Ask the Passengers


 




Ask the Passengers by A.S. King is about a teen girl, Astrid, who struggles with high school challenges.  She deals with friendships, living in a small town, and having feelings for another girl, Dee.  To calm herself, she will stare at the sky and watch the planes fly overhead.  She imagines the passengers on the plane.  Astrid begins to deal with the emotions of getting a handle of her sexuality.  She comes out that she is gay to her father.  Astrid´s best friend Kristina is also secretly gay.  She uses her boyfriend to hide the fact that she is gay.  Even though Kristina comes out to her, Astrid decides not to tell Kristina that she is gay too.  When Kristina finds out, she becomes hurt.  Kristina and Astrid decide to go to a gay bar together and are caught for being underage.  This causes them to be outed by everyone at school.  Kristina lies and tells everyone that Asrid was the one that brought her there.  Later on they decide to reconcile their friendship.  Astrid and Dee´s relationship becomes public and Dee tries to uge Astrid to take it to the next level, however, she isn´t ready.  They decide to wait until both are ready.  Meanwhile, Astrid has to deal with teasing from other students about being gay.  She stands up for herself and gets suspended from school for using bad language.  

Readers may be able to relate to Astrid and the pressures she feels coming out as being gay in high school in  a small town.  The novel does deal with sexuality, politics, and societal norms that may force a reader out of their comfort zone.

King, A. S. (2013). Ask the passengers: A novel. Little, Brown and Company.

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