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A review by rowanandtarot
Flight Risk by Joy Castro
4.0
Current issues, lots of drama, romance
This is such an ambitious book with so many current issues discussed and included. I give it 3.5 stars because it was all just a bit too much for me to find believable. And yet, I really appreciate the attempt to get folks to think about rural poverty, the effects of coal mining on communities (In my youth I was a surface coal mine inspector - a truly naive one.), the pervasiveness of drugs, the lack of opportunities, and the hopelessness in those communities. The threats of violence were by no means exaggerated. If anything, that was underplayed. I have never had a cousin make and sort of sexual advance, but have had a first cousin marry a second cousin several times removed. I suppose that aspect was included to increase our main character's alienation from West Virginia, but it was a stereotype I wish had not been included.
I really, really liked the inclusion of information about Haiti. That is a subject also dear to my heart. I taught ESL to adult immigrants for seventeen years, including a number from Haiti. The immigrants come here to work in my community 's numerous poultry processing plants. My part of semi rural America has a large immigrant population. Haitian immigrants live across the street from me and Hispanics next door without major problems. Personally, I think that while America continues to send aid to Haiti, we also need to allow more Haitians to immigrate.
The romance was truly the stuff of dreams.
This is such an ambitious book with so many current issues discussed and included. I give it 3.5 stars because it was all just a bit too much for me to find believable. And yet, I really appreciate the attempt to get folks to think about rural poverty, the effects of coal mining on communities (In my youth I was a surface coal mine inspector - a truly naive one.), the pervasiveness of drugs, the lack of opportunities, and the hopelessness in those communities. The threats of violence were by no means exaggerated. If anything, that was underplayed. I have never had a cousin make and sort of sexual advance, but have had a first cousin marry a second cousin several times removed. I suppose that aspect was included to increase our main character's alienation from West Virginia, but it was a stereotype I wish had not been included.
I really, really liked the inclusion of information about Haiti. That is a subject also dear to my heart. I taught ESL to adult immigrants for seventeen years, including a number from Haiti. The immigrants come here to work in my community 's numerous poultry processing plants. My part of semi rural America has a large immigrant population. Haitian immigrants live across the street from me and Hispanics next door without major problems. Personally, I think that while America continues to send aid to Haiti, we also need to allow more Haitians to immigrate.
The romance was truly the stuff of dreams.