Book Review: Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter

Name: Paper Aeroplanes

Author: Dawn O'Porter

Publisher: Hot Key Books

Star Rating: * * * * *

I'm going to state it outright: Paper Aeroplanes is a fantastic book. I loved it.

This title thrives on a strong ability to reflect the kind of messy relationships that girls have with their friends, family and boys during the sticky years of teenage-hood, and to be completely honest with you, it's been a good while since I've read anything that has felt so breathtakingly real. I'm sure that you can tell, I just can't stop gushing!

The key theme that we're looking at here in Paper Aeroplanes is friendship. The bare bones of it, in all of its fragile, unromanticised, and beautiful imperfections. The sheer importance of friendship in our lives is something that I feel passionate about, and O'Porter has captured this concept wonderfully through the troubled voices of two teenage girls, Renée and Flo. Together they guide us though the hardships that they face, and identify some of the issues that teenagers grapple with year after year. The girls' contrasting personalities also manage to bring out happiness in one other, which I found beautiful to read. Interestingly, the book has been set in the mid-nineteen-nineties, so we experience this story without the complications that the internet has thrown at us ten years later. Facebook, I'm looking at you.

Friendship isn't just about how many snapchats you've sent each other in the past five minutes, it's so much more raw than that. True friendship is about being there when it counts, and Renée and Flo bond over life's hardships as well as it's simplest pleasures.

I was thrilled to discover that this story doesn't end after turning the last page, either. O'Porter has recently just finished up her UK tour in support of Goose, the sequel to Paper Aeroplanes, which hit bookshops on March the 27th of this year.With the promise of two additional titles to follow in the series, I'm ridiculously excited to watch how these girls develop, both in terms of their friendship, and in themselves. I really cannot describe how happy I am to hold on to the lives of Renée and Flo for a while longer yet.

If you're a fan of YA- read this. If you've ever been a teenage girl- read this. A well deserved five stars!