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    Ask the Passengers
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    Ask the Passengers
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    Ask the Passengers
    Audiobook8 hours

    Ask the Passengers

    Written by A. S. King

    Narrated by Devon Sorvari

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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 realize 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 23, 2012
    ISBN9780449015100
    Unavailable
    Ask the Passengers
    Author

    A. S. King

    A.S. King is the award-winning author of young adult books including the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Ask the Passengers, Everybody Sees the Ants, 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Please Ignore Vera Dietz, and the upcoming Reality Boy. After fifteen years living self-sufficiently and teaching literacy to adults in Ireland, she now lives in Pennsylvania with her small, freakish family. Find more at www.as-king.com.

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    Reviews for Ask the Passengers

    4/5

    260 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Astrid Jones has secrets to keep: those of her two friends, Kristina and Justin, but also a secret of her own. She's discovered she likes girls, and in fact one girl in particular, her co-worker at Maldonado's, a catering business, a part time job for Astrid. Her family's moved from New York City to Unity Valley, because her mom decided to purchase their "Gram's" place, and move to small town America. Astrid, while keeping up with a heavy academic load, and participating in the school's lit magazine, still feels very much the outsider. She's certain her dad feels the same, AND her mom is too distant and controlling to understand her, while her sister's in her own world. Interwoven with her daily school and family life, Astrid's story is broken up by short vignettes - people flying in planes overhead, strangers but passengers to whom Astrid sends her thoughts and love- little "riffs" on love's many forms. She also begins to listen to an imaginary Socrates, who accompanies Astrid more and more, introduced to her and us from her Philosophy class. Her thoughts and his responses emerge as the tensions rise: how can Astrid continue to lie to her "cover" boyfriend? Should she accept the urging of her friends, complying with what Kristina and Justin want, heading to a local gay club for dancing and drinking and secret fun? And what about accepting the sexually-charged encounters with Dee, her co worker who's a star field hockey player at a neighboring school, a gay young woman who has already come out to her family and friends? Events build to a inevitable clashing of worlds: Astrid and her friends are busted at the club one night by police, who take all the underage customers to the station, and give over to their parents' custody. Suddenly the secrets of Astrid and her friends are public; the gossip mill at the high school goes into overdrive, and Astrid must decide what's most important to her. Definitely more mature teen read; very much enjoyed the philosophy discussions and exploration -some teens who prefer more action packed scenes may get lost in the middle.
    • 5/5
      King keeps it real, which I love about her work. Heart-breakingly honest, frustrating and illuminating. A careful weaving of magical realism, small-town-mindedness, identity struggles and a touch of philosophy.
    • 4/5
      Read on September 09, 2012Small town life isn't easy. Everyone knows all about everyone else's business. At least that's how it works in Unity Valley. Astrid is a senior in UV and not a townie. She didn't move there until she was ten so she's an outsider and hasn't had it easy. She also knows about keeping secrets. I'm not saying any of this well, but Astrid's story is great and I can't wait to read more by A. S. King.
    • 4/5
      AS King is one of my favorite authors, having won me over 100% with The Dust of 100 Dogs. With every new book, King just keeps getting better and better. I had no idea she had another book on the way, so when ASK THE PASSENGERS was in a swag bag at BEA I had a heart attack!

      ASK THE PASSENGERS has everything we can expect from King: beautiful prose, remarkably fleshed-out characters, and while it is contemporary, this story hints at a subtle supernatural-ness that is basically King's trademark. Astrid Jones sends her love up into the sky to the passengers on the airplanes, and in turn, the passengers receive it and make changes in their lives. There are sporadic interludes featuring the passengers in question, and I loved getting to know them. They're suddenly hit with Astrid's love and each damaged passengers who receives it actually does something with it. Unlike Astrid, who is stuck in her small town school with closed-minded classmates and family.

      I had no idea going in that this book would be about sexual identity. Honestly, reading the blurb of ASK THE PASSENGERS, it's not clear at all what it's about. But the themes sneaked up on me, and burrowed in my head, and the book just wouldn't let me go. I feel like sexual identity is such an important topic to write about, especially in young adult fiction. It brings me back to the YA saves movement. I wish I could just hug King for writing this.

      I really loved Astrid. I felt like she was easy to relate to, having been moved from a city out to the middle of nowhere Amish country. She voiced all the things I felt when I had to make that change. I loved that she tried so hard to see eye-to-eye with her ridiculous mother. I loved that even in the heat of argument she took the time to mentally send love to her family and her friends. She was just so real: her fear, her love, her forgiveness, and her healing. Astrid is someone I would have wanted to be friends with, even if she was an introvert.

      There is only one problem I have with this book and it is the complete lack of the word bisexual. I wanted to scream in frustration with Astrid's parents, I wanted to smack Astrid's sister silly, and sometimes I wanted to shake Astrid herself. But these things are realistic. What isn't realistic is leaving out the term 'bisexual', basically just ignoring it and pretending it doesn't exist. That was frustrating. In a world so black and white, us and them, in a book about opening up horizons instead of shutting us up in boxes, you would think that the term bisexual would come up at least once. But it didn't, and it was disheartening. There was definite hint at "you're either gay or you aren't" and I feel that's really divisive and a little alienating.

      I would definitely recommend ASK THE PASSENGERS if only because I love AS King. But beyond her being my ultimate girl crush, ASK THE PASSENGERS is a beautiful, heartbreaking book filled with true-to-life characters. It doesn't beat around the bush, and it isn't afraid to push the boundaries of these boxes we all put ourselves in.
    • 5/5
      Easily among the best GLBTQ/coming-out stories I've read, complete with the confusions and angst and worries of everyday life. Sensible conversations about sex before they have it! Awkwardness! Uncertainty about how to talk to people, dealing with pushy family members, friends who are maybe less-stellar friends than you think! There was so much I loved about this book and the way it handled the myriad issues without ever turning into a "GAY BOOK." I mean, that's the main thing going on, but it's far from the defining characteristic and why are you still reading this review instead of this book?
    • 4/5
      What a wonderful group of characters. Wonderfully written, I mean... some of 'em ain't so wonderful, actually. Astrid's struggles with an imperfect family, her quirky ways of dealing (hallucinating a Socrates [whom she calls Frank S so that he'll seem more "huggable"] who gives her stern looks or thumbs ups depending upon her adherence to the truth, for instance), and her kindness in the face of the rude, the dumb, the ridiculous, and the hurtful, are all things I will remember for a long time. This is definitely one to buy and reread.
    • 4/5
      What do you get when you combine lesbians, a marijuana-smoking Socrates, airplanes, and birdhouses? Ask the Passengers, of course. A.S. King uses her genius skills to tackle issues of love, family, friendship, identity, coming out, and the all too harsh environments of high school and small town life. It's heartfelt, honest, sensitive, and funny. King is great at creating teen characters that are intelligent, realistic, complex, and relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for positive gay teen characters and themes. Also, one of my favorite aspects of King's writing is her portrayal of parents and adults. They're never cardboard, background characters, but complicated human beings with stories all their own.I didn't give this book a higher rating simply because I loved King's other works more. I'd definitely recommend Please Ignore Vera Dietz (probably one of my favorite YA novels), as well as Everybody Sees the Ants, as readalikes. If you're looking for more LGBTQ teen books, A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner is another recent one that comes to mind.Content-wise, sexuality is one of the main themes of this book. There's also a good deal of language, underage drinking, and general teens behaving questionably.
    • 5/5
      Wow! How books for high school students has changed. I found this story told in first person gripping. Coming to terms with one's sexuality is difficult, especially in a small town. I loved the narrator's VOICE. Great character development.
    • 4/5
      AS King is one of my favorite authors, having won me over 100% with The Dust of 100 Dogs. With every new book, King just keeps getting better and better. I had no idea she had another book on the way, so when ASK THE PASSENGERS was in a swag bag at BEA I had a heart attack!

      ASK THE PASSENGERS has everything we can expect from King: beautiful prose, remarkably fleshed-out characters, and while it is contemporary, this story hints at a subtle supernatural-ness that is basically King's trademark. Astrid Jones sends her love up into the sky to the passengers on the airplanes, and in turn, the passengers receive it and make changes in their lives. There are sporadic interludes featuring the passengers in question, and I loved getting to know them. They're suddenly hit with Astrid's love and each damaged passengers who receives it actually does something with it. Unlike Astrid, who is stuck in her small town school with closed-minded classmates and family.

      I had no idea going in that this book would be about sexual identity. Honestly, reading the blurb of ASK THE PASSENGERS, it's not clear at all what it's about. But the themes sneaked up on me, and burrowed in my head, and the book just wouldn't let me go. I feel like sexual identity is such an important topic to write about, especially in young adult fiction. It brings me back to the YA saves movement. I wish I could just hug King for writing this.

      I really loved Astrid. I felt like she was easy to relate to, having been moved from a city out to the middle of nowhere Amish country. She voiced all the things I felt when I had to make that change. I loved that she tried so hard to see eye-to-eye with her ridiculous mother. I loved that even in the heat of argument she took the time to mentally send love to her family and her friends. She was just so real: her fear, her love, her forgiveness, and her healing. Astrid is someone I would have wanted to be friends with, even if she was an introvert.

      There is only one problem I have with this book and it is the complete lack of the word bisexual. I wanted to scream in frustration with Astrid's parents, I wanted to smack Astrid's sister silly, and sometimes I wanted to shake Astrid herself. But these things are realistic. What isn't realistic is leaving out the term 'bisexual', basically just ignoring it and pretending it doesn't exist. That was frustrating. In a world so black and white, us and them, in a book about opening up horizons instead of shutting us up in boxes, you would think that the term bisexual would come up at least once. But it didn't, and it was disheartening. There was definite hint at "you're either gay or you aren't" and I feel that's really divisive and a little alienating.

      I would definitely recommend ASK THE PASSENGERS if only because I love AS King. But beyond her being my ultimate girl crush, ASK THE PASSENGERS is a beautiful, heartbreaking book filled with true-to-life characters. It doesn't beat around the bush, and it isn't afraid to push the boundaries of these boxes we all put ourselves in.
    • 3/5
      Astrid Jones, feeling unloved in her family, sends her love to airplanes flying overhead. She has spent the last two years keeping the secret of her best friend's homosexuality, and now is questioning her own sexuality. But in the small town they live in, the people around them have no place for questions.
    • 5/5
      Originally posted on A Reader of Fictions.

      Okay, it's official. I think A.S. King is one of the very best YA writers out there. Ask the Passengers is only my second experience with King, but I loved it just as much as, perhaps even more than, the first one I read, Everybody Sees the Ants. Even better, King falls into that realm of authors who can do something totally new every time. She has some themes in common, but the books themselves are very different. One has a younger male teen lead, one an older female teen, and both voices come through completely authentic. I am always so incredibly impressed by authors who can vary their subject matter, style and characters so much, sort of reinventing themselves with each book.

      I just adore King's writing. She is, for me, one of the most quotable authors. Her writing isn't overly complex, but it gets the feelings and the point across so incredibly strongly. There are so many lines that I wanted to read aloud to my friend on vacation with me so that she could appreciate King's brilliance, but I couldn't because I'm so making her read this book next.

      Ask the Passengers focuses on the theme of belonging, of identity, of self-discovery, and of peer pressure. Astrid Jones doesn't want to be put into boxes, doesn't want to be forced to be any one thing. She just wants to be Astrid Jones, whoever that is. Why does it have to matter so much whether we're gay or straight, white or brown, religious or agnostic, male or female, wealthy or poor, popular or unpopular? Astrid struggles with everyone's expectations and perceptions, afraid to be who she is but also unwilling to pretend to be something or someone else.

      These themes resonated with me, because, really, who the fuck cares about those things? I mean, COME ON, it's the 21st century and we're still so caught up in defining things one way or another and on what's right that gay marriage is legal hardly anywhere. King brings up a lot of powerful issues and looks at the issue of being a girl in love with a girl in a different way than I have yet seen, and really made me consider the issue from a new angle. Plus, I sympathized with her desire to not have anyone know her business, because that's totally how I am. Why does everyone need to know?

      Of course, the book also has humor, because the best issues books are imbued with humor, because a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down. The whole opening plot is about how Astrid is weighed down by all of these secrets, those of her friends, her family and herself. Her friends, Justin and Kristina, are a power couple at school, the kind to be nominated for Homecoming King and Queen. Every Friday, they go on double dates with another couple, Donna and Chad. Actually, though, Justin's dating Chad and Kristina's dating Donna. SCANDAL! The only one who knows is Astrid, who's trying to decide whether to confess that she's actually dating a girl too, Dee, who works with her. I thought the whole situation was a hot mess, but I loved how theatrical it was. This would make a fantastic indie film. Just saying.

      Another thing that I loved about the book, one which I could definitely see alienating some readers is Astrid's newly developed fascination with philosophy in general and Socrates in particular. I love philosophy myself, but the frequent discussions of it could put off some people. Even more than that, the philosophy takes a weird turn, in that Astrid creates an imaginary friend version of Socrates, who she dubs Frank Socrates; he helps her out along the way, making her question her behavior and what she holds true. I thought this worked, because of how motivated Astrid was by him and just her sheer exuberance about the class in general, but I do think it's interesting that both of her MCs I've read so far have had imaginary friends. Very odd, that.

      My very favorite thing, though, was the part that gave the book its title: Astrid's love of planes and their passengers. Astrid does this thing where she will lie on the ground or on picnic tables and stare up at the sky, watching for planes. When she sees planes, she sends the passengers her love, along with her questions and frustrations, in a way of trying to help other people feel more loved and comfortable than she herself does. That was awesome just in and of itself. Better still, though, were the snippets of other people's stories (though a couple were too off the wall for me), showing the effect her little bits of love sent into the universe had on someone or other on the plane. These were all incredibly touching and moving, and I loved this little dose of magical realism.

      I do know that everyone probably won't love A.S. King; I suspect her books will just be too weird for a lot of people. I, however, love them and want to strongly urge everyone who liked thought-provoking, quirky, clever books to read them. From what I can tell, A.S. King does not have anywhere near the name recognition and popularity she deserves.
    • 4/5
      See the full review at Short & Sweet Reviews.

      Ask the Passengers is a pretty standard contemporary/issues novel, if you read a lot of those. I don't, so the chance to walk in the shoes of someone who has a life which I could easily imagine was a nice change of pace. Astrid has a ton of love to give, but she's afraid of what will happen if people in her small town find out that a lot of that love is directed towards another girl. So she imagines sending all of her extra love to passengers on planes high up in the sky -- someone might as well benefit from what she can't have, right? There's a bit of magical realism in the story, if you choose to read it as Astrid actually, literally sending love to these people. I think you can read it in a much less magical way, and regardless, it adds an extra bit of poignancy to the story when we occasionally hear from these passengers.

      The resolution left me a little cold, which is probably the reason that's keeping me from giving this a full five stars. Astrid's girlfriend Dee is incredibly pushy towards Astrid when she doesn't get what she wants. I'm not going to let Dee off the hook for being manipulative just because she's a girl, and I dislike that the message of the book was "people can change" rather than "people who try to pressure you into moving too fast are usually no good". Sure, the book talked about improving communication, but I'm always uncomfortable when the story boils down to "if they really like you, they'll change". People also do and say horrible things to Astrid once her secret comes out, and no one really seems to face any consequences for it. Astrid is much more charitable and forgiving than I am -- maybe I'm just a pro at holding grudges, but I dumped friends for doing far less to me than Astrid's did over the course of the book.
    • 5/5
      There comes a point in every A. S. King book where you want to scream, "MAKE IT STOP!" Not because it's a terrible book, but because she writes her characters so damn well that when something awful happens, it hits you right in the chest. For me during Ask the Passengers, it was when Astrid's mom, who was already hard to stomach, just wouldn't believe Astrid over anyone else in the community. But I couldn't abandon Astrid. Not when I'd come that far and found out how great a kid she is.

      And she is great. This is a book all about finding oneself and, I think, makes a pretty good point that your self is always there--you just need recognize it. I was amazed from the get-go that she had the wherewithal to send love to strangers, family, friends, peers--a practice of Buddhism that she has nearly mastered if only she'd send that love to herself. I LOVE how we see how it directly impacts the passengers in the planes flying above. She is nearly always honest with herself, even if she doesn't feel comfortable enough to be honest with her loved ones, and any potential after-school special element loses steam with the sheer FIGHT of this novel.

      I love how King addresses that intimidation can occur in any romantic relationship. I'm glad that Astrid acknowledges her concern about Dee's forceful advances outright and puts them in context with the notion that sex isn't the only factor in understanding one's sexual identity. Same goes for the big argument after the bust with her parents, and I like that King makes this obvious that it's a misconception people often make regardless of their orientation.

      Other small notes include:
      -I love Frank Socrates and totally identified with Astrid's passion for her Humanities class as I experienced similar opportunities in high school.
      -I still can't totally wrap my head around Ellis. So she's extra sensitive and had to see a psychologist when they moved. I just couldn't understand how awful she was to Astrid when shit hit the fan and how quickly and steadfastly she aligned herself to Claire. I don't know. I'd have to have my little sister read this book and tell me if she'd done the same thing. We were near mortal enemies then, but to go that far?
      -CLAIRE IS A HORRIBLE PERSON. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. She's the epitome of every horrible person I know who lives in a big city at some point and puts on airs whenever they go anywhere remotely smaller but also tries to leech on folk-y charm. I haven't disliked a character this much in I don't know how long. She may be the worst villain I can think of, not in the way of a fault of King's writing, but in that parents never should have the green light to be that horrible to their children. And it happens all the time. I could never send her my love because she'd figure out how to turn it to poison and then slip it in my coffee. HORRIBLE.
      -Kristina isn't much better. I'm glad Astrid gave her hell when she did. None of her excuses were excusable because she absolutely knew what she was doing. She DID NOT have more to lose than Astrid.
      -The steamy bits were so great! High five, King!
      -And I still kinda liked the dad even though he's mostly spineless. And also I'm glad I never knew if my parents ever did any drugs while I was a teenager.

      I don't know how she does it, but King writes these books that I can identify with so closely, it's scary the degree to which I could footnote how exactly it mirrors my teenage life. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this, which is kinda weird, but really a testament to how universal growing up is. I'm going to stop before I write something uber-sentimental and make myself gag. But ASTRID 4EVAH!!!!!!!
    • 4/5
      I loved so many things about this book! I loved the interstitial bits about the passengers of airplanes; I loved everything about Socrates. I did not love that it apparently takes places in that alternate universe, so frequently depicted in movies, television, and novels, in which bisexual people do not exist.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I listened to the audio version of this novel. The narrator did a great job with the reading, and it was an enjoyable novel to experience. It may be because I'm not in the target age range, but I was definitely not as enamored with the novel as I suspect I would have been as a teenager. The issues that the main character copes with are certainly not fresh or new, but neither are they insignificant. King handles them deftly, and only loses me with some of the characterization. The main character is highly analytical, and I wonder if King herself was that way as a kid, because all of the highly analytical kids I hung out with were also highly emotional. Astrid doesn't come off as being incredibly emotional. I did like that she struggled to figure out how to express her emotions, because goodness knows highly analytical kids do over-think things. But the emotions themselves weren't fleshed out or explored nearly as much as Astrid's fascination with Socrates. One of the strengths of this novel was the magical realism, which usually feels completely superfluous to me. In this case, some of it was superfluous, but the presence of Astrid's imaginary Frank Socrates served its purpose well, giving us some insight into the things she felt utterly incapable of figuring out on her own.

      I might recommend this to some of the highly analytical kids that I know, especially since King explores the role of labels, as inaccurate as they can be, and the purpose that labels serve in life. I find that kids like me tend to reject labels when they aren't entirely accurate, but it's true that they do serve a purpose, and that purpose is worthy of discussion. Ultimately, I just wish that we had spent more time with Astrid after her coming out, as she grapples with her chosen label and with conveying her own truth to those who love her. The hardest part, the part that people often fear, is not the actual moment of coming out, but the aftermath. I wish we had stuck around long enough to see more of that aftermath and how she handles it. Ultimately, this isn't the book I had hoped it would be. I think it might have been a more interesting story if we had started with the big moment that served as the catalyst to her coming out, rather than saving that for the last half of the book.

      Tl;dr: It was enjoyable, but isn't for everyone.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the few young adult books that I have truly enjoyed as of late. I has happy to read a book that really delved into an issue that many young people have today, which is, what happens when I start falling for someone of the same sex? This question becomes an even bigger issue when living in a small town.King's depiction of small town living is very realistic. Having lived in a small town in high school, but not necessarily being a small town girl, I could identify with how Astrid felt about those around her and the town in general. I found that the way she depicted small town thinking and gossip to the actual reality of a situation was accurate.In general, I thought that Astrid was a really interesting and highly relateable character. Her voice was mature, but not unrealistically so. Her feelings are totally understandable, and not once did I feel like she was thinking or doing something uncharacteristic of a teenage girl.What I was truly impressed by in this book was how King not only depicted the feelings of small town people about homosexuality (the scandel!), but she also showed us that even those who call themselves allies (or as Astrid ironically calls her mother, Friend of the Gays, or GOTG) can sometimes fall into the pit of ignorance and intolerance. While Astrid's mother claims that she is an ally, she becomes worried when rumors of Astrid's sister's sexuality start flying and is insulted by the allegation. This occurs again later when Astrid gets busted at a gay bar, and somehow, getting caught at a gay bar was worse than getting caught in a regular bar. I'm glad that King was able to convincingly and subtly show how even those who claim to be open-minded about sexuality can hold similar prejudices as those less open-minded.I also appreciated how Astrid struggled with the fact that everyone around her, including her friends, were pushing her to label herself and come out to her family. Really all Astrid wanted, and needed, was some time to figure out how she felt about her girlfriend and her sexuality. I felt that this rings true for many teens who are just trying to make sense of what they feel. Emotions get complicated, and I thought that King did a great job of depicting how difficult it can be to sort through those emotions when you are feeling pressure from those around you to make-up your mind, so to speak.This book felt real to me, and I believe that King did a great job of really getting into the head of teenage girl who just wants to love her girlfriend and do away with the pressure that society tries to put on her. Ask the Passengers is a great read, and I hope that books with LGBTQ main characters will gain the attention that they deserve and become less uncommon than they are currently.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars - there are some things that I really like about this book: the interactions between Astrid and the plane passengers is clever, the relationships between Astrid and her contemporaries are believable and well developed, and the discussions between Astrid and Dee about their relationship and when sex should be added are laudable especially for teen fiction. But the family aspects of Astrid's life, written as cliches of out of touch parents and a goody two shoed sister, somehow resolve into a perfect family once Astrid can admit who she is. This was a little too neatly and inexplicably resolved after all the build up. Overall, I like King's writing style, and will read more, but the end was a bit of a let down.
    • 5/5
      A lovely read.
    • 4/5
      Astrid spends a lot of time sending love out into the world, specifically at people on the planes that fly overhead. She also spends a lot of time questioning who she is and who she wants to be. Her family is dysfunctional, her best friend is manipulative, and her maybe girlfriend is pressuring her. Astrid just needs to figure some things out, and she works on it over the course of this novel. Astrid is a character to cheer for and who you wish you could encourage. Little episodes with the passengers to whom she is sending her love pepper the book meaningfully as well.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely loved this book an could not put it down. I literally read for about 7 hours straight, cover to cover. I love the metta that happens in this book when Astrid sends her love to the passengers as well as all of the theories that come up. I also feel that the writer definitely did a well written story of coming out as a teenager and what it means personally and in society. There should be more books with these lgbt themes and characters, and I hope to read more of A. S. King.
    • 4/5
      This is a book about a girl who is questioning her sexually and trying to come to terms of being gay.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the few AS King books I haven’t read and I was excited to finally pick it up to read. It ended up being a very engaging book but didn’t have as much magical realism as King’s other books have had.I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator sounded exactly like I imagined the main character would sound and did a good job of conveying emotion.Astrid Jones has a secret; she is in love with a girl she works with. They steal secret kisses in the freezer room and secret moments by the lake. Astrid wants to confide in someone; but her mom is too pushy, and her constantly stoned dad isn’t interested. Her best friend, who is also gay, wants to put Astrid in a neatly labeled gay box. Astrid doesn’t know if she is gay or if she just happens to be in love with a girl and she is struggling. To cope she goes and lays out on a picnic table in her backyard and sends her love to the passengers that fly over her in airplanes.This story has a lot of interesting elements to it. Astrid lives in a small town and moved there from New York City. She is adjusting to the small town vibe and with how vicious rumors are in that setting. Astrid is also really into philosophy and is taking a honors humanities course; to help her cope with all the pain and trouble around her she’s made herself an imaginary friend name Frank Socrates that she can talk to.When Astrid sends her love to the passengers in the plane we occasionally get a glimpse into one of the passengers lives and what they are dealing with. This was interesting and I was impressed with how quickly I became engaged with these airplane passengers’ stories and wanted to know more about them.As with other of King’s novels there is a bit of magical realism. When Astrid sends her love to a passenger the passenger actually seems to be affected by her questions/love/concern in some way. Also Astrid seems to see Frank Socrates hanging around sometimes (although she admits he is in her imagination).Mostly though this story is about society and definition and expectations of society. It’s about how much people need labels and boxes to make themselves feel in control. It’s also about a teenage girl who is struggling to figure out what it means to be gay and what it means to be in love. Overall this was another incredibly well done AS King novel that breaches a number of societal questions while providing an engaging story with a heroine you really care about. I continue to be impressed with how much King can pack into a story and with how much these books leave me to think about. The story and characters are completely engaging and very hard to put down. I would highly recommend everyone read this book. We can all stand to learn more about tolerance and equality.
    • 4/5
      Astrid Jones is a keeper of secrets, and we all know that secrets are better when shared. But her mother is beyond pushy and favors her sister, and her father shows no interest in her, as he's more interested in the pot he smokes. Astrid knows, of all people, she can?t trust them with this. They've uprooted the family from New York City to a small town ironically named Unity Valley where people have a distrust of anything or anyone different. Living here is brutal ? because everyone has an opinion about everyone else. Like other A.S. King books (she's recently become one of my new favorite authors), there is a bit of magical realism as Astrid sends her love to the passengers in the planes flying overhead and has conversations with Socrates, whom she nicknames Frank.This book shows how different we are in our minds from our outside appearances, how there is always so much more to other people?s lives than we can possibly know. The pressure to conform is HUGE, and Astrid is a strong character that shows how it?s possible to step away from the pressure and define ourselves by our own terms. It was so good, for so many reasons.
    • 4/5
      As good as everyone's been saying it is. A read where not everything is perfect and doesn't end up perfect. Very nice read.
    • 5/5
      Astrid Jones doesn't know how to feel about her life, so she sends her love to passengers in the airplanes that fly over her house. They're lucky because they have places to be, while she's stuck in Unity Valley. Her mom is a control freak, her dad is an escapist stoner, her sister inhabits a different sphere of small town girl acceptance. Her social life consists of tagging along with her more popular friends, Kristina and Justin, on their sometimes dates. Oh, and keeping their secret: they're gay, the dating is all an act to fend off the narrow minded views of their peers.

      She has a secret of her own. She might be gay too.

      What sounds like a standard sexual awakening/coming of age novel is...actually that. But with an A.S. King style flair of some supernatural-maybe-infused commentary, scads of familial dysfunctional dynamics! The part that this is a story that's really about Astrid's feelings about herself and the whole gay crisis is just sort of an obvious triggering point. So if you pick this up on a LBGTQ series expecting Annie On My Mind just know that the relationship is prominent, but not the centerpiece of the story. And you know what? I really, really loved that about the book.

      Don't get me wrong. I'm a sucker for romances where the teens fall in love against all odds and that becomes their incentive to be true about themselves. But this one has it backwards. Astrid Jones, through the help of an imaginary Socrates and a lot of mistakes, finds the strength to be true about herself and then maybe we can talk on if she gets the girl. She is pressured by her girlfriend, pressured by her friends, pressured by the rumor gossiping in town to come out, to label herself, and she resists (and, yes, denies even when she knows better) it until she can sort the rest of herself out first. That is the story A.S. King tells best, and that is the strongest aspect of the book that practically beans you in the head since the first page has "Know thyself" and "Question everything" on it. And this is really a kind of questioning that teens/adults/children/house plants/aliens need too, because what happens if something about you doesn't fit by preconceived notions? Then how would you be so sure it's just one thing about you and not possibly everything?

      Astrid's voice, her authenticity, is the unquestionable draw of this story. She has a wry kind of humor that she usually keeps to herself but readers have the privilege of seeing, and sometimes it's less of a privilege and more of a "oh god why" like her comparison to a hangover with a den of raccoons dysentery all over her head. She's introverted, sometimes painfully aware of it, and also so incredibly lost, which you see in glimpses and her own self-questioning doubts.

      "Dee is dancing in place to imaginary music, making a bass sound deep in her throat. I admit I'm excited to go out to Atlantis again. An hour ago, I wasn't going anywhere tonight. I think: Maybe it's okay that people talk you into things. Maybe if they didn't, you'd never go anywhere."

      Some people might be turned off with the interludes of the plane passengers, where Astrid sends love and questions about her life to the plane passengers and some of them respond in vignettes about their life, love, disappointments. I'll admit there were a few that were not as stirringly poignant as Astrid's struggles or didn't connect as well to the narrative as I wanted. But while the giving love to strangers in planes sounds a little too twee, almost like you're expecting Haley Williams to start chiming in on the vocals about wishing on airplanes (and please don't tell me I'm not the only one hearing that song throughout the whole novel). You sort of realize as it goes on that it is more for Astrid's sake than the strangers, even though they benefit from this cosmic outpouring of love in weird and indefinite ways. It is less about a girl who just has so much love to give and it's precious, and it's more about a girl who really had no idea what to do about love and felt like the only safe way she could give love was through a silent communication with a few thousand feet between her and the people she was sending her love to. And when I got to the end and read that's exactly what A.S. King had planned, I had a "Eureka!" moment myself. Which, yeah, wrong philosopher but any novel that can punch me simultaneously in the emotional and realizational cortex of my brain deserves ovation.

      As for it being an Issues novel, it is and it isn't. It's sad that simply having a character dealing with the confusion over being gay still counts as an Issue now, but it does focus on that. However, it's much stronger simply as a novel that inhabits a time and place with these characters and issues occur. In this way, I believe it. In an issue novel I would question the lack of bisexuality mention, but in this particular one I don't because Astrid seems barely aware of sexuality at first and personally doesn't have enough grounding to claim she likes guys, not enough experience to know for sure if she likes girls at the start, and ergo she works from nothing. As for the surrounding characters? Everyone around her who she talks to about it is either 1. already stunningly ignorant about sexuality anyway, 2. kind of burned by the whole thing Like Dee's dismissive "she picked the wrong side" about an old girlfriend who dated her then another guy, or 3. very stoned. I think it's definitely a conversation that should occur and be more transparent in YA literature, but I'd rather A.S. King just wrote another awesome story where somebody was bisexual then have to fit it in when so many other things were happening.


      Conclusion: I loved this story, even though it wasn't perfect. Because it wasn't trying to be, and in fact was telling me that nobody's perfect in bright neon sign letters. In a toga. There really have been few books that so embrace their imperfections that made me love it all the more. You may come out of it thinking it was great, thinking it was nice even though there were some serious moments where you wanted to facepalm (like I did), or simply moments where you felt jostled and confused but kept going to see the end, and even if this book doesn't rock your world there's love in it all the same.
    • 5/5
      Nobody's perfect

      It's a hard concept for a lot of people to come to terms with, especially for teenagers who are struggling to figure out who they are. And maybe even more so for a young person growing up in small town America.

      Astrid Jones' story, like 'Lucky' Linderman in Everybody Sees the Ants, is not a single-issue story. A.S. King has created a character who is dealing with many different issues, just like all of us, and we watch her survive and endure and grow. It's a satisfying book that will make you laugh and possibly get a bit choked up near the end.

      Definitely one of the best books I have read all year.

    • 4/5
      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. Summary Google booksAstrid is an engaging seventeen year old, self-described "asexual sea sponge" who spends hours sending love to the people in the planes flying overhead . Her dad is a stoner, her mom's an at-home workaholic who only leaves home for "Mommy and Me" nights with her younger daughter who, for the sake of sanity, conforms. A typical, dysfunctional family. Good writing is in the details: Astrid's mom texts Astrid's best friend to get the scoop on her daughter; Dad described as Jeff Bridges' character in The Big Lebowski--say no more! and Ellis, younger sister, always at jockey practice.The novel follows Astrid as her first stirrings of desire for intimacy slowly lead her to a relationship with a girl who works at the same part-time catering job. Particularly remarkable is the evolution of the relationship--a tentative start-stop thing which Astrid repeatedly refuses to put into a box with a label. Her LGBTQ friends urge her to "come out", especially after the (underage) group gets busted at the next town's gay bar. Astrid is happy with the term "love", same as the love she has been beaming up to the airplane passengers.Socrates, the author's companion since high school, plays a bigger role in Ask the Passengers than in Please Ignore Vera Dietz. Astrid nicknames him Frank, shares several meaningful conversations with him and during the humanities unit on Socrates' analogy of the cave, discovers how well her family fits the analogy. Greek philosophy is a tough sell in any novel; I think Ms King just manages it here. Still, I think the allusions to Buddhism (sending love to strangers) might prove more useful.I enjoy Ms King's narrative shorthand: sympathetic Dad, cold Mom, misunderstood young protagonist, philosophical asides, personification (pagoda, gossip)--idiosyncratic but relatable. Henri Nouwen once said something like "What is most personal is also most universal." That's what I get from A. S. King's novels, that in some way, most of us are bullied teens searching for a way to live our lives authentically.In my opinion, Ask the Passengers is not as elegantly worked as Please Ignore Vera Dietz but that's scarcely a criticism.8 out 10 Recommended to readers of LGBTQ fiction and fans of Ms King.
    • 5/5
      Astrid has never felt like she belongs in her small town. Ever since they moved here, her parents have become distant and her younger sister spends all her time trying to be the perfect daughter. Feeling unloved at home, Astrid sends all her love to the airplane passengers who pass overhead as she lies on the picnic table in her backyard. As an unexpected relationship develops with a girl from a neighboring school, Astrid begins to question who she is, where she belongs, and if she can learn to love.
    • 5/5
      I read the sample on Amazon and got so caught up that I had to order the book. And it was so good that I read it in one sitting tonight, then cried. I hardly have words--this book was so incredibly moving, and I loved it.

      In some ways it reminds me a little bit of Jostein Gaarder's 'Sophie's World', with its use of Socrates, and his appearance as 'Frank Socrates' when Astrid is imagining him there, thinking about her situation. It's a bit quirky, but it suits the story.
    • 4/5
      I really, really enjoyed this book. I started reading it without looking at the summary of it, so I literally had no idea what I was getting into. Boy was I in for a treat.This story follows Astrid, a teenager that doesn't quite fit in with the town or her family or even her friends. Her mom is an uber-bitch that wants nothing to do with Astrid, her sister is an insanely unempathetic human being and her dad is just a big stoner. Her best friend Kristina is a closet gay and Astrid keeps her secret for over two years. The only thing is Astrid has a secret of her own, something so secret she doesn't know if she can admit it to herself. She is gay as well. Throughout the book she keeps questioning it, and she really doesn't know if she's gay or not til the end. She enjoys kissing Dee but does it make her gay? With the help of her imaginary friend Frank Socrates (the Greek philosopher who has been graciously given a first name by Astrid) she starts to think about everything in a new light and really begins to question everything. She so used to just passing her love along to others (she lays on the picnic bench and sends love up to all the airplanes that fly overhead, resulting in surprising side stories from airline passangers. It's really an interesting storytelling technique) that she has hardly saved any for herself. This is really a great read. Like for real. It's my first GLBT teen novel and I thought it was fantastic. For everyone out there who has stereotypes, this book isn't just for gays. It's must read for everyone who has ever questioned anything in their life. It's a very insightful read and you'll be the better for it.