present and was published in 2016. No.
And then there were the weird lack of contractions. For being in a teen’s head, whose POV has those grossly outdated, un-ironic slang words, it doesn’t use contractions for half their thoughts and speech. It’s inconsistent and makes for some jerky, rocky reading. You just end up with these parts where contractions would be more natural within the dialogue but instead you get I am a lot, or there is, or do not. I don’t know if that was stylistic or what, but I didn’t like it.
Storywise I thought it was okay. Because of the writing itself I couldn’t get as into the story as I originally wanted. Ultimately the concept was more appealing than the actual execution of the story. I liked Mana as a character away from the author’s writing (if that makes any sense). I thought her development throughout was good, but her voice just kept her at a distance for me. Mostly I just don’t think this book is really well-written, as least technically. Idea’s solid, but that’s about it.
2
And then there were the weird lack of contractions. For being in a teen’s head, whose POV has those grossly outdated, un-ironic slang words, it doesn’t use contractions for half their thoughts and speech. It’s inconsistent and makes for some jerky, rocky reading. You just end up with these parts where contractions would be more natural within the dialogue but instead you get I am a lot, or there is, or do not. I don’t know if that was stylistic or what, but I didn’t like it.
Storywise I thought it was okay. Because of the writing itself I couldn’t get as into the story as I originally wanted. Ultimately the concept was more appealing than the actual execution of the story. I liked Mana as a character away from the author’s writing (if that makes any sense). I thought her development throughout was good, but her voice just kept her at a distance for me. Mostly I just don’t think this book is really well-written, as least technically. Idea’s solid, but that’s about it.
2