First things first, I love the retro comicbook-y cover. I just want to acknowledge that.

This is a YA/teen novel, and although I am not a YA/teen, I still enjoy the genre. This book, however, felt too young for me. You have to really-super-suspend your disbelief to accept the plot--but if you can do that, it's fun. I didn't feel bored reading it and wanted to find out what happened.

The story is another with a Hunger Games-esque (cough cough Battle Royale-esque cough) setup, plus murder mystery. I think there Parker could have shaved off two of the characters; it was often hard to keep track of who's who when they're more than just a District number or whatever. The main character, Emily, does some pretty awful shit and doesn't suffer the consequences (sure, someone tries to murder her, but on a SMALLER scale she's quickly forgiven). As for the writing, the references to Emily's feelings about her home life felt repetitive, and there were numerous descriptions of characters appearances and clothes, which always reminds me of fanfiction. One thing that irked me was the insinuation that Paige was 'bad' for hooking up with guys and having an abortion - sure, that was the murderer talking, but it wasn't mentioned again. I'd rather have a sex-positive, pro-choice teen on my team than a kid who shut down a major metropolitan power grid for funsies. But even better than that would be a chick skilled with a bow and arrow.......

I kind of felt like I was duped but that was my own fault for not reading the description. I wanted the competition to be on the airplane but it was different than I thought

Twelve high school students. An eight-hour flight. The opportunity of a lifetime.
Emily Walters has been chosen to take part in a competition for a cash prize along with a scholarship to the university of her choice. Surrounded by eleven other prestigious students, Emily can’t help but feel a little out of place and it’s not because of the massive private jet she just boarded.
With Paris awaiting along with an opportunity that will no doubt allow Emily and her mother to escape their newfound poverty, she knows she has to get her head into the competition. But, it doesn't take long to realize someone here is willing to do whatever it takes to win.
Secrets are spilled. Someone is found dead.
Emily doesn’t know who she can trust. Her secrets are safe… for now. But does anyone trust her? Can she figure out who is behind the mayhem and survive for the next eight hours?
She shouldn’t even be here.

***
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What a wild ride.
I have a bad habit of trying to predict what will happen, especially when it comes to mystery/ thrillers novels. We can blame this on years of watching too many horror movies.
I am happy to say that this one kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat until the end.
With such a large cast of characters, it’s hard to give each one enough detail and attention but Parker has pulled it off quite well. Each character felt fully developed and even likable. That isn’t an easy task to pull off from a singular point of view.
Thin Air has a bit of everything. A thrilling mystery/ whodunit with a touch of a budding romance with a plot that keeps pushing you along at a steady pace.
This is a wonderfully crafted novel that pushes to the edge of being a bit too much when it comes to the more gruesome aspects but never teeters over the edge.
There’s nowhere for the characters to run and hide and you almost feel trapped in the plane with them.
There’s no escape and you just keep turning the pages and before you know it, it's all over.

CHARACTERS:

At first, I struggled a little to keep all of the characters straight but I soon was able to, for the most part. Parker did a nice job of giving them each a unique aspect that she highlighted to keep them all different. Aside from Em though, we don't really get to know the other characters. However, that might just be due to the fact that murder mystery doesn't per se lend itself to characters really getting to know each other, and the fact that there are twelve characters.

The romance felt unrealistic, basically because it all happened super fast. The book takes place over 7-8 hours. It was a little too insta-lovey, in my opinion.

Em was a great choice of POV character since her personal secrets make her almost have a little more at stake than the other characters.


SETTING:

Using a luxury transatlantic flight for the setting was fun and creative. It certainly trapped the characters in their situation. Parker did a nice job of incorporating the setting and having it impact certain parts of the plot. There were a few times when I forgot that they were on a plane, but that's probably because I've only ever flown economy class. 😉


PLOT:

Until the first death, the plot almost feels like it's going to be about who can solve the puzzles/challenges/whatever the board throws at them. When the second body is found, the thriller/mystery aspects really get going, with all of the characters being on edge, pointing fingers, and trying to figure out who the killer is.

I was definitely caught off guard by who the killer ended up being... and not in necessarily a good way. I might have missed it, but there didn't seem to be any foreshadowing of who the killer was. Normally when reading a mystery, I can generally realize the foreshadowing I earlier missed when I finish the book. That wasn't the case in Thin Air. Again, it's possible that I missed the foreshadowing, but it resulted in the reveal feeling a little bit off-kilter.


OVERALL:

Thin Air was a fun read for an afternoon. However, I didn't connect with it enough to see myself rereading it in the future.

Cautions: a few kisses; moderate/heavy romance; brief mentions of hooking up; brief mentions of a character having multiple girlfriends; brief mention of a character having had an abortion; brief mentions of characters using steroids and being addicted to pain medication; three blasphemies; several instances of a swear word being cut off; a few instances of coarse language; semi-graphic descriptions of blood and corpses; brief, non-detailed mentions of a character's friend having committed suicide; one of the murders is staged to look like suicide; semi-graphic, moderate/heavy violence

Eight hours. Twelve contestants. A flight none of them might survive. A flight to Paris full of teenagers seeking opportunity turns deadly in this suspenseful, locked-door YA thriller.

The mystery and suspense was fantastic throughout the whole story. You’ll think you know who did it and you’ll be so very wrong every time. Definitely a must read in my opinion for adults and YA.

This is the first book written by Kellie and she did a damn good job with it and I can’t wait to see what next she has planned for all of us.

Thank you NetGalley, Kellie M Parker and Razorbill for allowing me to read an ARC of Thin Air due to be published October 17th 2023.

What drew me into reading this book was the concept. Mysterious murders on a plane--nowhere to run or hide. Everybody has secrets. Anybody could be the killer. Sounds cool, right?

Thin Air made for a fun read. There were a few iffy, nitpicky things that bugged me. The ending, for example, was wrapped up too cleanly for me (without a doubt they'd have PTSD after the events they went through--because holy heck). Otherwise, it was great and would make for a cool movie.

I can see this book being popular on Booktok.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me an arc of this book.

This was a fantastic debut, Kellie turned a plane into a haunting setting, something i haven’t seen this well since final destination. The book was constantly building suspense and towards its ending. Which also was never seen coming, I was completely floored when the reveal came. My only story based complain was i wish the kill count was a tad higher.

Emily is on a private plane with eleven other students, on their way to compete for the Scholarship of a lifetime. But right from takeoff, strange things start to happen on the plane. And then somebody winds up dead, and now nobody can be trusted...

This is such a tense and exhilarating story. Twists all the way to a show stopping ending, this is definitely a thriller I'll be recommending.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy.

A tense, compact YA thriller, perfect for fans of Wes Craven! A fantastic ride from wheels up to wheels down!

Imagine being on a plane on your way to Paris with a group of other kids vying for a scholarship, when your fellow passengers start dropping like flies! This was a very fun book, if you can call murder fun! All the kids have secrets they would rather not get out, and when they do, everyone has a motive.

This book really grabs you from the first page! The characters were interesting, and the murder mystery was very well written. Every time I thought I knew who did it, something would happen that would aim me in a different direction. I was kept guessing until the very end, which kept me on the edge of my seat!

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Kellie M. Parker for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was a fun book.

I mean there was soooooo much angst and the reason behind everything (and how they did it) was…A LOT. But the book was still extremely entertaining.

I liked, but did not love, our MC. I mean, she’s a teen, so I give her a little leeway when it comes to decision making (bad), boys (worse), and being a truly sucky friend. But I was still rooting for her all the way.

What I really liked? Some of the other contestants! They were so much fun and many ended up having some unexpected depths.\

As long as you don’t think about it too hard, this is a rollercoaster ride of an entertaining read.

Would read the author again!

• ARC via Publisher

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

Thin Air by Kellie Parker was a fun whodunnit. Slightly reminiscent of Snd Then There Were None, a group of high school students is on a plane to France to compete for a scholarship when they start dying one by one. All of them have reasons they need this scholarship, and all of them have things they have done wrong in the past. But who has the biggest secret to keep? And will they kill to protect it?

What a wild ride oh man I loved this. It kind of gave me Falling by T.J. Newman vibes. I love airplane based novels I don’t know why they feel more fast paced for me if that makes sense. Oh and all the twists and turns will give you whiplash this was such a good book 5/5⭐️

The premise was fantastic, but I couldn't get used to the writing style. The characters didn't grab me either. The book just wasn't for me, unfortunately, but I'm willing to give this author another chance in the future.

I love a locked room mystery, where there’s a killer in a confined place where no one can escape! This is like Clue, but with teenagers on an airplane. 12 teens are enroute to Europe via private plane to compete on a program that offers a full ride to the college of their choice. All of them are hiding secrets and things take a sinister turn after the plane departs.

I had trouble getting into this because it does take a while to get started. Not much happens for the first 35% of the book and I kept getting distracted and putting the book down. I suppose this was different from what I was expecting; I was expecting a blood bath and bodies dropping and intense fear and claustrophobia for 300 pages. This book wasn’t that at all, seeing it doesn’t even establish that there even is an actual killer until past the halfway point of the book so everyone is just meandering around unknowingly of the danger they’re in. The one death that happened is seen as a suicide, so no one even knows they are in actual danger. So while it is technically high stakes with a killer on the loose, it doesn’t feel Iike a high stakes read for most of this.

Maybe it’s the horror fan in me, but I wanted more. More dark, more gripping, more thrilling. Somehow this book managed to make a book about a killer on an airplane feel like a low stake novel. To be honest, I really just didn’t care about the characters. When a new character died, I literally felt nothing. By the 50% mark I kind of just wanted this to be over. I’m chalking up all the good reviews to people who must not read thrillers or horror usually so they must have lower expectations, because I can’t think of any other explanation for all the reviews saying that this was so gripping and twisty when this took me forever to finish because I literally kept accidentally falling sleep (lol) which is the last thing you want in a thriller about a killer on the loose. Maybe part of it is right before this, I had just read another YA thriller arc that actually was gripping and twisty, so I kept comparing this in my head to that book.

I did like the last 20% though, which boosted this to a 3/5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy in truth for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this absolute page turner! I love a good story centered around a game or contest and turning it into a scholarship competition on a plane absolutely grabbed me from the start.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thin Air is a YA locked room mystery set on a private jet. 12 teens board a private jet to Paris, where they will take part in a highly competitive boarding school scholarship competition. Aboard the plane, an already stressful scholarship competition quickly morphs into a fight to survive.

This is definitely a read-alike for Holly Jackson's Five Survive. I think that fans of Karen M. McManus will also like this book. If you like those, you'll like this book. If you don't, you should probably skip this one.

There are a lot of characters in this one, so if you struggle with keeping track of them you may have a difficult time with this book.

Overall this one was just okay for me. It is a bit convoluted and requires a suspension of belief that took me out of he story quite a bit, but it was a fast-paced read so it compensated for that a bit. I appreciated the unique take on a locked room mystery, as the setting of the plane added some interesting elements to the story.

Crossposted to goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5566437558

The Bonnhome Foundation invited 12 students on a trip to France, where they’ll compete to see who wins a scholarship. Before that can happen, though, they all need to make it through the flight. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen because someone on board would rather kill them than let them win.

This is one of those whodunits that has a LOT of twists and turns. Everyone who the characters suspected were also on my suspect list, including the one who actually did everything.

I usually get a bit bummed out when YA fiction has the inevitable romance, but this time, it kind of worked. It definitely made our MC, Emily, have many more pieces of the puzzle to consider.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Non-Stop meets Flight Plan with a dash of Hunger Games, this dark academia place all on a plane and if I did not love traveling so much I'd never fly again LOL. No, this was so much fun and so suspenseful and kept me guessing the entire time! I definitely did not guess who the killer was, and I loved every secret that dropped. A whole ride from start to finish, with a little bit of romance in between to break up the scaries. Highly recommend if you love claustrophobic mysteries or a classic whodunnit!