Nicole Parker King

I tore through Sole Survivor in two days, which is saying something because I’m a painfully slow reader. It’s told in first person by Norman Ollestad (co-written by Brendan Kiely) about the plane crash he survived at age 11—that detail is real, and you can feel it in the way the story moves and what how his young brain interpreted the events. The scenes are so physical and the minute-to-minute choices kept me glued: where to put a foot, when to push on, when to breathe and not panic. As a parent of a six-year-old boy, this hit hard. It’s impossible not to picture your own kid in those moments, and the book doesn’t just chase the thrills—it sits with what survival does to a person afterward. The pacing is great and the voice feels honest and unforced. I finished it wrung out and grateful. Absolute page-turner, and it sticks with you. Highly recommend.