No Passengers Beyond This Point by Gennifer Choldenko
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
When three siblings get on a plane to go live with their Uncle Red, they are whisked away to a mysterious land of Falling Bird, where they must choose to become citizens, or remain passengers and try to return home. The temptations are many, and the siblings have to deal with their grief over leaving their old home, and decide if they truly are willing to step into a new adventure with their Uncle Red. Each of the children deals with their turmoil in a different way, and they make emotional choices in the face of danger.
The plot is all over the place, and there are a lot of things that are left unexplained.
When the children first arrive in Falling Bird, they are each given their dream home, complete with all their favorite foods, games, and even a parental figure who plays with them and understands them perfectly. Then the dream home is taken away from them, and they are told that it is “necessary” for the next part of their journey. But it is never explained why that was necessary or what part it really played in the plot. Why tempt the children to stay in Falling Bird as citizens, and then take away the dream home and still expect them to stay? It was just badly explained or something. Didn’t make sense to me. There were a LOT of things like that which did not make sense, or didn’t fit in with the rest of the story.
I really liked the interactions between the siblings. They are always arguing, and they each have their own weird quirks.
The writing is good, the dialogue is hilarious and sharp, but I just can’t get past how disjointed the plot was. And then the ending was so disgustingly pathetic…. One of those “it was all a dream” deals, and I HATE those.
It also has a rotating POV between the three children, and I HATE changing POVs. Urgh!
Another thing that bothered me is that the children are all still dealing with the grief of losing their father in a car accident six years before. This issue is addressed several times, and we see the kids acting badly because of their heightened emotions, being kind to each other because their dad would have been, and talking about him and how much they miss him, but then the issue is never resolved! It’s just left out there with this horrible grief, and they never come to a good conclusion or a little life lesson to help them. So many things unresolved!!
