Book Review
Title: Flight 171 by Amy Christine Parker
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Horror
Rating: 5 Stars
I didn’t really know anything about this book before requesting it but the premise of a horror like final destination with an equally creepy supernatural, paranormal element seemed really appropriate for the spooky season. The opening to the novel was definitely creepy as we are introduced to Devon Marsh as she heads on a senior ski trip five months after her twin, Emily was killed in a hit and run. Devon since then has been actively trying to become Emily even dressing like her, hanging out with her friends and denying who she was before. She also seems to have issues with a boy named Jack, her former boyfriend after she accused him of being the person who killed Emily and she still believes that even though she doesn’t have any proof and she is working hard to get it believing that will be the only way for her to get closure. As they board the plane and take off it is filled with same anxiety in the opening of Final Destination which is also referenced in the first few chapters.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Devon gets a strange feeling about an old woman abroad the plane and she can’t seem to shake it even though she is trying to focus her energy into staying in her Emily persona and trying to figure out who killed her sister. However, Devon’s feeling that something is wrong with the woman is proven right when she attempts to use the bathroom and is stopped by a flight attendant because the seat belt sign is still on and she threatens to expose him. She reveals Carlos’ secret about drugging and raping young woman before stabbing him to death, while she is arrested by the air marshal she soon reveals herself to be something supernatural in nature. The creature inside the woman gives the kids on the plane a taste of what it can do and explains that they are going to play a game. It needs a new host because the current host is getting old and it wants one of the children but that person has to be chosen by them it won’t just take one of them. It gives them just over three hours to decide who that person is going to be and if no decision is made it will kill everyone on the plane including the children and Devon’s mother. It also explains that over the course of these three hours it is going to reveal their deepest and darkest secrets in order to “help” them make their decision.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, things begin to get even stranger since all the adults and children are unconscious leaving only the teens awake, they decide to make Devon the person in charge purely because her mother is a pilot and she knows more about the plane than anyone else and she takes it on even though it isn’t something she would have done. They try and apply logic to their situation but the creature soon makes it clear that trying to see this as anything other than supernatural isn’t going to work which we see when she targets Rebecca and makes her knock out some of her own teeth while Spencer is in the toilet. Throughout this whole experience, Devon has felt a strong connection to the locket and frequently hears Emily inside her head when she needs it most almost like she and Emily where sharing a single soul and this creature is allowing Emily to project herself within Devon in ways she couldn’t before. Despite the tension and anxiety I was excited to see the creature begin spilling the secrets of the teens as that is going to cause chaos between them and I am not sure how Devon is going to cope with that.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, everyone is beginning to believe that there isn’t a creature and it might be a form of mass hypnosis and they create a plan to sedate the old lady to see if this is true and it is better than the alternative. However, in creating their plan more or more things are beginning to go wrong since the air marshal’s gun and some drugs have gone missing, presumably taken by one of them. In the chaos that is building things are falling apart and this is brought to a climax when they do sedate the old lady and learn that it really is supernatural and the plane isn’t on autopilot like they thought but being controlled by the creature. When the creature breaks the hold of the drugs it is obviously very upset and begins punishing them and Devon gets the blame for this even though she was following a logical thought process. Afterwards, she realises that she can’t be the hero in this story as she isn’t willing to sacrifice herself for these people because she wants to live as much as they do. There also seems to be another supernatural element with Emily since she is able to communicate with Devon briefly a few times which might help them out later on. We haven’t seen the secrets element come into play properly yet and I am hoping that is going to happen soon since it will really cause the group to descend into chaos especially now that Yara has told Devon and Jack that the being’s power isn’t limitless and it needs to regain its energy by feeding on their fear.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the secrets are coming into play now as the creature makes them sit down and watch their sins. This is played out as little movies taken straight from the minds of the people involved and at first these start small and seemingly innocent. There is Rebecca framed Kiara for taking the money from the school fundraiser, Billy cheating on Jeanne with her best friend Mai but things get worse from there. We briefly see the night Emily was killed but the creature is taunting Devon with the killer’s identity and then we get to see shy Wes crippling Spencer which makes Wes the new candidate for the sacrifice. However, Devon has worked out that the sins are getting worse and Emily’s killer will be revealed if they wait long enough which is what she wants more than anything. I think I have already worked out who the killer is but I need to wait and see if I am right and if I am why this person choose to act the way they did fleeing the scene of a crime when it doesn’t seem to be in their nature to do so.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, we get to see what Devon’s secret is and it is the fight she had with Emily the night she died and how she made her sister walk home in the freezing cold which led to her getting hit by the car and dying. Devon has carried around so much guilt because of this moment and this prompts Carter, her best friend to explain that it was Emily who told her parents she was skipping school but him because he was worried about her. However, Devon has learned in the months since Emily died not to hate people for little concerns like Carter’s at the time and she forgives him for it the same way she has forgiven Jack because she is being honest with herself now. She knows it wasn’t Jack who killed Emily and has probably always known but she needed someone to blame for her sister’s death and he allowed it because he had a drinking problem at the time and realised how easily he could have been the person to kill Emily. Now, we come down the final sin who really killed Emily and then there will a vote on who gets sacrificed to become the next host of the creature but now I am not sure who the killer is as there seems to be more than one possibility.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, literally so much happened but I don’t want to give away that ending since it really made the book for me but my guess was right for Emily’s killer but there is so much more to this book than that. I literally felt like I was reading Stephen King for the first time all over again and I will most definitely be checking out Parker’s backlist if she has one and I will be insta-buying anything else she comes out with in the horror genre. Solid 5 stars!
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