Wings By Aprilynne Pike

Wings is a new novel by debut author Aprilynne Pike. Concerning a young girl who wakes up one morning to find she has a pair of wings, the novel has been a huge success and is on the New York Times bestseller list.

Wings has been consistently compared to Twilight, the huge series written by Stephanie Meyer. Although the books are similar this seems a little unfair. Both novels deal with a similar theme, finding yourself as you grow up and uniqueness, but apart from that they have very little in common.

Wings is marketed clearly at a younger audience than Twilight. This is not a bad thing, and many adults have expressed huge enjoyment reading the book, but the language is quite simple and there are few if any mentions of themes such as sex, drugs or violence.

Wings is made more thrilling through the introduction of David and Tamani, two love interests of Laurel's (the main character). David is solid and dependable, but ultimately boring, whereas Tamani is a fairy and is exciting and exotic but strange and unknown. These relationships act as a metaphor for the internal struggle that Laurel is facing. On the one hand she can go back and carry on living her life and abandon the fairies yet on the other hand she feels she needs to help them as she is one of them.

The book has a fast-paced plot which meant that I found it hard to put down when reading. Action is driven along through excellent use of dialogue between the characters. By the end of the book I found that I really had a lot of empathy for the characters and actually was really interested in them.

Wings is just the first part of a four part series, so expect to see much more from this author. The book is also being turned into a movie to be produced by Temple Hill and Disney.

To find out more about the book and the movie, please visit this Wings Book fansite and Wings Forum.