“Fly Away” by Kristin Hannah
Published: 4/23/13 MacMillan Publishers
Preceded by “Firefly Lane”
Genres: Fiction
“Fly Away” is the sequel to “Firefly Lane” by Kristin Hannah. If you have not yet read “Firefly Lane” stop reading now…click away…there are major spoilers in this blog.
I’m serious…
No really stop reading now!
If you have watched the show and not read the book GO NO FURTHER!!
Okay you had your chance…
In “Fly Away” Tully is forced to deal with her past and confront her future. She needs to figure out how to deal with Kate’s death (See I told you) and in order to do that she also needs to learn about where she came from.
After Kate’s death Tully finds herself blacklisted from news and entertainment so she is left trying to figure out her career and decides to write a book. In order to write a book though she needs to dig into her past and that means she needs to find her mother, Cloud, and find out why she abandoned Tully all those years ago and came back and walked out so many times throughout her childhood.
Tully develops anxiety and depression to deal with these she becomes reliant on pills in addition to alcohol. While dealing with these issues she finds her self needing to fulfill the promise she made to Kate to take care of her family, but that’s easier said than done when Kate’s husband, Johnny, pushes her away.
Kate’s daughter Mara is carrying a lot of guilt over the way she treated her mom when she was alive and she begins hurting herself. In an effort to save her and help her heal Tully takes her in and gets her the counseling she needs, but that backfires on Tully and makes Johnny even more angry with her.
Mara and Tully tell their stories post Kate and Cloud AKA Dorothy gets a chance to tell hers and it’s a beautiful story. I fell in love with Dorothy. She was such an unlikable character in the first book, but we finally learn why and can’t help but feel for her.
As a woman who lost her best friend of over 20 years I had a hard time reading this and at one point I openly bawled because Tully said something about how people treat you differently when you lose a best friend. They feel for you when you lose a family member or a spouse, but you’re expected to get over it when you lose a best friend, but you don’t.
If you want a tearjerker this is the book for you. If you read the first book and you just want more Kate and Tully, Tully and Kate you’ll get it. Kristin Hannah is a talented writer and the way she brings these characters to life and makes you really feel what they feel is brilliant.
