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Flightless
In a world where humans manifest wings at a certain age, Jeremy Faust is a one of a kind being...His wings won't even move an inch.After years of avoiding anything to do with wings, Jeremy is caught and must learn to do the one thing he could never do — fly. The task seems difficult enough already, but things are about to get a lot more complicated.Don't even get him started on the Royals...
193 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 25, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 9, 2020
This was such a cute and fun read! I fell in love with Jeremy and Lyn and their hilarious banter. There is not a lot of heavy worldbuilding, but it has a charming cast of characters and fun dialogue that I enjoyed greatly! I would recommend this to anyone looking for a light and sweet queer romance in a fantasy setting.
August 9, 2020
“Jeremy had never flown in the sky. He had never known what it felt like to glide alongside the clouds. He had never experienced the thrill of soaring in the sky. But it was a damn near thing.”
3.75⭐️ This was a quick and light read! The characters are adorable and just so hilarious. I loved all the banters between Jeremy and Lyn. The only thing that made me not enjoy this as much as I wanted was the weird pacing and the lack of world building. This was still a very fun story to read!
3.75⭐️ This was a quick and light read! The characters are adorable and just so hilarious. I loved all the banters between Jeremy and Lyn. The only thing that made me not enjoy this as much as I wanted was the weird pacing and the lack of world building. This was still a very fun story to read!
May 12, 2021
Majorly disappointing
I kind of didn't want to give this a bad review, because I'm all for debut authors writing queer fiction, but my god. There's a line on what you can reasonably put up for sale in exchange of people's money and this is so far from the line it might as well be on a different plane of existence. I was originally going to say this book needs an editor, but it has one credited on Goodreads, so either it needs a better editor, or just a better author.
This applies both to style and substance. Stylistically this reminds me of the stuff I wrote when I was twelve—I still have the notebooks to prove it. I don't know if the author's young, or if their first language is English, but I would also say that this isn't an excuse when, again, selling this for real money. Also I doubt the language thing would work as an excuse because I don't see this prose translating well.
As for the actual contents of the book, this is a fine example of one dimensional writing. It's fantasy with zero world building, romance with zero character building, the book remembers to have a plot within the last twenty pages, there's frequent continuity mishaps (near the end, the love interest mentions talking to his best friend about that time he and the protagonist kissed and on the very next page said best friend shows up like 'how long has this been going on' as if he hadn't been informed?)…
Also, the premise is essentially a fantasy disability allegory, but it's resolved by having the protagonist just. Not be disabled. When he really needs to. So. That's a bad look.
Admittedly, this is what I get for picking up a book with the cover artist for sole recommendation. That's probably on me.
I kind of didn't want to give this a bad review, because I'm all for debut authors writing queer fiction, but my god. There's a line on what you can reasonably put up for sale in exchange of people's money and this is so far from the line it might as well be on a different plane of existence. I was originally going to say this book needs an editor, but it has one credited on Goodreads, so either it needs a better editor, or just a better author.
This applies both to style and substance. Stylistically this reminds me of the stuff I wrote when I was twelve—I still have the notebooks to prove it. I don't know if the author's young, or if their first language is English, but I would also say that this isn't an excuse when, again, selling this for real money. Also I doubt the language thing would work as an excuse because I don't see this prose translating well.
As for the actual contents of the book, this is a fine example of one dimensional writing. It's fantasy with zero world building, romance with zero character building, the book remembers to have a plot within the last twenty pages, there's frequent continuity mishaps (near the end, the love interest mentions talking to his best friend about that time he and the protagonist kissed and on the very next page said best friend shows up like 'how long has this been going on' as if he hadn't been informed?)…
Also, the premise is essentially a fantasy disability allegory, but it's resolved by having the protagonist just. Not be disabled. When he really needs to. So. That's a bad look.
Admittedly, this is what I get for picking up a book with the cover artist for sole recommendation. That's probably on me.
Read
March 5, 2021Denme un tiempito, que quiero hablar largo y tendido sobre esta historia.
August 4, 2020
This book was so cute, I can't even! A really good debut!
I absolutely loved the characters. I liked the chemistry between Lyn and Jeremy. Bonus points for developing feelings.
It was a very nice, quick read. It was funny and cute, with a tiny bit of drama at the end.
The only thing I didn't like was the very poor worldbuilding. We don't really know much about the world, which is sad, because the bits we got were really interesting.
I absolutely loved the characters. I liked the chemistry between Lyn and Jeremy. Bonus points for developing feelings.
It was a very nice, quick read. It was funny and cute, with a tiny bit of drama at the end.
The only thing I didn't like was the very poor worldbuilding. We don't really know much about the world, which is sad, because the bits we got were really interesting.
December 24, 2021
☆☆☆☆☆
(0 stars)
Flightless, by Laila Kishun, is actually one of the worst books I’ve ever read, but in the weakest sort of way. It doesn’t pack a punch like some- there’s no edgy cringe like Reaper’s Creek, no stupid plotting like Heaven, no radical errors and pathos like Ebony Flames… rather, Flightless is boringly devoid of anything.
I usually am telling a lot of people about the books I read, and with this I was at a holiday gathering- I sat down and said, “Well, there’s no description of anything! There’s no world building, no description of any locations, no descriptions of characters… there’s no even a plot!”
My friend: “So what is there?”
The answer was, “Dialogue. But none of it’s any good, and everyone speaks like an AI.”
The cover art is great though.
"' “Your Majesty, I am sure you’re aware of the rumors. Now that I have been caught, it seems there is no point in denying the truth.”
“The rumors… you mean to tell me that those rumors are true?”
“That is right, Your Majesty. I am unable to move my wings.”
Roman’s eyes widened for a brief moment. He stared at Jeremy for what seemed like hours, then hummed to himself. “Show me your winds,” he said. He tapped a finger once on the arm of his throne."'
-9
Plot
Flightless is weirdly long for having no plot. I bet I can sum it up in one paragraph, whereas normally I spend half my review doing a full summary. Watch me:
A boy named Jeremy has wings but can’t fly like everyone else, so he runs away from home. He’s caught after four years and made to go to private wing lessons with the prince. He gets a crush on the prince and they learn to make his wings work by making him nervous/lovestruck. While they start dating, the prince’s older brother betrays/is betrayed (same time) by a guy from another kingdom who attacks but is stopped off screen (this all takes place over about two chapters at the end). The end.
Bosh!!!
World I mean Wings
Everyone in this world has wings. You manifest them around fifteen, and they are called ‘gifts’, as their appearance is personal, not genetic. This is about the brunt of wing related lore we get for a book entirely around wings and flying. Everyone has them, but everyone mostly just… walks around. Buildings aren’t built more vertically or with wings in mind. People don’t use them to emote or show off. Despite this, it is required by law to know how to fly. Why?
…
Why? Someone please tell me why. The main character Jeremy is on the run from the kingdom guards for four years because he refuses to learn to fly. In fact, he literally can’t, but we’ll get to the weird disability allegory later. People having wings matters to such a small degree it’s ridiculous, and not what you sign up for when you pick up a book with two people flying and back text about wings. The idea Jeremy can’t fly and refuses is so important it’s said other kingdoms are scandalized by this idea, suggesting all across this fantasy world everyone knows there’s one kid who just has skipped school and really cares.
The closest we get to wing related lore or thought is when Jeremy picks up a feather from Prince Lyn, his love interest, and compares how white Lyn’s feathers are to his own black ones. Lyn informs him this is seen as super suggestive and flirtatious… which is something it’s bizarre Jeremy doesn’t know, and which doesn’t make the most sense? Just the action specifically of holding a feather up against his own is like, explicit.
Oh, and perhaps the worst offence of them all is that wings appear to be sort of magic and aren’t always there. Characters ‘open’ their wings, which seems to make them appear out of nothingness, and put them away. This does not explain anything about clothing, and if the bases of the wings are like, translucent and just clip through your outfit. Is this petty? No, not really- the whole book’s plot and premise are that people have wings, yet there isn’t a lick of thought on how that kind of reality might look.
World
"' As the two walked, he took that opportunity to observe the inside of the palace. It was better than what he expected it to be like. The chances of civilians entering the palace were not high, so it almost elt wrong to him.
Lyn interrupted Jeremy’s thoughts as they entered a hallway."'
There’s no world in this book to actually comment on. It’s a fantasy kingdom but a very lax one on any idea of realism (there’s sewing machines). There’s a king and castle and like thirteen other kingdoms, and that’s it. Lore over. One of the oddest times of this almost deliberate bid to have zero description in the book is early on, when Jeremy is told he must get back to his school books and starts with history. Rather than use the time of ‘Jeremy started to do his History homework’ as an easy excuse to tell us something of the world, we have a timeskip.
Also, there’s magic. This one really hits you by surprise, because the first mention of magic is about page 179. Yes, there’s a magic teleporting crystal early on, but it’s left entirely unexplained, so I’d basically assumed this world had two odd things: teleport crystals and wings. But then wham: an infodump of a colour based magic system, like it just occurred to the author it might be cool to add one. The magic system is not particular clear either, or inventive.
"'All colored magic is learned through accessing certain parts of your mind and emotions as well as learning about spells and potion making in books, but purple magic is dirty. You learn it by accessing the darkest parts of your mind and the sickest parts of your emotions. It sucks to learn, but it is easier to use once you initially learn it.” Noah shook his head. “It’s yucky stuff, that’s for sure." "'
-189, first mention of color magic is 179
There’s yellow (agriculture), pink (healing), blue (fire/water/air/earth), and purple (evil manipulation) magic (the only four colours, as we all know). It changes your eye colour and doesn’t factor into the book in any meaningful way, or even really non-meaningful way. The magic side character gives Jeremy a potion that doesn’t work, and the ‘plot’ at the end has some healing/evil magic happening.
One more passing odd note is the book’s insistence on saying ‘Royals’ and ‘Civilians’ like they’re different species. Jeremy thinks often about ‘the Royals’ and how ‘Royals do this and that’, which is a very unnatural way of talking about royalty. They’re never the royal family, just as regular people are constantly called ‘civilians’. It absolutely sounds like a subgroup you’d sort yourself into in some dystopian society, and yes, they are often capitalized like one too.
Characters
The writing makes it impossible to like anyone, as they all feel entirely empty. You kind of imagine if the writing was a bit better there’d be something likeable somewhere. There’s enough you actually get a solid idea of everyone’s personality, which is a lot more than I can say. I’m used to books where the cast has maybe half a personality between them.
Jeremy is rebellious, sarcastic, and likes getting a reaction. Lyn is orderly, dry, and tightly wound. His sister Alayna is chatty, casual, and physical. Friend Noah is audacious, dramatic, and weird. Despite having pretty clear ideas of what they’re like, the writing fails at every point to be memorable, funny, or interesting. There are a number of jokes or joke moments in the book, but none landed, which is true of anything else emotional, romantic, or really at all important. In certain regards, I don’t think just changing the writing would fix those problems- the plot and concept also are just critically flawed- but I kinda think Noah would’ve won me over if he wasn’t so weirdly written. I basically have the same character in one of my most recent books!
"' Jeremy hummed. “The two of us are similar in such interesting ways.”"'
We’ll chat the romance too. Jeremy and Lyn have an obvious relationship bait to them, being chaotic/lawful, Civilian/Royal, Outgoing/Reserved, Black-wing/White-wing… so they do work to some point. You understand the tropes and what is going on. You never really can get into it though, because they feel so scripted and stilted by the writing, and they don’t have much of a plot to their relationship. Jeremy doesn’t want to learn to fly, but is being held in the castle and forced to learn. Lyn wants to prove his worth or something and volunteers to teach. Jeremy is quite resentful at first, but learns to like him, then gets a huge crush. In between, Lyn does throw Jeremy off a cliff, which is rightfully condemned, but is still pretty weird. I can’t say there’s anything outrageous about their love arc, it’s just hampered by the whole book being badly written and not very good. It has the basic bones.
"' Once Jeremy assumed Lyn had finished getting dressed, he turned around. Lyn wore a loose, grey shirt that just barely covered his shoulders, and black pants.
Jeremy’s heart pounded like crazy.
“Shut up heart,” Jeremy muttered."'
-I mostly want to know what kind of shirt this is talking about- a tank top? Also, it’s such a plain look for the reaction, it’s very Edward Cullen Vs. khaki skirt isn’t it?
The disability metaphor angle
Consider, essentially, the plot of this book: In a world where everyone can do something, one kid can’t do it. Jeremy is fantasy disabled. The metaphor splits when you hit the part about the royal guard hunting down a disabled child, infamous through the world for being disabled, and forcing him to learn to not be disabled anymore. And also do his schoolwork.
Eh, it sort of applies, we’ve done worse to the disabled.
Jeremy not being able to use his wings does not impact his life in any way but culturally, so it’s rather like being born without smell into a family of perfumers. Despite this, he is ridiculously persecuted. As we’ve covered, no one flies anywhere or uses their wings, it’s just important to the entire world that Jeremy learns to use his. He’s even given a year deadline. You know, to stop having a minor disability?
Keeping in mind this idea adds this off but irresistible angle. Obviously the story is not meant to be an allegory, but the comparison is so obvious you’re left constantly pondering it- especially when there’s nothing else in the book to think about.
With this in line, let’s think about the end: Jeremy can now fly. Which is… phew, not really how you should end a story about a disability. Early in the book, Lyn is frustrated by how Jeremy can’t move his wings, so he throws him off a cliff and catches him. Jeremy while falling does move his wings a bit, to shield himself, which is the first time in his life such a thing has happened. Jeremy is, essentially, disabled except when he really needs to not be.
Jeremy and Lyn experiment a lot to try and get his wings moving, thinking fear must be it. They realize it’s more his heart beating, and in fact when he gets very riled up, his wings will twitch uncontrollably. This is especially true when he thinks about his crush on Lyn, and kisses Lyn, and in fact it’s basically the key to him learning to entirely fly. So kissing a boy cures his disability, the one who only really has when he’s not trying hard enough.
Is it the intended message? Again, no, obviously not. But when I talk about him not being able to do something society at large can, and being ostracized for that, the parallel is impossible to miss.
Okay plot again
The plot of this book is so nonsensical it’s about erased itself from my mind. In fact, the villain doesn’t even have a motive, and the crutch of the climax is never explained, just as the villain is apprehended off page.
Lyn’s older brother Daniel is a weird prick whose eyes keep glowing purple (the colour of evil magic). Lyn and his sister think this is suspicious, as he’s also been hanging out with the Roxan* prince, who is obviously evil. This is mulled over once or twice over the four hundred pages, and then at the end we learn Daniel has made a teleport crystal to invite the evil prince over, the evil prince brings a tiny army, there’s talk of the evil prince betraying Daniel while Daniel also planned to betray the evil prince, and then they capture the prince and make both princes apologize.
*This book has a Rowan, Roxan, and Roman. Don’t do that.
"' “Of course.” Lyn nodded to Alayna. “Let’s go.”
As soon as they left the room, Jeremy slowly sat himself on the floor.
The end was near.
By the time Lyn and Alayna returned, Jeremy’s leg felt much better than before."'
-397, the villain being defeated
This section is suitable short again.
Writing
"' “Now,” Ludovic said, “your suit is the one over here.” He pointed to one of the mannequins positioned in the room.
Jeremy followed Ludovic’s finger until his eyes fell upon the most beautiful suit Jeremy had ever seen.
Jeremy said, “Whoah.”
Two hours later, which was shocking to Jeremy, he was back in his robe and was escorted by two women, Morgana and Winnifred, to another room."'
-This is perhaps the best illustration of the writing style there is.
I’ve sort of already summed it up by quotes, but I had this above quote I needed to conclude, so I’ve made this. This book isn’t well written, but especially suffers from a complete lack of description. It’s nearly a script for how little prose there is. The first character to really be described in full is the tailor. Lyn at one point wears a cloak the colour of his eyes, and we don’t know what his eye color is. The palace is talked about as very grand and impressive, but we are given nothing on what that looks like. In the case of the above section, we do actually learn what his suit is, but it’s for several pages and I’d fully accepted Jeremy’s suit was just too beautiful to put into words.
Conclusion
I think Flightless was by someone who really just wrote their first manuscript, and probably a young person. Perhaps by the very stilted way everyone speaks, they are additionally someone who learned English as a second language. Primarily, however, they are someone whose book I bought and spend money on and read, and was deeply disappointed.
The thing is, no one is forcing you at gunpoint to write a book, or spend the money on a great cover artist or obviously competent editor (there’s only two errors I spotted here, a missed apostrophe and a repeated use of ‘vile’ instead of ‘vial’).
One day the world will get a good book* about cool angel people. That day is not today.
–
"' The floor was hard and golden, and chandeliers hung almost everywhere across the ceiling."'
-if you’ve noticed sporadic citations, it’s because I’m away from the book for the holidays. Do you really care about the lack of page numbers? No. You should be caring about why the floor is specifically hard in this description, as opposed to anything else.
–
–
(That book is probably Good Angel, Bad End, etc etc)
(0 stars)
Flightless, by Laila Kishun, is actually one of the worst books I’ve ever read, but in the weakest sort of way. It doesn’t pack a punch like some- there’s no edgy cringe like Reaper’s Creek, no stupid plotting like Heaven, no radical errors and pathos like Ebony Flames… rather, Flightless is boringly devoid of anything.
I usually am telling a lot of people about the books I read, and with this I was at a holiday gathering- I sat down and said, “Well, there’s no description of anything! There’s no world building, no description of any locations, no descriptions of characters… there’s no even a plot!”
My friend: “So what is there?”
The answer was, “Dialogue. But none of it’s any good, and everyone speaks like an AI.”
The cover art is great though.
"' “Your Majesty, I am sure you’re aware of the rumors. Now that I have been caught, it seems there is no point in denying the truth.”
“The rumors… you mean to tell me that those rumors are true?”
“That is right, Your Majesty. I am unable to move my wings.”
Roman’s eyes widened for a brief moment. He stared at Jeremy for what seemed like hours, then hummed to himself. “Show me your winds,” he said. He tapped a finger once on the arm of his throne."'
-9
Plot
Flightless is weirdly long for having no plot. I bet I can sum it up in one paragraph, whereas normally I spend half my review doing a full summary. Watch me:
A boy named Jeremy has wings but can’t fly like everyone else, so he runs away from home. He’s caught after four years and made to go to private wing lessons with the prince. He gets a crush on the prince and they learn to make his wings work by making him nervous/lovestruck. While they start dating, the prince’s older brother betrays/is betrayed (same time) by a guy from another kingdom who attacks but is stopped off screen (this all takes place over about two chapters at the end). The end.
Bosh!!!
World I mean Wings
Everyone in this world has wings. You manifest them around fifteen, and they are called ‘gifts’, as their appearance is personal, not genetic. This is about the brunt of wing related lore we get for a book entirely around wings and flying. Everyone has them, but everyone mostly just… walks around. Buildings aren’t built more vertically or with wings in mind. People don’t use them to emote or show off. Despite this, it is required by law to know how to fly. Why?
…
Why? Someone please tell me why. The main character Jeremy is on the run from the kingdom guards for four years because he refuses to learn to fly. In fact, he literally can’t, but we’ll get to the weird disability allegory later. People having wings matters to such a small degree it’s ridiculous, and not what you sign up for when you pick up a book with two people flying and back text about wings. The idea Jeremy can’t fly and refuses is so important it’s said other kingdoms are scandalized by this idea, suggesting all across this fantasy world everyone knows there’s one kid who just has skipped school and really cares.
The closest we get to wing related lore or thought is when Jeremy picks up a feather from Prince Lyn, his love interest, and compares how white Lyn’s feathers are to his own black ones. Lyn informs him this is seen as super suggestive and flirtatious… which is something it’s bizarre Jeremy doesn’t know, and which doesn’t make the most sense? Just the action specifically of holding a feather up against his own is like, explicit.
Oh, and perhaps the worst offence of them all is that wings appear to be sort of magic and aren’t always there. Characters ‘open’ their wings, which seems to make them appear out of nothingness, and put them away. This does not explain anything about clothing, and if the bases of the wings are like, translucent and just clip through your outfit. Is this petty? No, not really- the whole book’s plot and premise are that people have wings, yet there isn’t a lick of thought on how that kind of reality might look.
World
"' As the two walked, he took that opportunity to observe the inside of the palace. It was better than what he expected it to be like. The chances of civilians entering the palace were not high, so it almost elt wrong to him.
Lyn interrupted Jeremy’s thoughts as they entered a hallway."'
There’s no world in this book to actually comment on. It’s a fantasy kingdom but a very lax one on any idea of realism (there’s sewing machines). There’s a king and castle and like thirteen other kingdoms, and that’s it. Lore over. One of the oddest times of this almost deliberate bid to have zero description in the book is early on, when Jeremy is told he must get back to his school books and starts with history. Rather than use the time of ‘Jeremy started to do his History homework’ as an easy excuse to tell us something of the world, we have a timeskip.
Also, there’s magic. This one really hits you by surprise, because the first mention of magic is about page 179. Yes, there’s a magic teleporting crystal early on, but it’s left entirely unexplained, so I’d basically assumed this world had two odd things: teleport crystals and wings. But then wham: an infodump of a colour based magic system, like it just occurred to the author it might be cool to add one. The magic system is not particular clear either, or inventive.
"'All colored magic is learned through accessing certain parts of your mind and emotions as well as learning about spells and potion making in books, but purple magic is dirty. You learn it by accessing the darkest parts of your mind and the sickest parts of your emotions. It sucks to learn, but it is easier to use once you initially learn it.” Noah shook his head. “It’s yucky stuff, that’s for sure." "'
-189, first mention of color magic is 179
There’s yellow (agriculture), pink (healing), blue (fire/water/air/earth), and purple (evil manipulation) magic (the only four colours, as we all know). It changes your eye colour and doesn’t factor into the book in any meaningful way, or even really non-meaningful way. The magic side character gives Jeremy a potion that doesn’t work, and the ‘plot’ at the end has some healing/evil magic happening.
One more passing odd note is the book’s insistence on saying ‘Royals’ and ‘Civilians’ like they’re different species. Jeremy thinks often about ‘the Royals’ and how ‘Royals do this and that’, which is a very unnatural way of talking about royalty. They’re never the royal family, just as regular people are constantly called ‘civilians’. It absolutely sounds like a subgroup you’d sort yourself into in some dystopian society, and yes, they are often capitalized like one too.
Characters
The writing makes it impossible to like anyone, as they all feel entirely empty. You kind of imagine if the writing was a bit better there’d be something likeable somewhere. There’s enough you actually get a solid idea of everyone’s personality, which is a lot more than I can say. I’m used to books where the cast has maybe half a personality between them.
Jeremy is rebellious, sarcastic, and likes getting a reaction. Lyn is orderly, dry, and tightly wound. His sister Alayna is chatty, casual, and physical. Friend Noah is audacious, dramatic, and weird. Despite having pretty clear ideas of what they’re like, the writing fails at every point to be memorable, funny, or interesting. There are a number of jokes or joke moments in the book, but none landed, which is true of anything else emotional, romantic, or really at all important. In certain regards, I don’t think just changing the writing would fix those problems- the plot and concept also are just critically flawed- but I kinda think Noah would’ve won me over if he wasn’t so weirdly written. I basically have the same character in one of my most recent books!
"' Jeremy hummed. “The two of us are similar in such interesting ways.”"'
We’ll chat the romance too. Jeremy and Lyn have an obvious relationship bait to them, being chaotic/lawful, Civilian/Royal, Outgoing/Reserved, Black-wing/White-wing… so they do work to some point. You understand the tropes and what is going on. You never really can get into it though, because they feel so scripted and stilted by the writing, and they don’t have much of a plot to their relationship. Jeremy doesn’t want to learn to fly, but is being held in the castle and forced to learn. Lyn wants to prove his worth or something and volunteers to teach. Jeremy is quite resentful at first, but learns to like him, then gets a huge crush. In between, Lyn does throw Jeremy off a cliff, which is rightfully condemned, but is still pretty weird. I can’t say there’s anything outrageous about their love arc, it’s just hampered by the whole book being badly written and not very good. It has the basic bones.
"' Once Jeremy assumed Lyn had finished getting dressed, he turned around. Lyn wore a loose, grey shirt that just barely covered his shoulders, and black pants.
Jeremy’s heart pounded like crazy.
“Shut up heart,” Jeremy muttered."'
-I mostly want to know what kind of shirt this is talking about- a tank top? Also, it’s such a plain look for the reaction, it’s very Edward Cullen Vs. khaki skirt isn’t it?
The disability metaphor angle
Consider, essentially, the plot of this book: In a world where everyone can do something, one kid can’t do it. Jeremy is fantasy disabled. The metaphor splits when you hit the part about the royal guard hunting down a disabled child, infamous through the world for being disabled, and forcing him to learn to not be disabled anymore. And also do his schoolwork.
Eh, it sort of applies, we’ve done worse to the disabled.
Jeremy not being able to use his wings does not impact his life in any way but culturally, so it’s rather like being born without smell into a family of perfumers. Despite this, he is ridiculously persecuted. As we’ve covered, no one flies anywhere or uses their wings, it’s just important to the entire world that Jeremy learns to use his. He’s even given a year deadline. You know, to stop having a minor disability?
Keeping in mind this idea adds this off but irresistible angle. Obviously the story is not meant to be an allegory, but the comparison is so obvious you’re left constantly pondering it- especially when there’s nothing else in the book to think about.
With this in line, let’s think about the end: Jeremy can now fly. Which is… phew, not really how you should end a story about a disability. Early in the book, Lyn is frustrated by how Jeremy can’t move his wings, so he throws him off a cliff and catches him. Jeremy while falling does move his wings a bit, to shield himself, which is the first time in his life such a thing has happened. Jeremy is, essentially, disabled except when he really needs to not be.
Jeremy and Lyn experiment a lot to try and get his wings moving, thinking fear must be it. They realize it’s more his heart beating, and in fact when he gets very riled up, his wings will twitch uncontrollably. This is especially true when he thinks about his crush on Lyn, and kisses Lyn, and in fact it’s basically the key to him learning to entirely fly. So kissing a boy cures his disability, the one who only really has when he’s not trying hard enough.
Is it the intended message? Again, no, obviously not. But when I talk about him not being able to do something society at large can, and being ostracized for that, the parallel is impossible to miss.
Okay plot again
The plot of this book is so nonsensical it’s about erased itself from my mind. In fact, the villain doesn’t even have a motive, and the crutch of the climax is never explained, just as the villain is apprehended off page.
Lyn’s older brother Daniel is a weird prick whose eyes keep glowing purple (the colour of evil magic). Lyn and his sister think this is suspicious, as he’s also been hanging out with the Roxan* prince, who is obviously evil. This is mulled over once or twice over the four hundred pages, and then at the end we learn Daniel has made a teleport crystal to invite the evil prince over, the evil prince brings a tiny army, there’s talk of the evil prince betraying Daniel while Daniel also planned to betray the evil prince, and then they capture the prince and make both princes apologize.
*This book has a Rowan, Roxan, and Roman. Don’t do that.
"' “Of course.” Lyn nodded to Alayna. “Let’s go.”
As soon as they left the room, Jeremy slowly sat himself on the floor.
The end was near.
By the time Lyn and Alayna returned, Jeremy’s leg felt much better than before."'
-397, the villain being defeated
This section is suitable short again.
Writing
"' “Now,” Ludovic said, “your suit is the one over here.” He pointed to one of the mannequins positioned in the room.
Jeremy followed Ludovic’s finger until his eyes fell upon the most beautiful suit Jeremy had ever seen.
Jeremy said, “Whoah.”
Two hours later, which was shocking to Jeremy, he was back in his robe and was escorted by two women, Morgana and Winnifred, to another room."'
-This is perhaps the best illustration of the writing style there is.
I’ve sort of already summed it up by quotes, but I had this above quote I needed to conclude, so I’ve made this. This book isn’t well written, but especially suffers from a complete lack of description. It’s nearly a script for how little prose there is. The first character to really be described in full is the tailor. Lyn at one point wears a cloak the colour of his eyes, and we don’t know what his eye color is. The palace is talked about as very grand and impressive, but we are given nothing on what that looks like. In the case of the above section, we do actually learn what his suit is, but it’s for several pages and I’d fully accepted Jeremy’s suit was just too beautiful to put into words.
Conclusion
I think Flightless was by someone who really just wrote their first manuscript, and probably a young person. Perhaps by the very stilted way everyone speaks, they are additionally someone who learned English as a second language. Primarily, however, they are someone whose book I bought and spend money on and read, and was deeply disappointed.
The thing is, no one is forcing you at gunpoint to write a book, or spend the money on a great cover artist or obviously competent editor (there’s only two errors I spotted here, a missed apostrophe and a repeated use of ‘vile’ instead of ‘vial’).
One day the world will get a good book* about cool angel people. That day is not today.
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"' The floor was hard and golden, and chandeliers hung almost everywhere across the ceiling."'
-if you’ve noticed sporadic citations, it’s because I’m away from the book for the holidays. Do you really care about the lack of page numbers? No. You should be caring about why the floor is specifically hard in this description, as opposed to anything else.
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(That book is probably Good Angel, Bad End, etc etc)
August 16, 2020
Enjoyed the read! For this to be a first novel by such a you writer, I am truly impressed and found it to be a magnificent display of writing ability. Although there was not much emphasis on world building, the character dynamics, command of dialogue, and plot interesting to the point that it kept me wondering. I was encouraged to read more. I also liked the progressive representation. I look forward to the author’s next book.
August 17, 2020
Great first novel for this young, beginning writer. If this is what a 17yr. old can produce, I cannot wait to read her next book. With continued development, I anticipate great things from this young writer. Great characters, dialogue, and visualization. I read this in one day! The book truly keeps your focus on the characters without getting lost in the environment.
October 23, 2023
DNF
Nope. Just...no. I'm sorry. I think the author had a really good idea and the cover is lovely, but this reads very much like a first draft. No world building, barely any descriptions, a lot of dialogue, flat characters, etc.
Nope. Just...no. I'm sorry. I think the author had a really good idea and the cover is lovely, but this reads very much like a first draft. No world building, barely any descriptions, a lot of dialogue, flat characters, etc.
November 17, 2020
This was adorable and its so refreshing to read about worlds where being accepted as gay isn't the protagonist's main concern.
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