Audiobook Review: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Narrated by Devon Sorvari

 

Synopsis: Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.

 

My thoughts on the story: This was a very great story of a girl struggling with her identity of a homosexual. She's unsure whether or not if she's gay and if so, would people accept who she is. This book brought up many serious issues that many of us go through: what does it mean to be perfect?

 

The characters were written very well. I greatly enjoyed Astrid's character. She was intelligent, a smart-ass, and what I loved best was that she was open minded. Her family was a little wacko but I could easily imagine it because I know many families that are like hers. There was the pushy mom who is always "right" and who sees image as a huge thing. There was the father who has lost his way in life and has resorted to drugs. Then there's the little sister who's trying to find her mother's acceptance and to belong to the crowd in high school. I also enjoyed reading about the other characters like Christina, Astrid's best friend who's also a lesbian, and D, Astrid's girlfriend.

 

This book brought a lot of anger and tension feelings within me. It angered me how closed minded the community was about homosexuality and how much they put importance to what the proper image is. The constant push that Astrid received by her family and friends to come out was very irritating. This was great because I was able to feel exactly what Astrid was feeling.

 

The down side about this book was how homosexuality was seen in the community. I know that there are a lot of homophobes out there but to me it seemed that the communities aversion to homosexuality was something seen back in the 1950s instead of being 2012. I'm not sure how it is for small towns, but here in California being gay is more widely accepted. Yes, there are people and kids that are mean to each other, but there is not a lot of gay bashing in the schools like there was in the book. I could be wrong of course, but it did seem unreal to me.

 

My thoughts on the performance: This book was read by Devon Sorvari. Devon's voice was too mature for my taste. She did a good job in trying to portray Astrid but I could not see her as a teenager. She reminded me more of a girl in her mid 20s. I like to listen to audio books that fit well with the book. In this case it didn't. It was really hard to get into the audio at first just because of the narrator.

 

Other than that, this book was very well made. I recommend that you read the print or ebook version better instead of listening to the audio. I give it: