Learning to Fly

by April Henry

Nineteen-year-old Free Meeker has a shaved head, a nose ring, and a tattoo of Chinese characters around her biceps. She has a career, if you can call it that, as a pet groomer. And she has just learned that she is pregnant, and that her boyfriend is a two-timing bastard.

Then a disastrous highway pile-up erroneously adds her name to its list of victims - and hands Free a chance for a new life. In the chaos of the fiery accident, she acquired the identity papers of the hitchhiker who is mistaken for her - plus a gym bag filled with $740,000 in drug money that otherwise would have been burned up. Go, Free, go!

Free sets out to transform herself into Lydia, the sweet-faced girl whose identity she has assumed. Raised by aging hippies, Free has always secretly longed to be more "normal," to try shaving her underarms instead of her head. Now she has a chance to make herself over.

But Free doesn't know that two men are hot on her trail. One man wants the money back. If he doesn't get it soon, he knows he will end up dead. The other man wants his wife back. He doesn't know the real Lydia died in the accident, on the run from his pathological abuse. Now he is determined to "teach her a lesson" - even if the lesson is fatal.

As Free/Lydia settles into a new life full of possibilities, she is completely unaware that it is threatened by resourceful pursuers who are closing in on her.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Suspense

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2002

About the author

I write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.

If you've read one of my books, I would love to hear from you. Hearing from readers makes me eager to keep writing.

When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.

My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written31 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have been on the New York Times bestseller list, translated into twelve languages, and won the Edgar, Anthony, and Oregon Book awards.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free Meeker, by way of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is involved in a 52 car pile up on I-84 in eastern Oregon. There are many casualties, including the female hitch hiker she picked up, and a man who begs her as he is being loaded into an ambulance, to get his gym bag out of his car and bring it to him at the hospital. When she gets to the hospital she finds that the man had succumbed to his injuries. Now what? she thinks. Her car is totaled, she's far away from home, and has little money. So there she is, a confused young woman, who at the time of the accident was at a crossroads in her life after finding out some troubling information, and who was basically in the process of running away from that life. Maybe being in the wrong place at the wrong time was true for a lot of the people involved in the pile up, but for Free Meeker it might have been the way to save her. You see, the gym bag isn't full of clothes or toiletries, it's full of money, $740,000 to be exact. Should she turn it in to the police? No, it's drug money she bets, and they're certainly not going to want to give it back to someone. They'll probably just keep it for themselves. And what about notifying the next of kin about the woman she picked up? The woman told her that her husband had died recently and she had no other family. So what would anyone do if they found themselves in that situation? Take the money and run of course and assume the dead woman's identity!

Off she goes to Portland where she finds a nice room in home with a woman whose husband has left her. She also meets a nice police officer who takes an interest in her. And she starts spending money, lots of money, on a crib, bassinet, baby clothes, the works, because the thing she was running away from is that she found out she was pregnant the same day she caught her boyfriend in bed with someone else. Now the story is getting interesting. Free's parents and sister think she's dead since she left her wallet and license in her totaled car, and she's off leading a new life in Portland pretending to be a young widow whose husband was killed in a car accident. Hmmmmmmm. Do you think the person who that drug money was supposed to be delivered to is going to want to find out where it is? Do you think those people might be some pretty unsavory characters? Uh yeah. Oh, and that woman whose identity she assumed who was supposed to be a widow? Not exactly. She was running away from her abusive, psycho, meth head husband. And he wants to find the bitch (his words, not mine) and teach her a lesson she won't ever forget.

Needless to say, as the scary drug dealers and the psycho husband both start following clues that Free has left behind, and keeps leaving, things get quite exciting and tense and definitely start on a roller coaster ride to the end. Okay, so here's the problem I've had with this author in the past and I have with her again with this book. There will be a good story with lots of excitement and I have a hard time putting the book down. It's getting close to the end and depending on what book it is, someone or maybe a few people may or may not be saved, the person or persons who might be trying to save them may or may not make it out alive, and some bad guys, hopefully all of them, will get what's coming them or at least be in custody. So the author does something in this book, as in others by her also, that drives me crazy and won't let me give the book more than three stars. The crisis hasn't been solved yet, I don't know if she's going to be saved or even live, and there's one page left! What????? Then there's a half page epilogue that takes place six months later. Everything is all okay with everyone. Everyone is happy. Free and the roommate and the police officer are the best of friends. Really??? Free spent the last 8 months living in a woman's home under an assumed name, continually lied to her, lied to everyone she met, stole money from a drug dealer and almost got others killed because of it, and everyone is acting like it's no biggie, we can't wait for the baby to arrive. I'm not saying that all of that couldn't happen, but it would be nice to know how it all came about. I would have liked a chapter or two detailing that six month period and how Free worked everything out with them and made them still want her in their lives, and how she dealt with the authorities too, you know, after stealing $740,000. Instead, just like in all her other novels, the author just completely dropped the ball. Very frustrating!

[Brittani Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. I would've rated it 5 stars but I felt the end was too abrupt. I mean we have this big climatic scene and then two pages it ended. Kinda disappointing.

[Neve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Really great actually but I felt like the beginning took a little bit to get going. As well as hearing from Roy and Don in the book. I didn't like that very much because I felt it took up more space for Free to explain more about what she was planning. The other problem I had with hearing from Roy and Don is that it kinda gave away what they were doing and what they were going to do. The last problem I had woth this book was the ending. I would have liked to see Free having a life with Lexi and Craig and her baby, but it ended like 3 pages after the climax. Overall this was an excellent book and I don't regret reading it.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A stand alone mystery by an Oregon author, with great descriptions of Oregon locations, fictionalized just enough so that you know you wouldn't be able to find them on any map. It begins in the middle of a killer dust storm that occurred on I-84 in 1999, and presumably provided an opportunity for an unscrupulous character to assume a new identity and start a new life. Henry cleverly weaves circumstances together to create sympathy for Free Meeker, the main character, and builds suspense as we realize that she is being hunted both as herself and in her new identity.

[Julie Heitland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an early novel by April Henry. It is good but I prefer her later novels as this one took a while to get started. Free Meeker, 19, decides to leave her boyfriend and start a new life in Portland, Oregon. Along the way she picks up Lydia Watkins. They end up in a major traffic pile-up and Lydia dies. Free, while surveying the scene, meets Jamie who has a bag full of money that he needs to get to his boss. Free takes the money, changes her identity, and tries to start a new life for herself as she tracks down the owner of the money. I found the ending to be predictable.

[Jacquie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give it about a 3.5.....overall I enjoyed the story line and characters, but I feel as if it was dragged on a bit and then was disappointed in the ending. It was almost as if building up to something great and then just rushed to finish and drop off. I was really sad to not find out what the baby was after going through the journey of Free's pregnancy and journey. I guess that is just where the imagination can go and I can come up with what I would've thought happened beyond the end.

[Zandra Roseberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of her earlier works. Good but I've read better by her.

[YoSafBridg · Rating 3 out of 5]

In April Henry's thriller Learning to Fly, Free just happens to be the name of the main character (well at least some of the time). When she is involved in a multi-car pile-up (52 cars to be exact~not exactly 52 card pick-up, but . . . almost) and is listed among the dead, she sees it as a chance at freedom (sorry, just had to do it) from the name saddled on her by her hippy parents, ditch her old life, and pick up the life of her now-dead hitchhiker (seemed like a good idea at the time . . .) Oh, did i neglect to mention that she also "found" (actually retrieved at the frenzied begging of a bleeding, dying man) $750,000 worth of drug money? Well, she did, so that helps out quite a bit when trying to fund a brand new life for you and your unborn child (which you have not yet discovered a way to tell your less-than-grounded parents and no-good-cheating boyfriend about.)
Brand new lives rarely come problem free and this particular one comes with the hitchhiker's murderous, sadistic husband who is none too happy to be left behind and the higher up on the drug-chain looking for his cash (who knew the life of crime was not one of ease?) I am not usually a thriller reader and Henry's use of adjectives and adverbs seemed a tad wild and loose at first though i stopped noticing after a while. Not all of the characters seemed true to form (though if you were looking for what it might have been like to be the child of "flower children" this might give you a better idea than Flower Children (by Maxine Swann) oddly enough. All in all, a nice diversion for an evening...

[Gina G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grade/interest level: MS
Reading level: 550L
Genre: Mystery/Adventurous
Main Characters: Free, Craig, Don, Roy, and Lexi
Setting: Pendleton, Oregon
POV: 3rd person

Free Meeker, just found out that she is pregnant. She leaves her boyfriend, and is on her way back home to her parents house, but then a dustbowl happens. 20 minutes before, Free picked up a hitch hiker, Lydia. Then then lose control of their car, and a huge car crash happens. Free escapes, and is trying to help people, while Lydia, is dead in her car. While Free is helping a boy with a broken back, he keeps on screaming "I need the bag! Don is going to kill me if I don't get the bag!". Free goes and gets the bag from the boy's car, but when she gets back, he has gone to the hospital. He then doesn't make it, she keeps the bag that has 740,00,00 dollars in it. Now, everybody thinks the girl in the passenger dead is Free, but it is actually Lydia dead. Free then makes a decision to move to Pendleton with the money, and she also decides to change her name to Lydia, since everybody thinks that Free is dead. Free has to figure out how to keep the money safe, have a baby/make a nursery for a baby, fitting in, and trying to hide who she really is. Will she be able to do it?

[Wisterious Woman · Rating 4 out of 5]

April Henry is doing a great thing by writing mysteries for the YA crowd. I thought it was just as good as many of the adult ones I've read. A fun read with various characters' lives intersecting. The idea of taking on a new identity after a disaster is plausible. Sometimes I don't like books where chapters alternate between characters but April Henry does a good job of interweaving each person's story and its relationship to the plot.

(My one question though is: are there still '60ish hippies living in Oregon?)

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent thriller, really liked it. Young pregnant woman is in huge traffic accident and comes out assuming another woman’s identity and in possession of huge amount of drug money. Tries to start a new life, but bad guys are hunting for her. Terrifically paced. Believable for the most part. Fast read.

[Sherry Hession · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of the three April Henry books I read. It wrapped up a little too easily, but neatly. It was an thought provoking look at what you would do if a large amount of money fell in your lap and it was drug money that didn't really "belong" to anyone (at least not legally) when you were totally broke yourself.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an attractive fantasy, to suddenly start over, with hundreds of thousands of dollars to make it possible. Such a unimaginable nightmare, to leave all that you know and your family and fear detection, keeping your true self hidden and aloof. Pretty good theme for a novel. Throw in an unthought of pregnancy, and this book becomes a page turner. I was thoroughly pleased with the ending.

[Kellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot. Except for the ending. It was like a slow build up to the climax and then a drop off the cliff. The ending seemed very rushed. I think the body of the story was good but dragged a little. The ending was exciting but I thought a bit unrealistic and abrupt.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Henry's "geometric" series and am sorry she is no longer producing them. However, LEARNING TO FLY is an excellent stand-alone thriller. Very readable and hard to put down plus the Oregon settings are always interesting.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fine. There were areas that it could have been better, but overall it was pretty good.
The parts involoving a sociopath were realistic, which was nice. I prefer the most realistic scenarios.

[Emily Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book! I thought the plot was very interesting, and the characters had enough details that made them quite realistic. I'm not a fan of the ending, however. It was abrupt and I'd have liked to learn more. All in all, very good.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free Meeker, the daughter of aging Oregon hippies is one of the freshest and imaginative of April Henry's characters. Born again thanks to a bloody I5 accident, Meeker re-invents herself in Portland as an everyday woman, only to be discovered again.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Free Meeker thinks her life is a train wreck, until a multi-car pileup on Oregon's I-84 gives her the chance to switch identities with a dead hitchhiker." Using a real life event--a disastrous highway accident--brings a bit more reality to the story, and makes it seem almost plausible.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free Meeker is an eminently likeable main character, with intelligence and "gumption". I rooted for her even when I thought she was making the wrong decision. The story starts out strong and never lets up. This was a hard book to put down.

[Debbie Maskus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for Mystery Book Club 4/2005

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting multiple story lines that intersect and twist with one another...enjoyed it!

[Lora]

Great thriller that's not well-known, too bad author never wrote another book like this...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, beginning and end I found to be exciting and page-turning, middle slowed down a bit. Overall a good book.

[Toesnorth's mom]

pretty good, but somewhat farfetched

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good thriller....

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fast-paced, with one of the most horrific opening chapters I've ever read.

[Nickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book with finely drawn characters and an interesting story. Not really YA, more adult, but suitable for HS I suppose.