The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester

“There is a place deep, deep inside every person that is hidden and hard to find. If things get bad enough and life gets too hard, though, some people will go to that place and never come back from it. Certainly, all outward appearances will suggest otherwise. They will look as they always did. They may even act somewhat like their old selves, but the trut is, the real truth is that they are hiding in this place deep inside where no one can touch or hurt them anymore.” 


Blurb: Piper McCloud can fly, and when the neighbors find out, a super-secret organization comes and takes her away to live with other kids (and plants and animals) with special talents. At first we are led to believe this organization (I.N.S.A.N.E.) wants to help them, but the true motives are much more sinister. 


This book was great because it wasn't a light read. As you can see, the cover betrays a story much more sinister than the title claims. The Girl Who Could Fly is marketed to middle schoolers but I think adults could enjoy this book as well.There were some important lessons about staying true to your self, seeking truth, and acknowledging the importance of family, which is awesome. However, I felt that the mass of adult content in this book was much too overwhelming to be told within a light and airy fairytale.There is an entire dedicated to the torture of our main character. There are discussions of lobotomy as well as other forms of mental treatment. Animal abuse is present as well as exually-charged actions.


What I hated about this book was the author's obvious bias towards certain subjects. I'm aware that she kinda-sorta attempted to reverse these biases in the end, but it just didn't work. The main point being her negative attitude toward religion, with an emphasis on Christianity. Piper's parents and the rest of the town were portrayed as Christian idiots, continuously swearing on the Bible and blindly clinging to tradition. Forester painted them in a very negative light and then tried cover it up at the end, without success. "[I would be able] to accept Forester's development if it wasn't so darn stereotypical, and I would be more forgiving if the flaws would have been used to show that everyone, no matter their religion, is human. That everyone makes mistakes, but everyone has the ability to remedy this past actions. Of course, this is not how it goes down."

Although this book was very dark, I enjoy books like these from time to time. It gets boring if you read happy ending after happy ending and The Girl Who Could Fly really gave me a break. It wasn't completely a horror or action, something in between I guess and I really liked that. Besides the biases in this book, I thought it was well written and the big twist at the end made me see all the theme in a whole new light. 8/10, worth a try guys!