Thin Air
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A flight to Paris full of desperate teenagers fighting for a life-changing cash prize turns deadly in this suspenseful, locked-door young adult thriller.
“A fast-paced, claustrophobic thrill ride of a story that’s perfect for reading on vacation . . . unless, of course, you’re flying there.”—Ginny Myers Sain, New York Times bestselling author of Dark and Shallow Lies
“This novel will thrill those curious about the dark side of human nature and what it means to be a survivor.”—Booklist
Eight hours. Twelve contestants. A flight none of them might survive.
Seventeen-year-old Emily Walters has a secret. In fact, she has so many she’s basically lying to everyone around her. Her most shameful secret places her on a jet to Paris along with eleven other teens from private schools across the US to compete for a prestigious scholarship. The cash prize will not only cover tuition to the college of Emily’s choice but also lift her and her mother out of poverty.
But almost from the moment she and the other contestants board the plane, things begin to go wrong, and it is clear somebody will do anything to win. Between dealing with her best friend’s flirty boyfriend and hiding her own dark secrets, Emily’s not sure how she’ll survive the contest, much less the flight. Especially when people start dying . . .
As loyalties shift and secrets are revealed, Emily must figure out who to trust and who’s trying to kill them all before she becomes the next victim.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A dozen high schoolers are traveling to Paris aboard a private plane when, a few hours into the flight, teens begin turning up dead. The passengers are all students handpicked from elite schools across the country, each participating in an academic competition for a four-year, all-expenses-paid scholarship to an Ivy League college and a postgraduate mentorship. This would be life-changing for Emily Walters, who attends a boarding school in Connecticut on a needs-based scholarship; since her father stopped paying child support, Emily lives in the family Subaru with her unemployed mother when she's not at school. On the plane, Taylor, a student from Boston, is targeted via her nut allergy; she's saved with an EpiPen, but Paige from North Carolina isn't so lucky. It seems that someone is taking out the scholarship competitors one by one. And while Emily is desperate to obtain the prize, she must decide whether winning this deadly game is worth sacrificing everyone on board. Emily's empathetic first-person narration, rendered in assured prose, is a steadfast vehicle that drives readers from one suspenseful, if familiar, scare to the next. There are no snakes on this plane, but the dangers are real in this ticking-clock thriller by Parker. The cast is racially diverse. Ages 12–up.
