Review: Flying by Carrie Jones

Title: Flying

Series: Flying #1

Author: Carrie Jones

Genre: YA, sci-fi, urban fantasy

Publication date: July 2016

Published by: Tor Teen

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis: People have always treated seventeen-year-old Mana as someone in need of protection. She's used to being coddled, being an only child, but it's hard to imagine anything could ever happen in her small-town, normal life. As her mother's babying gets more stifling than ever, she's looking forward to cheering at the big game and getting out of the house for a while.

But that night, Mana's life goes haywire.

First, the hot guy she's been crushing on at school randomly flips out and starts spitting acid during the game. Then they get into a knockdown, drag-out fight in the locker room, during which Mana finds herself leaping around like a kangaroo on steroids. As a flyer on the cheerleading squad, she's always been a good jumper, but this is a bit much. By the time she gets home and finds her house trashed and an alien in the garage, Mana starts to wonder if her mother had her reasons for being overprotective.

It turns out, Mana's frumpy, timid mom is actually an alien hunter, and now she's missing--taking a piece of technology with her that everyone wants their hands on, both human and alien. Now her supposed partner, a guy that Mana has never met or heard of (and who seems way too young and way too arrogant to be hunting aliens), has shown up, ordering Mana to come with him. Now, on her own for the first time, Mana will have to find a way to save her mother--and maybe the world--and hope she's up to the challenge.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

This book is a good example of a good premise but not-so-great execution. I liked the idea of aliens and the main character’s mother who’s suddenly missing being an actual alien hunter... that is very cool!

But I don’t know, I just wasn’t very invested in the story. Right from the beginning I was kinda meh about it. And the writing felt very all over the place. It went off on a bunch of pointless tangents. BUT THEN the love interest Lyle showed up and I got a little more invested...

I loved Lyle! The romance was literally my favorite part of this book! Which is weird because I’m usually more of an action sort of girl. But then somewhere in the middle of the book I got bored again.

Honestly, my biggest issue with this book was that I did not like the main character, Mana, at all. And this might be my fault because now, going back and reading the synopsis, it tells you right there how babied and coddled she was by her mother. It was SO annoying! But more than that, she was actually very childish. And listen, I understand this is a YA book... I read YA books ALL the time. In fact, I probably read more YA books than I do adult books, so I get it. These characters are still actually kids. But she did NOT act her age at all! It was annoying!

That being said, the book did have some interesting elements. The aliens and alien hunter stuff was intriguing, the Big Secret Mana’s mom was hiding from her (because this is a YA novel of the 2010s and you know this is a thing that happened all the time 😆) was wild! There were interesting twists and turns for sure, but I just didn’t love this. Toward the end of the book I just wanted to be done, which is never a good thing. I don’t think I’ll be bothering with the sequel, unfortunately, no matter how much I liked Lyle. Lol.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊