2025 Reads! Book #1- Thin Air by Kellie M Parker

Alright my first book of the year was a YA thriller that takes place on a luxury plane with a group of Boarding School Students on their way to Paris to compete in some sort of scholarship activity. The games start when they get on the plane- but are overshadowed when they find out there’s a killer on the plane!

So I was really enjoying the book for the first 100 pages or so- none of the killings had really started yet- but there is something weird going on from the start… but then once the killings start happening- the whodunnit aspect of the book isn’t really thrilling enough to keep the story interesting.

One of my main problems with the book was that because it takes place on a luxury plane… the elements of being on a plane for a thriller aren’t really there. I love a thriller on a plane… but this didn’t really use the elements of being on a plane to add anything to the story.

The other big problem was the way it was written… it seemed like it was dumbed down a little. There were several pages of the book where they said “oh this character could be the one that did it because of this reason. Or this character could have done it because of this.” They didn’t really develop who the characters actually were outside of that- and they should have showed us why they were doing this instead of just telling us. It really just made the book about 100 pages too long and really boring.

They also played games for the scholarship on the plane… but there wasn’t much of a point to that either? It didn’t add suspense and it didn’t seem like a real scholarship would do something like that.

The last 50 pages were also kind of hard to get through and I’m going to spoil it a bit here… they change who it is like 3 times. And one of the people that they say did it’s “motive” was that she wanted to get in then same school as the main character- but the main character’s mom went to the school so she was more likely to get in… but we also know that the killer knows that the main character cheated to get into the program to begin with… so she could have just went to the board with that.

Also yes- The main character cheated by switching her application with her best friend Nikki- who she mentions nonstop during the whole book for no real reason… and there are no consequences for the girl who cheated to get in. They do reveal it doesn’t really matter that much because she would have been in the program anyway… but that just kind of adds to this one thing that made our main character a little more interesting is inconsequential in the end and didn’t even really need to be in the book at all.

I also don’t understand why the killer chose to do it on a plane??? There was no reason he or she had to do it on the plane??? I think the writer wanted it to be on a plane because she wrote it during Covid… but it’s just not realistic. Not that anything else is much more realistic… but I feel like that was just kind of the icing on the cake.

The language and pop culture references in the book are also really weird. It doesn’t feel like anything a teenager would say or think really… and the one pop culture reference is for “that show the apprentice” which… a teenager wouldn’t really know… also why The Apprentice??? That just makes me question a lot about the book.

Overall I don’t recommend this one- especially for anyone over the age of like 12. If you’re 11-12 maybe this would be good- But there are so many better books I wouldn’t waste time or money buying this for

A young reader. I would still give the author another chance maybe if she writes anything else just because maybe it was just that she wrote it during Covid that this is so off… but I think I’d see if it was available at a library before purchasing it for sure!

That is everything! Overall it can only get better from here!

Bye!

-Shannon