Book Review: The Paradox of Vertical Flight by Emil Ostrovski

What happens when you put a suicidal eighteen-year-old philosophy student, his ex-girlfriend, his best friend, and his newborn baby in a truck and send them to Grandma's house? This debut novel by Emil Ostrovski will appeal to fans of John Green, Chris Crutcher, and Jay Asher.

On the morning of his eighteenth birthday, philosophy student and high school senior Jack Polovsky is somewhat seriously thinking of suicide when his cell phone rings. Jack's ex-girlfriend, Jess, has given birth, and Jack is the father. Jack hasn't spoken with Jess in about nine months—and she wants him to see the baby before he is adopted. The new teenage father kidnaps the baby, names him Socrates, stocks up on baby supplies at Wal-Mart, and hits the road with his best friend, Tommy, and the ex-girlfriend. As they head to Grandma's house (eluding the police at every turn), Jack tells baby Socrates about Homer, Troy, Aristotle, the real Socrates, and the Greek myths—because all stories spring from those stories, really. Even this one. Funny, heart-wrenching, and wholly original, this debut novel by Emil Ostrovski explores the nature of family, love, friendship, fate, fatherhood, and myth.

Genre: YA, Contemp.

Cover Love: I love this shoes/socks combo!

Overview:

This book was good. This was my second contemp. in a row, so it was sort of the same things from my last review. I loved the jokes, and all the humor. I also enjoyed how Jack made his son talk in his head about the ways of the universe. The baby was hilarious. Jack was a good character, your typical teenager who's trying to figure out life. (psssst....read the Bible!) I liked Jess a lot, even though she wasn't going to keep the baby at all, she seemed to still love him, and she was just a good character in general. Tommy was cool too. Not much more to say about this one, it was very funny and witty!

Romance:

Well...Jess and Jack had a baby. They kiss sometimes, but that's it, a kiss. Jack talks about what happened sometimes, but not in good detail. So the romance was very thin.

Language:

The usual.

Violence:

They're running from the police, so I guess that's sort of violent? No one ever gets shot, or anything. They got drunk, (which was very stupid) so they got sick, but nothing violent per say.

Religion:

Jack was always saying to his son about finding your goals in life, and believing in things, so I guess that's not a religion, but there was nothing that Jack really believed in. He never dissed any other religion either.


This book was very short, so there wasn't much to say. I'd recommend it to someone who doesn't find the imperfections of it, and just needs a good short, fun read!

Rating: 3.85 out of 5 stars! (I'm getting crazy with the ratings lately, it seems.)

-Louisa