Could King be any better? Seriously. This is my favorite of her books, hands down. I also think it might be the most accessible but it does not stray from her style of infusing the real with a bit of the fantastic. There are a striking number of similarities to EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS but it's subtle. Very, very subtle.

Astrid Jones feels alone and confused and lost, but rather than wallow in that, rather than try to figure herself or her family out, she sends her love to everyone around her. She loves sending it up to the passengers in the planes who fly over her tiny, rural town. It's her escape from this place, from herself, and from her life.

This is a story about sexuality and about love and acceptance -- all of the self, not of anyone else. Astrid struggles to figure out where she fits in, when the truth is, she just needs to keep a little bit of that love she's sharing for herself. It's also a story about people and individuals and how amazing it is we even exist. That that in and of itself is worth appreciating and loving.

Amid Astrid's narrative are snippets of stories from the passengers in the planes above and I absolutely loved them. They fit so perfectly with Astrid's own struggle. And the plane metaphor in and of itself was brilliant without being over the top. We're all our own pilots but we all carry other people with us. Our destines are our own to control but we aren't alone.

King nails small town life like few are able to do. This book had a shocking number of similarities to M Molly Backes's THE PRINCESSES OF IOWA (down to the way the family operates, the mother-sister relationship, the facade and image needing to be presented to have status in a small town, the need for tolerance and respect for people, sexuality). These would be incredible read alikes because Astrid and Paige are so different and operate so differently from one another. Also, I think this would be an interesting read alike to THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME BUT THE HILLS DON'T MIND by Kirsten Cronn-Mills. Astrid is almost a perfect hybrid of Morgan and Paige and their situations and stories.

There's plenty of philosophy in this one, and there's the voices in Astrid's head which operate a bit like the ants do in Lucky's mind. What I love about King's work is how internally focused it is, how much it's about the individual and what's going in in their minds. When Astrid breaks out though, does she break out.

Readers won't walk away with a story about sexuality or a message about it, even though it's part of what the story's about (that's where this is a smart, smart book). So, there aren't going to be a whole lot of labels tossed around or a real in-depth exploration of bisexuality or homosexuality. This is a story about being a person, not a label.

This book walks a fine line between being utterly sad and utterly hopeful and because of that, I held my breath many times, with the goal of not shedding a tear. But then I read the last couple of pages and knew what side of that sad/hopeful line the story fell and, well, I needed some kleenex.

Longer review to come. One of my favorite reads in a long time.