Unaccompanied Minor Book Review | Sky High Mystery

Unaccompanied Minor
Hollis Gillespie
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery
Age Group: Young Adult
Publication Date: 1st January 2014
Number of Pages: 256
Source: Netgalley

Add to your TBR shelf:

Fourteen-year-old April May Manning spent her life on airplanes with her flight attendant parents. When her father dies in a crash, April's mom marries a pilot who turns out to be an abusive jerk, and gets Mom confined to a psychiatric hospital. So April takes off, literally, living on airplanes, using her mother's flight benefits, relying on the flight crews who know she's been shuttling between divorcing parents for a year. Then, there's a hijacking, but why is April's "dad" on board? April flees to the cargo hold with another unaccompanied minor she's met before, and they fight to thwart the hijackers, faking a fire, making weapons from things they find in luggage. At last, locked in the cockpit with a wounded police officer, the boy, and his service dog, April tries to remember everything her parents said to do in a crisis above the clouds. But she knows it won't be enough.

Unaccompanied Minor was a refreshing YA read from start to finish. I really enjoyed the retelling of the Incident through April’s police interviews and, her intelligence and wit underpinned the sad and lonely tale of her life.

April knows it all when it comes to WorldAir airplanes and procedures, which fuels her starky humour - one of the most enjoyable elements of this book. At times though, April’s intelligence and stubbornness also made her annoying. She knew it all and this made the story continually move but also made it predictable because April knew a solution to everything!

This story was a quick and funny read which brought back my memories of 14-17 year old me, who wanted to be a flight attendant and then also re-squashed them too (I was reminded why I chose not to go down that route in the end). If you’re looking for something a little different to a normal YA narrative story then give this interview-based retelling a try.