Review: In the Unlikely Event

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I recommend this book to anyone that likes factual fiction (and easily researched to find that everything happened pretty much the way it was written ---the crashes, I mean); I recommend this book to anyone that lived in this time period (the mid '50's) and to anyone that just likes gripping and emotional reads.

This was a fascinating mixture of fact and fiction I have ever read. I never knew just what this part of New Jersey had to go through. Talk about the character's having PTSD - to have three planes crash in your neighborhood in less than 60 days is just amazing.

Ms. Blume lived through these events and did a wonderful job of weaving what might be fictional stories in with the horror of the truth.

It was interesting to note that Newark finally did move that pathway.

The one complaint I had was that by reading it on Kindle, I had wished I had a paper copy of the cast of characters. There were just so many to keep straight!

I took this out of the library, but I will be buying my own copy. (and I did!)

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SYNOPSIS: "NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The author of Are you There God? It’s Me, Margaret returns with an adult novel that takes us back to the 1950s and introduces us to the town where she herself grew up, where a community is left reeling after a real-life tragedy when a series of airplanes fell out of the sky.“Makes us feel the pure shock and wonder of living.... Judy Blume isn’t just revered, she’s revolutionary.” —The New York Times Book Review “No one captures coming-of-age milestones…like Blume.” —The Boston GlobeHere she imagines and weaves together a vivid portrait of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed during one winter. At the center of an extraordinary cast of characters are fifteen-year-old Miri Ammerman and her spirited single mother, Rusty. Their warm and resonant stories are set against the backdrop of an extraordinary real-world tragedy. Gripping, authentic, and unforgettable, In the Unlikely Event has all the hallmarks of this renowned author’s deft narrative magic."