{"id":440,"date":"2025-09-22T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/?p=440"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:04:14","slug":"thin-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/thin-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Thin Air by Kellie M. Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Beige-Aesthetic-Book-Review-Carousel-Instagram-Post-1-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-441\" style=\"width:345px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Beige-Aesthetic-Book-Review-Carousel-Instagram-Post-1-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Beige-Aesthetic-Book-Review-Carousel-Instagram-Post-1-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Beige-Aesthetic-Book-Review-Carousel-Instagram-Post-1-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Beige-Aesthetic-Book-Review-Carousel-Instagram-Post-1.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Thin Air<\/em> is a YA thriller set almost entirely on an airplane. Teens compete in a high-stakes contest mid-flight, only for the challenge to take a deadly turn when contestants begin disappearing. The premise sounds like <em>Clue<\/em> meets <em>A Good Girl\u2019s Guide to Murder<\/em> with the unique, claustrophobic setting of an airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This book earned a spot on the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilfonline.org\/assets\/2025YHBA\/YHBA%2025-26%20List.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award list\">Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award list<\/a><\/strong>, so it\u2019s likely to be in the hands of many middle school readers across the state. As a former middle school teacher, I was curious how it would land with students and if the execution matched the hype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Worked<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The concept is fantastic. A thriller that traps the characters (and readers) on a plane immediately ups the tension, and the competition puzzles sprinkled throughout gave the story some energy and variety. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The prologue pulled me in quickly. It set up high stakes and gave me hope the ride ahead would be gripping.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The cover design is excellent\u2014bold, eye-catching, and exactly the kind of thing middle schoolers gravitate toward on a display.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Didn&#8217;t Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I never really connected with the main character. She came across as unlikeable and whiney. Don&#8217;t get me on my <a href=\"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/2023\/08\/22\/middle-school\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"soapbox\">soapbox<\/a>, but she is dealing through dilemmas (like choosing colleges) because she is 17, not 13 like the middle school students it is being promoted to. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There were simply too many side characters to keep track of. In a competition setting, this is always tricky, but here it bogged down the mystery and made some big moments feel diluted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The tension fizzled after the strong beginning, and by the middle, the pacing dragged. As a teacher thinking about student readers, I know many would set this one aside before the end.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The reveal and the motive behind the murders ultimately didn\u2019t land for me. Although it was surprising, it felt unbelievable and unsatisfying after all the buildup.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While <em>Thin Air<\/em> has an exciting premise and some clever elements, the story didn\u2019t maintain the level of suspense I was hoping for. That said, I understand why it was chosen for the Young Hoosier list: the hook is strong, it fits the current demand for YA thrillers, and the setting is unique enough to grab attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me personally, it fell more into the \u201cjust fine\u201d category than fantastic. Students who love high-concept thrillers might pick it up, but I\u2019m not convinced many middle school students will stick with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thin Air is a YA thriller set almost entirely on an airplane. Teens compete in a high-stakes contest mid-flight, only for the challenge to take a deadly turn when contestants begin disappearing. The premise sounds like Clue meets A Good Girl\u2019s Guide to Murder with the unique, claustrophobic setting of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[18,97,24,99,96,26,69,98,19],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-for-middle-school","tag-books-for-middle-school","tag-kellie-m-parker","tag-middle-grade","tag-ronni-writes","tag-thin-air","tag-ya-books","tag-ya-books-for-parents","tag-ya-thriller","tag-young-hoosiers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniwrites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}