It's the mid-1990s, and fifteen year-old Guernsey schoolgirls, Renee and Flo, are not really meant to be friends. Thoughtful, introspective and studious Flo couldn't be more different to ambitious, extroverted and sexually curious Renee. But Renee and Flo are united by loneliness and their dysfunctional families, and an intense bond is formed. Although there are obstacles to their friendship (namely Flo's jealous ex-best friend and Renee's growing infatuation with Flo's brother), fifteen is an age where anything can happen, where life stretches out before you, and when every betrayal feels like the end of the world. For Renee and Flo it is the time of their lives. With graphic content and some scenes of a sexual nature, Paper Aeroplanes is a gritty, poignant, often laugh-out-loud funny and powerful novel. It is an unforgettable snapshot of small-town adolescence and the heart-stopping power of female friendship.
This book was set in the 1990's and it was nostalgic and memory provoking for me, as I grew up in this decade. It was a time when I would of encountered much of what Renee and Flo did at a similar time. Mix this with the writing and wit of Dawn O Porter and I found this to be a fantastic read.
Dawn O Porter was able to bring her fantastic humour and also her observations and own memories to the book. The book has that full range of emotions - times of laughter and times where you could cry with the characters, but it also brings into the story those cringeworthy moments which, while we grew up, we all went through and the reader relives with Renee and Flo.
This would be a great book to put in a holiday suitcase, to be read on the beach or next to the pool. It is only 260 pages long, so a quick read. It is aimed at young adults but I think that anyone who was a teenager in the 1990s would enjoy reading this.
I received this book through the Amazon Vine Programme.
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