The Book Hits the Wall: The Paradox of Vertical Flight - Emil Ostrovski

Title: The Paradox of Vertical Flight
Author: Emil Ostrovski
Pub Date: September 24th, 2013
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Page Count: 272

What happens when you put a suicidal eighteen-year-old philosophy student, his ex-girlfriend, his best friend, and his newborn baby in a truck and send them to Grandma's house? This debut novel by Emil Ostrovski will appeal to fans of John Green, Chris Crutcher, and Jay Asher.

On the morning of his eighteenth birthday, philosophy student and high school senior Jack Polovsky is somewhat seriously thinking of suicide when his cell phone rings. Jack's ex-girlfriend, Jess, has given birth, and Jack is the father. Jack hasn't spoken with Jess in about nine months—and she wants him to see the baby before he is adopted. The new teenage father kidnaps the baby, names him Socrates, stocks up on baby supplies at Wal-Mart, and hits the road with his best friend, Tommy, and the ex-girlfriend. As they head to Grandma's house (eluding the police at every turn), Jack tells baby Socrates about Homer, Troy, Aristotle, the real Socrates, and the Greek myths—because all stories spring from those stories, really. Even this one. Funny, heart-wrenching, and wholly original, this debut novel by Emil Ostrovski explores the nature of family, love, friendship, fate, fatherhood, and myth.

BUY LINKS

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

That's mainly why it didn't work for me. I read so many good reviews and actually got this book from Cuddlebuggery's LBBA. I received this from Oh, Chrys! (so thanks so much!) It seemed like a very unique idea that I wanted to like, but didn't.

My main issue was that it was so rushed and because of the weirdness, became sloppy and hard to follow. I read about halfway before giving up. And the only reason I gave up was because the story lost me and I didn't want to re-read from the beginning.

It starts with a boy thinking about suicide. Then he realizes that he doesn't really want to kill himself; he wants the attention and people to acknowledge his presence. A page later it goes to him wallowing about facebook or his birthday... or something. And it's so jumpy that I was completely turned off. It's also somewhat irritating for someone who's dealt with suicide to see it played off as casual. I wasn't "pissed off" but I was a little more cautious.

After that, it gets really weird. MC (Jack)'s ex-gf has a kid and she wants to put him for adoption. Okay, sure she's like 18 so that's a justifiable action. But it goes to him reminiscing and smarties are involved and... *facepalm*But it doesn't stop there. This (out of whack) MC kidnaps the baby and tries to run away. I don't know about you, but I don't really want to read about a character like this. Sorry.

And don't even get me started on the use of "f***". Okay, cool, they're 18 and they swear. I'm going to take that into account but once you have 3 F-Bombs in a page, you're going to start rolling your eyes. Either they actually talk like that or this author has no idea what he's doing. And if it's the first, I don't really care for this MC. Excessive swearing in a book doesn't make it YA, it makes it stupid and desperate.

I feel like this is one of those stories that will appeal to people and maybe someone else will see the brilliance in this but it's not me. It was a complete waste of my time. I can't even clearly remember what happened. I just know that this book will be sitting in my closet and collecting dust in my 2- box. (Box of books that are 2* and under)

Emil's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

I'm twenty-three.

Rather than give you a witty, self-deprecating account of the trials and tribulations of my twenty-three year old, suburban, upper-middle class, went-to-a-girl's-liberal-arts-college life, I'll admit that I haven't really done anything much worth reading about.

So in lieu of providing you with my biography, I will recommend that you read Desmond Tutu's. Here.

Why Desmond Tutu?

Well, I've always liked his name.