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Layoverland

Gabby Noone (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · Rating details · 320 ratings · 103 reviews

Two teens, one stuck atoning for her sins and one destined for heaven, fall in love in purgatory in this darkly hilarious and heartfelt rom-com, perfect for fans of The Good Place.

Beatrice Fox deserves to go straight to hell. At least, that's what she thinks. On her last day on Earth, she ruined the life of the person she loves most--her little sister, Emmy. So when Bea ...more

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Hardcover, 304 pages

Published January 21st 2020 by Razorbill

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Average rating 3.86 ·

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· 320 ratings · 103 reviews

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Feb 03, 2020 emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned, recommend, contemporary, i-love-these-characters, funny, auto-buy-authors, couldn-t-wait-to-read, to-review, 5-stars, ya

hey if this book isn't on your radar you are making a BIG MISTAKE.

HUGE, even.

review to come / 5 stars (i think)

------------

couldn't think of a better place to read this, a book about a world in which purgatory is an airport, than while waiting for my plane

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Aug 28, 2019 Emily rated it it was amazing

There's a phrase that several of my writer friends and I use--that sometimes a book is so much better than it needs to be.

This book is so much better than it needs to be.

I laughed, I cried, I contemplated making coffee jello.

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Feb 03, 2020 Sylvie rated it really liked it

Shelves: magical-realism, paranormal, rom-com

First anticipated book of 2020: Read

The minute I read the synopsis of this book I knew I was going to read it ASAP. And the reason was because I always find it fascinating when books are about afterlife or purgatory. My obsession toward those themes began when I read The Afterlife of Holly Chase over 2 years ago and ever since I’ve been obsessed with them.

Either way this was such a cute debut novel by the author. I say cute but it was kind of depressing if you start to think deep about it. And ...more

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Jan 23, 2020 Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, drama, black-haired-hero, abrasive-heroine, irritating-heroine, teenage-heroine, bland-hero, unlikeable-hero, poc-hero

It’s true what they say: the best-sounding books have the worst executions.

Okay, maybe they don’t actually say that, but they should. Because in my experience, it’s true 95% of the time (at a conservative estimate) and this book is one of those times. It was a boring, underdeveloped snoozefest.

Seventeen-year-old Beatrice ‘Bea’ Fox has just died in a car crash. She had a very emotional last day on Earth, which featured the rupturing of her relationship with her younger sister Emmy, but things ...more

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Nov 23, 2019 Cindy ✩☽ Savage Queen ♔ marked it as to-read

I've seen this pitched as perfect for fans of The Good Place, and I am a huge fan of that show so I am very intrigued. Yet also reasonably skeptical, because those are big shoes to try and fill. But I am willing to give this a chance =)

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Dec 29, 2019 Stacee rated it really liked it

Shelves: edelweiss, cover-lust, read-in-2019

I was intrigued by the cover and sucked in by the synopsis and I couldn’t wait to read this one.

I really liked Bea and Caleb. She’s aggressive and maybe a bit hard hearted, but I truly loved reading her unravel her emotions and grow as a character. He seems sweet and unassuming and the conversation between the two of them was interesting. I also really liked Sadie and Jenna and how they tried to make the best of everything.

Plot wise, it was super unique to me. I loved this idea and the ...more

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Oct 24, 2019 Vee_Bookish rated it really liked it

I'm also a book blogger: Vee_Bookish

Layoverland was a book I really couldn't put down. It's an old cliche but compared with other recent read, I couldn't stop thinking about it and went out of my way to read it, finishing it way faster than I expected. I love stories about people trapped in places and seeing how they cope with the unfamiliar surroundings and the choices they make.

Bea finds herself stranded in an airport with other people who have died and are passing through, after a brutal car ...more

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Nov 20, 2019 Princess Peach rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019

Kids today are so lucky to have Gabby Noone writing for them. I want the coffee jello though.

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Jan 09, 2020 Lisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, 2020

This was weird? And good. A good weird. Bea is definitely a character who might be tough to read at first, but you see very quickly what really matters to get and how someone like her develops into being.

The food was disgustingly interesting - Jell-O-cased everything. And the side characters were interesting and flashed out.

My only wish would be for a bit more action in the middle - certain things have to be set up but things dragged a bit during that time.

Laugh out loud funny and deep all at ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 Kerry rated it it was amazing

This book was so fun and funny while also being about, well, death. I couldn't put it down and I LOVED IT. If "a recurring joke about Train's 'Hey Soul Sister'" speaks to you (it does to me), then hopefully you'll find this book as hilarious as I did.

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Jan 02, 2020 Marie rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs, 2020-releases

Ahh I had a lot of fun with this one. Loved the flawed, sarcastic main character and her growth, love the originality of it all. Definitely will be looking forward to reading more from the author :)
Full review coming soon!

Thank you to Penguin Random House International for the e-ARC of this book. This did not, in any way, influenced my thoughts and rating.

My Blog - Drizzle & Hurricane Books - Twitter - Bloglovin'

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Nov 25, 2019 Rachel Davies rated it it was amazing

extremely excited about this one. we have to get the hot serpent from Riverdale (now dead) in the role of Caleb!

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Oct 23, 2019 Cheska the Great is Not Okay marked it as to-buy-soon

THIS IS FOR FANS OF THE GOOD PLACE??

*SCREAMS FOR ETERNITY*

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Jan 06, 2020 *mk* rated it liked it

This book kind of touts itself as a book for fan of The Good Place, and while I think there are some similarities in terms of plot, it is lacking the same depth and strong emotions that the latter has.

Layoverland tells the story of Beatrice Fox, or Bea as she is known. The story begins with her having "ruined" the life of her younger sister and after that, in tears, she gets in a car accident and is killed. Instead of heaven/hell, she is sent to purgatory (which here, resembles an airport) and This book kind of touts itself as a book for fan of The Good Place, and while I think there are some similarities in terms of plot, it is lacking the same depth and strong emotions that the latter has.

Layoverland tells the story of Beatrice Fox, or Bea as she is known. The story begins with her having "ruined" the life of her younger sister and after that, in tears, she gets in a car accident and is killed. Instead of heaven/hell, she is sent to purgatory (which here, resembles an airport) and is given the task of helping people cross over to heaven by helping them realize what is holding them back. This is to atone for her "sins" on Earth. Of course, one of the first people she is paired with is a fellow teen named Caleb, who, slight spoiler here (but it is on the blurb for the book so I'm gonna say it), is the one who killed her. So now she has to decide if she should exact revenge or let him move on. Of course, surprise surprise, a blossoming romance complicates things.

I think it is fair to say that I generally enjoyed this book. Bea is a funny character, and especially the middle chunk of this book for some reason I found really good. The situation she is in is interesting. The problem is...a lot of this book feels underdeveloped, and I have some big key issues. First and foremost, it was hard to get behind Bea having to spend eons of her life atoning for her sins when, in the flashbacks within the book, she really wasn't seen as doing anything that bad. Especially once you consider the fact that she is a TEEN! She is allowed to make stupid mistakes and be a little selfish. Through the flashbacks to her life before death, Bea kind of develops but I never saw her as someone who necessarily deserved this sentence that she is given. She is incredibly argumentative and perhaps a little bit in denial but again, she is a TEEN! Who is in charge of this place! My goodness.

While this book was short and sweet and enjoyable in a simple way, I thought there was a lot of wasted potential. I kind of wanted to find out more about this purgatory place, and most of the development for that was rushed into the first few pages. Also, there are a handful of side characters but they are, in my opinion, lacking. The friendly roommate, the person who trains her, some other randos in the flashbacks, all seem pretty meh. Basically, I think the main character is fairly well developed but all the other characters are just meh and that kind of hurts the book, for me. Her romantic interest I wouldn't exactly put in this category because we do find out a lot about him but he isn't at quite the same level as Bea. Of course, this is a book for teens so I can't REALLY expect it to get as philosophical as The Good Place does (though teens are smart and watch that show and could figure it out), and it does/should do its' own thing, I just wish there had been a bit more emotional impact to it. This character's big emotional journey was just kind of meh to me, especially because I didn't feel like she necessarily needed to be in this place. Honestly, I felt like she should have been one of the people being helped to cross over, not the one being punished and having to do the helping.

Basically though, a lot of the issues I have with the book are semantics. It was a fluffy rom-com and the story was interesting, I just wanted slightly better development from it. It just needed another few minutes in the oven. And a few ingredients were also missing so maybe that is not the best example but...you know what I mean. ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Storiesandcoffee rated it really liked it

Shelves: star-crossed-lovers

Thank you Razorbill for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

If you're a fan of The Good Place listen up...Layoverland is just the book for you.

When seventeen-year-old Bea dies in a car accident, she is shocked to find out she isn't entering heaven or hell. She is sentenced to purgatory in an airport-like dimension with the task of helping 5,000 people move on to heaven before she, herself, can move on too.

With Bea's no-nonsense attitude, forcing people to get to the root of what is ...more

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Jan 31, 2020 Nikki (Book Allure) added it

Shelves: disliked, arcs

All of the characters in this book are psychopaths. I don’t know how I made it out alive.

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Dec 26, 2019 Tatum Bowen rated it it was amazing

I don't even know where to start! I've been wanting to read this book for so long and when I got it I was sooooo excited, and I was not let down. As soon as I began reading it was easy to see the sarcastic humor, but it was also a note that recognized how important it is to reflect, if you know what I mean. As a 16 year-old myself, this book was relatable and I understood every reference, which was freaking fantastic; sometimes I read YA books and I can tell an old person wrote it, but ...more

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Nov 11, 2019 Gina Adams rated it liked it

This concept was great and it was fun to read. I have severe death anxiety and this story was able to soothe that some by presenting the afterlife as something just as monotonous and frustrating as real life.

The feelings in this book were realistic. Like, the stages of grief but a person grieving themselves. There was plenty of humor and some deep moments too.

However the ending of this book just left me feeling incomplete. It makes sense for someone to have gone through dying and heal enough to This concept was great and it was fun to read. I have severe death anxiety and this story was able to soothe that some by presenting the afterlife as something just as monotonous and frustrating as real life.

The feelings in this book were realistic. Like, the stages of grief but a person grieving themselves. There was plenty of humor and some deep moments too.

However the ending of this book just left me feeling incomplete. It makes sense for someone to have gone through dying and heal enough to decide to only focus on the moment. But it’s not satisfying for me. It’s not satisfying to not know how Bea’s sister got on without her or when and if Bea ever moved on to Heaven. We never know such deep things in real life, and life is meaningless, but I just thought that this book would throw me a bone. I don’t think the ending is a bad artistic choice, and I see how individuals who need less closure will find it sweet. But I prefer to know everything I want to know and that’s just me sis!!!!

I did really enjoy the writing though. The humor was really well done. Bea is woke, which is great, but then she gets called out for being fake woke which is even better. She gets told she doesn’t do anything to change the things she finds unjust and that she just lashes out for the sake of aggression and I think that’s the kind of statement that will allow some self-reflection in our current culture.

As for Bea’s sister... she was kind of a baby and blamed her problems on her sister, causing her guilt into the afterlife, and it honestly just... wasn’t Bea’s fault? The situation she found herself in, while not something to be ashamed of, was definitely because of her own doing and the fact that Bea even told herself that she ruined her sister’s life was a stretch to me. Then again I find myself to be much more like Bea than her sister so I’m possibly projecting. But I don’t really want to examine myself that hard on this nice Monday!!!!!!

The lack of closure really makes me wanna rate this even lower than I did even though it could have been a 4+. I’m just so mad that the sisters’ last conversation was so shitty and it was never addressed, not through a third person flashback or a dream or vision or nighttime visit... I just feel robbed!!! It’s realistic but reality has no place here !!!! Gtg before I get angrier ...more

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Dec 04, 2019 Ilhaam rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-arcs

ARC REVIEW

let me start with WOW. this whole book. the whole idea. the characters. CALEB. everything. so perfect.
when I started reading Layoverland back in December I was in a slump. and i had a lot of work. and then i started it and i finished in two days because it was literally phenomenal. and i had so many feels.
Layoverland is about Beatrice Fox, who just died and now has found herself on an airplane where she gets told that she has to move souls along to heaven before she can get there ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Sarai Davila rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genuinely-good-ya, romance, friendship, humor

Dark humor is where I reside. My mom died two years ago of cancer, but you would hardly have known how hard that was for myself and my siblings and dad based on the way we were giggling like madmen on a phone call the day of. We couldn't stop telling funny anecdotes about her. We were healing, and coping, and doing it by making tons of irreverent jokes. It's who we are. Those darn Davilas.

Noone's young adult novel about life after death is bleak. It's about a bunch of dead people wanting to get Dark humor is where I reside. My mom died two years ago of cancer, but you would hardly have known how hard that was for myself and my siblings and dad based on the way we were giggling like madmen on a phone call the day of. We couldn't stop telling funny anecdotes about her. We were healing, and coping, and doing it by making tons of irreverent jokes. It's who we are. Those darn Davilas.

Noone's young adult novel about life after death is bleak. It's about a bunch of dead people wanting to get to heaven, but being stuck in the liminal space that is an AIRPORT (until they accomplish certain things). Also stuck in the clothes and hair and makeup they were wearing, no matter the cost. In our main character's case, Bea, that means raccoon eyes of mascara from crying, and three day old hair. I love this more than I can even explain. I love that Bea looks perpetually ragged and tired and unwashed. I love that she's forced to wear an ugly orange flight attendant dress for the next however many years, and I love that there's a dead beauty queen. But the great thing about Noone's novel is that it's more than cheap dark shots at death--it's an extremely heartfelt story about sisters, familial love, and coming to terms with where you're at--even if that place is an airport in limbo.

Noone does something brave as a writer. She creates a somewhat unlikable character, who has some annoying traits, and lets her be that annoying character until someone finally tells her off for her attitude. It's immensely gratifying, and creates a lot more conflict than reading about a perfect MC. Instead, we have Bea, who goes on rants, is spunky, and sticks it to anybody who dares cross her path. And although these aren't necessarily negative traits, she can come off as a bit preachy, and a bit self-righteous. She's flawed, and I love her for it. She's also a perfect representation of a self-righteous, but genuinely concerned citizen in 2020.

Noone never leaves us with perfect answers. Not everything HAS an answer in this book. It's more than that though. It's a book where we're left in the in-between, just like the characters. There are some endings, but not for everyone. We're left with what-ifs and questions, and we're left to grapple with those on our own, perhaps to leave us with even more of an emotional punch. Noone wrote a fantastically relatable and current story, and I can't wait to see what she does next. ...more

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Jan 20, 2020 Judy Beetem rated it it was amazing

Loved this book! The preliminary description was intriguing and I was fortunate to receive an ARC to read the entire book. Gabby Noone has created a unique plot, with interesting characters and a story that was so well-paced that I stayed up all night to finish it. Beatrice Fox is an angry seventeen-year old who is involved in a fatal car accident. When she wakes up, it is on a plane full of other passengers as it touches down in a seemingly random airport. Soon we find out that Bea is in ...more

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Jan 24, 2020 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, realistic-fiction, magical-realism, binged, edelweiss, contemporary, romance

Many thanks to EdelweissPlus and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

OK-I'll just say it. I loved this book. I was not expecting to, and I really just wanted to read it on a whim, but man oh man was it good. This is a laugh out loud, darkly humorous look at what would happen if the afterlife happened to consist of a third option besides Heaven and Hell. And that purgatory was an extended layover at the airport.

Bea dies in a car crash. The ...more

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Jan 24, 2020 Mel (ReadUntilTheLastPage) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary, paranormal, young-adult

"Letting yourself feel angry doesn’t make you an angry person. It just makes you a person who’s honest with herself."

4.5 stars

If you liked The Afterlife of Holly Chase or The Good Place, then this is a book you need to add to you TBR!

This is a great example of a book that wasn’t what I was expecting but surprised me in the best way possible. The tone of the writing style really worked for me & had me laughing out loud a good couple times.

I will say the only thing that didn’t work for me as ...more

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Jan 23, 2020 Meghan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library

This book was received as an ARC from PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this book because it was all about Bea not only getting a second chance to get to heaven but doing the hardest thing for anyone, helping the person that killed you in the first place. Bea can never forgive herself for ruining the life of her sister Emmy. While helping Caleb (the boy who ...more

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Feb 06, 2020 Lun (-_-✿) rated it really liked it

I feel so stupid to feel like I owe a character of a book an apology.
Initially, Bea starts off to be this whiny ass bitch who in my opinion should be glad that she's in purgatory to amend her damned soul, basically her outlook on life and how she's just stuck within her own world. I was about to rate this book 2ish stars then comes Caleb and Jenna and they took the ratings one star higher since I really love these two characters.

I pushed myself through the book and in the near end, I really ...more

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Jan 07, 2020 Margaret Schoen rated it really liked it

This is a review of an ARC from Edelweiss.

After a terrible fight with her sister (and best friend) Beatrice ends up in a car accident, and well, dies. But she's not in Heaven (and she's not in Hell). Instead she's stuck at an airport somewhere in between, with all the other folk who need to let something go before they can continue on their journey. Beatrice's task is to help them on their way - once she's helped a certain number, she'll have atoned for her life and be ready to move on herself. ...more

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Jan 09, 2020 Ab rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-ness, romancy-shmancy, netgalley

I just finished this book, and my first thought: Adorable. But also: Hilarious. I laughed out loud multiple times reading this book, which is not entirely common. The author has an amazing knack for explaining something with such perfect, sarcastic clarity, that you just can't help but let out an audible guffaw. The entire premise of the book is just awesome - I love "Afterlife-As-A-Boring-Place" situations (Oh hey, "Dead Like Me"!) and incredibly sarcastic, quick-witted female protagonists (Oh ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Shannon rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, young-adult, paranormal, arc

For a book that kind of focuses on death this was a fun read. It's definitely a good one to hand to fans of The Good Place or looking for a quirky read. I'd actually pair this one with Libba Bray's Going Bovine. I loved all of the characters, even Bea. I'm LOLing at all the reviewers on Goodreads complaining that she gets needlessly political. They totally missed that Bea's whole thing is political. Being political is a core tenant of who she is. I feel bad for her because she never got the ...more

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Jan 15, 2020 Katie Mac rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, fantasy

After reading a less-than-stellar YA book with fantasy elements, this one was a treat with its unique premise--a sort of "medium place" (for those that watch The Good Place) with opportunity for advancement.

I really liked Bea--she's snarky in a realistic way, and Noone is clear to give her some emotional development and depth. The alternation between past and present was constructive rather than confusing, and it added to this character development. In a different way, I also loved Caleb; it ...more

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Jan 18, 2020 Emily rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, netgalley, 2020

Advance copy provided by NetGalley

I liked this OK. It’s the kind of weird thing I usually go for, and I hadn’t read a YA novel in a while. I liked the idea of purgatory as an airport, and Caleb and Jenna were sweet characters. It was a quick read, and the pre-death and post-death unknowns kept me turning pages.
I think my lukewarm feelings are mostly because, for most of the book, it was hard to live in Bea’s head. Figuring she was on a redemptive path didn’t make it easier to take the hateful, ...more

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