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betweentheshelves 's review for:

Paper Planes by Jennie Wood
3.5
emotional reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Dylan and Leighton are sent to a summer camp after "The Incident," and in order to attend high school with their friends, they have to pass an evaluation. The story here alternates between the past and present, establishing Dyan and Leighton's relationship and showing what leads up to the event that puts them in the summer camp in the first place.

I appreciated the way the story was told here, as the alternating between past and present helps to drive the story forward. Dylan and Leighton have a complicated relationship, and they're both fully developed as characters. Both of their struggles will definitely be relatable to a teen audience.

The ending did feel a bit rushed, so I wish there was maybe a little bit added to the end of the story to give it more of a resolution. Some of the timeline details were also a little fuzzy, because though I think the following school year was going to be their first year of high school, they seemed older than that. I think maybe I just needed a little more clarity on the ages.

The art was fantastic though, and the way that Wood distinguishes between Dylan and Leighton's points of view worked really well. 

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