Paper Planes Back Home

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were in a coma? Or tried to imagine how exactly the moving on process to the next life goes? It’s something that I’ve always been fascinated with. I’ve read books about people with near-death experiences and they each have a different interpretation of what happens. Some people say the experiences are real, some say it’s part of a dream-state that our brains are in. After reading Paper Planes Back Home, I kind of wish it would be like what the book was about. 

In this book by Tara Frejas, Gianna was in an accident that led to her being in a coma. She woke up on a cloud where she meets Skylar, who is also on a cloud of his own and guides her about life in that place. The main rule is that you can’t fall asleep or else you will move on to the next life. If you want to go back to your life, you can’t drift off or it will become permanent.

In that alternate world, Gianna finds out that the thoughts of people who cared about her arrived in paper planes, which she could put together to create a ride that could take her home. She eventually has more than enough planes to make her ride, while Skylar hardly has any, except for the thoughts of the nurse taking care of him in the hospital.  

I don’t want to give too much away about the book because it’s a good read that one should enjoy without any spoilers. I loved that this book wasn’t primarily a love story. At some point, I was expecting Skylar and Gianna to fall in love but they didn’t, which was good. While there is enough romantic drama (love triangles, lost love, fixed marriage, cheating girlfriend) in the book, it was mostly there to complement the bigger story of two souls trying to find their way home.  

“You marry someone because you love them, because life is going to be so dull without them, because you’re willing to do anything and everything for them – because there’s mutual trust, and respect and attention.” 

That line from the book made me say “Yes!” in my head. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I always love it when a book expresses things that have been on my mind but have never said. It’s nice to know that someone out there thinks the same way. It makes books even more relatable for me that way. 

I loved this book so much. It made me wish a little bit that when my father passed away, he got paper planes with all our loving thoughts before he moved on to the next life. That maybe he got to have a remnant of something that made him happy in life on his cloud the way Gianna and Skylar did.  

The paintings about that alternate world that was mentioned in the book reminded me of a Colleen Hoover book called Confess, where the paintings made up a crucial part of the story and the author had those paintings made for real. I hope one day Tara Frejas can do the same for this world she made and release a version of this book with those visuals. I’d love to have that copy. I think this would also make a good movie if given the chance. 

My favorite part of the book, the one that stood out for me was when the little boy Jesse was on his own cloud while Gianna tried her best to get him a ride home to go back to his life. I could picture the entire thing in my head and it all seemed so magical and beautiful. I would love to see this book as a movie if only for that part! 

Paper Planes Back Home is such a feel-good book. Yes, at first there is that feeling of loss, hopelessness, and sadness with all the characters involved but in the end, it showed that everything happens for a reason and things worked out for the best in the end. It’s a book that gave me hope. In times like these, it doesn’t hurt to stock up on that a little more.


Book Cover Source: Romance Class Books