This was such a trip! I was always wondering what would happen next. I wish it had gone a little more unhinged, though!

Sky Daddy is about Linda who is sexually obsessed with planes and she believes her destiny is to be married to one by dying in a crash.
You should pick Sky Daddy by Kate Folk if :
* you like weird and slightly humorous stories;
* you like unique caracters that are true to themselves, caracters that doesn't care about societal norms and what other people think about them.

I knew it would be weird and it definetely was but It was a little bit repetitive and the weirdnest wasn't my favorite. Sometimes I could almost connect with Linda, like all the times she spent alone at the pub's window booth saying that she was expecting her friend but everyone knew there was no friend coming, but overall I felt disconnected from everyone.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Perhaps this was what it meant to care for people: to distort reality in a way that flattered them.”

A book with more turbulence than the planes Linda likes to get off on.
Linda is simply existing. She lives in a tiny windowless room, has a job as a glorified internet sweeper, has one friend at said job and takes flights whenever she can to satiate her sexual desires.
Karina, Linda’s friend, then tells Linda all about the power of vision boards. How these boards can manifest exactly what you want into the real world - magical thinking that Linda clings onto with reverence. She will marry a plane. She will have everything she’s ever desired, but at what cost?
At the end of the day, this is a story about grief and loss. Coping and self preserving in a way that is clearly unhealthy. Linda holds onto trauma that runs deep and she can’t even truly comprehend it because she tosses it into a corner of her small bedroom, out of sight and out of mind. The only saving grace that she has are the people around her : the ones that care no matter how “weird” or “unconventional” she is. Soft in its approach, but a story that packs a punch and will make you think about your own demons, and the friends we make along the way.
Also, planes really are all men. 100% with miss Linda on that one.

3.5/5

surprisingly this is not /as/ weird as a book about a woman sexually attracted to airplanes sounds like! it's another weird girl lit fic about a woman kind of disconnected from reality. it was really funny and i liked the friendship aspect, but i do kind of wish it was weirder. the planes SHOULD have become sentient!! but still i really liked it, and i want to read more from kate folk.

I'm not exactly sure where to start with this review but one thing I do know is I will never look at a plane the same. It was just so weird but also funny, and at times truly shocking. Completely different than anything I've read before.

I enjoyed this quirky book and loved the bizarre protagonist but often felt secondhand embarrassment for her. All the characters were flawed and mostly unlikable but I liked that. It made them feel more real. A lot of Linda's social interactions were messy and awkward. Something I can totally relate to.

Overall Sky Daddy was strange, hilarious, and oddly endearing! It has a very character-focused plot so if that's your thing then I highly recommend it!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

When I heard about thsi book, I was like "absolutely yes, this is FOR ME."
And it really, REALLY was. The absurdities of this book are weighed with the very real and relatable longing for human connection; whether it's with the coolest coworker, a snarky host you encounter regularly, or a Sky Daddy who can lead you to your hopeful destiny.

I loved this book.

This was by far one of the weirdest books I've ever read (in a mostly good way). It made me feel really uncomfortable at times (in a mostly good way). The ending was a bit abrupt and ambiguous (in a mostly good way).

I think I liked the book overall though. It's kind of hard to say. It was a strange reading experience. The writing was solid and made everything feel clear and real while it went off the rails. Linda was a sort of oddly relatable lead and I understood her feelings even though they made me cringe. This book definitely isn't for everyone, but it's perfect if you're in the mood for something unsettling and unique.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

I'm all for a funky book with a unique storyline, BUT this book was too much. Even for me.

I applaud the author for having a wild imagination to come up with the idea, and to write the book. It just wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I don’t think Plane Titane hits on how nuanced and how much of a summation of modern dating this is but OK YES TITANE W PLANES

𝗦𝗸𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝗱𝗱𝘆 has to be one of the weirdest and wildest books I’ve read in a long time, but written with great warmth and humor. Buckle up: the story is centered around a woman who aspires to 'marry' a plane by dying in a plane crash, exploring her journey toward what she perceives to be her destined fate.

Linda is a content moderator or “mod” responsible for ensuring that online comments comply with a tech company's guidelines. She is very good at her job, one that most people would find unbearable. She also has a very unique passion: once a month, she boards a flight to connect with her true love—planes! When her only friend, co-worker Karina, invites her to a “vision board” brunch, Linda is confronted over whether to hide her odd compulsion while still creating a vision board that reflects her aspirations.

This book is one that compels you to read it due to its bizarre premise, yet upon diving in, you'll find it surprisingly heartwarming.

I really enjoyed reading 𝗦𝗸𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝗱𝗱𝘆. It's playful, witty, and takes its unusual premise seriously but still maintains great tenderness towards Linda. The ending is open to interpretation but I found it to be very satisfying. This is definitely one of my favorite books so far this year.

Many thanks to the publisher for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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This didn't end up being at all what I was expecting. I was thinking more unhinged, more darkness, idk y bc the cover is def giving light and fluffy, and that's how it felt to me. It was also a lot more centered around female friendship than anything else. There were WAY too many boring, pointless plane facts. Also, the protagonist was the most clueless adult ever. It was just okay for me.

I’ve been reaching for more unusual books lately, and this one definitely fits into that category. The main character, Linda, is sexually obsessed with planes and is keeping it a secret from everyone around her. She flies as frequently as she can afford, and her ultimate goal is to “marry” a plane to be with it for eternity. It was interesting to learn how Linda’s fixation on planes began as a young person and how she navigated it as she became increasingly obsessed with them as an adult. Due to her infatuation, she worked her way out of some interesting situations involving her friends and family members. I wasn’t sure how her story would end, so the last chapter definitely surprised me. I went back and reread it a few times to let it all sink in. If you’re looking for something different than what you’re used to reading, I recommend picking this one up.

Thank you to author Kate Folk, publisher Random House, and NetGalley for an eARC of Sky Daddy in exchange for my review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was bubbly, bizarre, funny and sad.
It WAS weird as you'd expect a book about a woman who is sexually obsessed with planes to be.
BUT I wanted it to be weirder, it could have gone further with that plot line. I didn't really like any of characters who surround the MC, they are were pretty equally annoying. I did like how the MC described the planes like men and their attributes and seeing how deep her infatuation is. I felt like something was missing by the end, maybe more backstory about the MC or the friends?

Overall, this was just fine. I don't know if I was expecting something more memorable but I am positive this story won't stick with me and that's shocking considering the subject matter.

While I really enjoyed the tone of this book, really nothing much at all happened. Much like the main character, the story is very one track.

This book was insanely weird, like the weirdest premise and story I've ever read. However it was also charming and funny and soulful at times. I'm not sure what genre category it falls in. I loved the way it all came together and that we were also left slightly unmoored by the ending. This was a highly unusual read, but also one that I kind of loved!

This book is hilarious, as I absolutely expected (I mean, even mundane things like when Linda forgot laundry in a washing machine had me cackling), but it’s also surprisingly authentic and moving (I even burst into tears once). I had a moment early on when I realized I felt so sad for a woman who longs to be with an AIRPLANE and can’t. A woman whose first love is a plane she calls by its registration number, N92823, which is out of commission and has been relegated to an airplane graveyard. I was rooting for lonely woman whose greatest dream is to be N92823’s runway bride, and I never thought I’d be so invested in such a thing, but Kate Folk made it happen.

Rather than grow increasingly unhinged over time, Linda bares all from the very beginning when she creates a vision board in hopes that the universe will guide her to the plane that will choose her as it’s soulmate. She reminds me a bit of Emily Austin’s characters, except she’s in her 30s and not a lesbian. She’s not at all attracted to people though, so she’s not exactly straight either. She’s a very unique person who just has a way of thinking that feels both strange and relatable. Something I personally related to was that though she struggled to make connections with and didn’t always see the humanity in people, she anthropomorphized more than just airplanes, at one point feeling bad about putting a lamp in closet because she wouldn’t be allowing it to shine as it was meant to. Her love of planes is similar in that she doesn’t just look at a plane and want to be with it. The planes have personalities. They respond to her in their own plane-like ways, just like the lamp has lamp behaviors. I thought that was extremely interesting as it gave a much deeper meaning to her attraction.

While it was easy to pick up this book thinking it would just be a fun, silly time, and I would have been happy if that’s all it was, I’m glad it was so much more. It provoked a lot of thought, especially about trauma and how far we go to chase nostalgia and better times. It forever changed how I feel about those people on documentaries who are in love with rollercoasters or their car or something. It made me wonder: does a book need a spice rating if the main character is turned on by airplanes? And it gave me a major hangover.

It also rearranged my brain a little bit. A few days after I read it, one of my friends said something about dating a bag of food, as in putting the date on it, and I thought he meant taking it on a date. Yep.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is maybe one of the weirdest books I've ever read... and that's saying something. I'm never one to shy away from weird, especially if they give me something to think about. Given Kate Folk's short story collection (Out There), it's unsurprising that she's managed it yet again.

To be fully transparent, I was sold on reading this before it even had a title or premise. I was that impressed by Folk's writing in Out There that I knew I wanted to read anything else she put out. However, I imagine anyone would experience some trepidation before cracking open a book that focuses on a woman's sexual attraction to planes.

And yet, here we are... deeming this a 4-star read.

I don't know if I can explain it, but... this was actually really good. Linda is one of the most unique and upsetting characters I've ever read. She spends a lot of her time feeling isolated from the world around her, seeking out connection with others and sort of stumbling her way through social interactions. I was reminded of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman (which I later learned was an inspiration for Folk while writing this). In that case, the main character personified the convenience store she worked at; Linda does something similar here with planes.

And the whole time, you're sort of wondering, "why?" That answer is never fully, explicitly answered, but you get enough to know that Linda has a lot of deep-seated trauma she is grappling with. Why else would this fixation have developed? At the end of the day, I was less concerned with the fact that she attributed human attributes to planes and more concerned with her desire to someday "marry" one. In her mind, that translates to dying in a plane crash. Preferably aboard the airline of her choosing.

So, yes, this book is written from the perspective of a deeply disturbed individual who desperately wants to control the manner in which she dies.

That being said, there was a humor and light-heartedness to this book that kept me actively engaged the entire time. As sad and confusing as Linda could be, you can't help but root for her in her attempts to engage with other human beings (particularly her friendship with a co-worker named Karina).

One line, especially, struck me:

"This was what I'd wanted for so long, and thought was impossible -- to reveal my true self and be accepted for who I was."

Linda spends almost the entire book shielding herself from others, knowing that there's something inherently wrong with her; that she's not normal; that she won't be embraced. And yet, there are moments when she lets her guard down, believing that she can let others in, only to discover that no, she really can't. Her journey towards both self-acceptance and acceptance from others is a really enjoyable one, even if it is 100% strange and unlike anything else I've ever read.

Sky Daddy is a WILD book that became too cringe towards the 54% mark, which sadly led to me not finishing it. Every time I felt Kate Folk's book couldn't get more bonkers, it went there with something that had me highlighting and saying "OMG listen to this" to some friends. I likely may have finished if the plane turned into a person or was one of those shifter books but alas, not that type of novel.

I love that this book is an homage to Moby-Dick, which happens to be my all time favorite book. But it was a bit of a slog to finish. I've noticed a lot of the "deranged woman" type lit fic books have a similar voice that is very detached and clinical, and it doesn't work for me. I did like the theme of the vision board as a way to play with the idea of fate and creating one's own fate. Toward the end, the tension picked up as I wanted to know what was ultimately going to happen, but otherwise there wasn't a ton of plot and the tone kept the characterization from reaching a depth that would compel me.

I don't think this book can operate under the normal standards of "good" and "bad." I literally finished 90% of this book in a matter of hours because I couldn't put it down, even when I wanted to! It was just so easy to read, and truly engaging.

I questioned who this book is for, and it is giving that this book is bait for any reader picking it up thinking it was just going to be an unhinged read, and then the switch happens where they end up finding out more about themselves in the process of being immersed in this story.

It really did make me think: there could be someone in the world who is sexually attracted to planes! There is someone out there -- many someone's, actually -- whose freak is being matched perfectly, and that is totally their right. And do we boo them? Do we accept them? Live and let live, but poke fun as if they're on display in a zoo?

I would recommend this book for people looking for an engaging character study that is twisted, unconventional, and entertaining.