16 year old Heidi lives on the outskirts of a small town and barely interacts with her neighbours. She’s recently moved from a private school to the local high school and has yet to make friends. Her parents are wealthy but rarely at their massive residence, leaving Heidi isolated. Patrick is a volunteer EMT itching for an incident to prove his skills. Carly, Daniel, Teddie, and Darienne are passengers on flight 116. Some are heading home, others just to connecting flights, but their plane crashes in Heidi’s back yard. Not all of them will make it.
I haven’t read this in maybe 20 years but I remembered there was a main character called Patrick, that a girl named Teddie had a bear named Bear, and the random line, ‘I’d need a shelf under my bosom to do that’. But I read this a lot as a teenager and I have to say, I think it holds up. A little dated of course, since there’s no mobile phones and airport security seems a lot more relaxed (but then it would). And do/did people really put five year olds on flights by themselves? I cannot imagine it, but then maybe it’s because I was reading about plane crashes at a young age…
The book jumps around to different characters’ points of view, so we see the plane crash from outside and within, although Heidi and Patrick get the most attention. But this allows us to get close to lots of people, and attached, which is especially hard hitting when they don’t make it. Even though I remembered a certain death it still made me cry this time around, all these years later.
I really liked Heidi and the way she struggles with not knowing what to do in this crisis, but ultimately is helpful. And her connection to Patrick in the midst of the chaos is well done. There’s a bit of ‘she’s not like other girls’ going on but she’s well rounded enough that it’s not grating.
I think I’ll hold onto this one for a little while longer…
