The second I saw the synopsis for ‘Sky Daddy’, I knew that I needed it and I ran straight to NetGalley. The NetGalley gods (aka lovely publishers) granted my wish and I was set and ready to go.

With a few long flights coming up in April, I decided to save it for that and I have to admit that I think reading ‘Sky Daddy’ on a plane and during a long layover in an airport just made the reading experience of this so much more fun.

Linda makes $20 an hour as a content moderator, flagging comments that violate a tech conglomerate's terms and conditions. Each night, she returns to the windowless room in a garage that she rents from a family who pretend she isn't there.

But once a month, she escapes to San Francisco International Airport for a clandestine meeting on the cheapest flight out that night. Linda's secret is that she's sexually attracted to planes: their intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages and powerful engines make her feel a way that no human lover ever could.

Linda believes her destiny is to someday 'marry' one of her suitors by dying in a plane crash, a catastrophic event that would unite her with her soulmate plane for eternity. So when her co-worker Karina invites her to join a group of women using vision boards to manifest their desires, she can't resist the chance to hasten her romantic fate. However, as the vision boards seem to manifest items more quickly - and more literally - than Linda had expected, the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of her control, and she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy or launching herself headlong towards her greatest dream.

It sounds immediately wild and the actual novel itself carried that through and I really, really loved it.

Even before the deep, weird plane stuff begins, ‘Sky Daddy’ is dark because of Linda’s job as a content moderator (think ‘We Have Had to Remove This Post’ by Hannah Bervoets, but Linda loves her job instead of hates it). Her life revolves around her work hours, she’s the top moderator in her section and she appears to feel passionate about ‘digital hygiene’, and her only friend is her colleague. It’s a sad bubble of a life and Linda isn’t necessarily likeable, but she also is likeable and sympathetic at the same time, even in her very alien (to me) sexual fixation and the her vague contentment with her isolated life.

As we get to know Linda, we also get to know her unusual sexual appetites: she is sexually attracted to planes and her aim in life is to marry one aka die in a plane crash. She has a particular fixation on one particular plane that she experienced extreme turbulence on when she was a teenager which awakened her sexuality and that was decommissioned many years ago. It’s absolutely fascinating and the way that Kate Folk communicated Linda’s desires and feelings was really vivid and so well done; it never felt like she was laughing at Linda or belittling her in her desires, it was just Linda’s truth.

One of the most interesting elements of the novel, and one of the sadder ones, was Linda’s acceptance of how she was treated by the people in her life. She lives in an illegally converted garage without a window of the Chen family house, and the way that they pretend she doesn’t exist and threaten to kick her out when she makes herself known was so uncomfortable, made even more so when their college age son, Kevin, casually and conversational derides her over and over again and Linda doesn’t even really register how unacceptably she’s being treated. This also continues a little into her liaison with her boss, even though she gets a bunch of free flights out of the arrangement and it ultimately ends in her favour, but the beginning is her being swept along in something that she really doesn’t want. Linda’s entire agency about her life is obtaining her marriage to a plane.

I was hooked on Linda’s story from beginning to end and it kept me company during a flight and a 4+ hour late night layover, making the time fly by. I loved it and I’m really, really excited to see what else Kate Folk has written and will write in the future.

Thank you to Sceptre and NetGalley for the review copy.

Written by Sophie

What a weird little special book this is! Yes, I was absolutely drawn in by the title. Then I read the description and was even more intrigued. And then I got the arc, and here I am, a little bit in love.
This is the story of Linda who, since her teen years, is convinced that not only are planes creatures with souls and hearts, but that she's destined to make one fall in love with her and marry her by way of death in a plane crash. Sounds weird? It very much is. Obviously the story is about much more than that, but the weird premise is one of its biggest strengths.
Linda spends all of the money she earns at her job as a content moderator flying around the US on different planes, orgasming at turbulence, hoping for her wedding to finally happen. She's a loner with one kind-of-friend at the beginning of the story, living in a windowless room with landlords that basically barely allow her to breathe. She barely has contact with her family anymore. She's obsessed with planes, knows all their numbers and names, remembers her flights as romantic dates and gets off on videos of plane crashes. When her one friend, Karina, invites her to be part of a group of women sharing vision boards in order to manifest the future they want, you can guess the kind of future Linda tries to manifest - even though she has to be subtle and hide her true intentions in the most hilarious ways, which has unforeseen consequences.

I don't even want to delve into the story too much because it sure is a ride. It's witty, incredibly poignant and manages to make a woman obsessed with dying in a plane crash one of the most relatable characters I've read in a while. There is so much thematic depth between all those plane rides, and it's a cutting study of loneliness and grief (and more), all written in a lighthearted style with at times laughing-out-loud moments strewn within.
I love weird and dark literary fiction that stay with me a while after finishing the book, and "Sky Daddy" is just that. I'll absolutely devour every book Kate Folk will put out from now on.

tender, hilarious, totally bonkers!

Sky Daddy is a book I never anticipated that I would read but I'm so glad I did! From page 1,, I was hooked by our mc Linda - socially withdrawn, awkward, content moderator, living in San Francisco who just happens to be interested in planes....in a way most aren't! Weird, right? But somehow, it works.


Behind this strange premise is a heartfelt story exploring themes of loneliness, longing, and what it means to be an outcast. So despite my reservations about liking the sort of person who is attracted to planes...I couldn't help but to root for Linda. I thought it was incredibly impressive how easily the novel blends humour and surprising warmth. Kate Folk's writing is actually laugh out loud funny but thoughtful and tender.

For fans of Sayaka Murata and Melissa Broder, or more broadly "weird girl lit fic".

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC!

Ooooooooh I loved this! No notes!

Linda lives in a definitely illegal box room in San Francisco & works in content moderation. That’s all fine if it means she can be close to San Francisco airport & realise her one big dream of marrying a plane (dying in a plane crash if you’re nasty).

Genuinely blown away by how much I enjoyed this. Yes the premise is bonkers as is some of the plot & prose but it’s also very tender & heartfelt. Despite her sexual proclivity for planes Linda is just so likeable. Which is something she finds hard to accept herself, continually pushing the people in her life away.

The absurd plane-loving of it all somehow blends so seamlessly in that you just kind of think ‘what the hell, sure’ at a certain point. An absolute treat of a novel.

We learn about Linda, who just happens to be attracted to planes. Although turbulence is her dream, her ultimate goal is to ‘marry’ a plane with a crash.

Sky Daddy was definitely a weird book. The absurdity of the plot had me intrigued, but the book went beyond my expectations with its humour and Linda’s character. She was oddly logical despite her weird attraction, as well as perceptive and endearing. I loved her reflections on her relationship with her family and its dissonance, as well as on her friendship with Karina. I had been looking forward to reading this book for a long time, so I’m happy that I loved it!

This is the book I didn't know I needed in my life. I was all in from in the first couple of pages. Deliciously weird, funny , so well written , endearing and with a brilliant awkward relatable main character, Linda I love you. I am struggling to put into words how to describe this book just read it, embrace the wierdness, you wont regret it.
Such an excellent , unique, disturbing gorgeous read.

4.5

This was one of those books that made me clench my fist in joy - an unabashedly weird book, that never strays from the path of weirdness, but builds on it to become something more tender, more dark and more funny than the sum of its parts. Its a hilarious, bizarre, tender novel about Linda. Linda is in her thirties and lives in SF; she works a content moderation job, lives in a tiny rented space, - in many ways she’s a perfect canvas to satirise the nonsensical way that we live now. However, Linda isn’t like everyone, mostly because she is sexually attracted to planes - more than just that, in fact. She believes that it’s her destiny to fall in love with and marry a plane, and flies regularly, hoping to meet her destined lover.

The novel follows us through Linda’s day-to-day life, written in a close first person that helps us to see the world (and the planes) through Linda’s eyes. She’s blunt, and socially aloof, partly out of a fear of rejection due to her love for planes. But a friendship blossoms at work and Linda’s carefully ordered life takes a turn - while it may not seem like edge-of-your-seat stuff, Folk’s clear and vivid prose, as well as how deeply she understands her strange protagonist, that it becomes super compelling. I got very invested in Linda’s life and was rooting for her, even as her behaviour got pretty weird beyond the plane thing!

This truly bananas concept could be played for laughs, butt instead Folk is empathetic towards Linda, highlighting how she feels cast out by society because of her desires. Linda’s sexuality is bizarre, yes, but she recognises that and how it would be perceived by others; meaning she is very lonely!

The novel is so skilfully done by the that after a while, I found myself unfazed by the whole plane-fancying thing.
It won’t be for everyone and there’s some very dark themes here so your mileage may vary.. But if you like Melissa Broder, Sayaka Murata, Sarah Maria Griffin or other ~weird girl lit~ you will love this weird little book.

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.25 stars
Publication date: 10th April 2025

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Linda makes $20 an hour as a content moderator, flagging comments that violate a tech conglomerate’s terms and conditions. Each night, she returns to the windowless room in a garage that she rents from a family who pretend she isn’t there. But once a month, she escapes to San Francisco International Airport for a clandestine meeting on the cheapest flight out that night. Linda’s secret is that she’s sexually attracted to planes: their intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages and powerful engines make her feel a way that no human lover ever could.

Read that synopsis ⬆️ There's no two ways about it: this book is weird. And I loved it!
But Sky Daddy is about so much more than a woman fantasising and obsessing about planes; it's about loneliness, mental health, connections and - most importantly - friendship. At first, I thought I was going to hate Linda as a character. How wrong I was! Let's be clear: her obsession is strange and she's an awkward character, but she's also lovely and unexpectedly endearing. This was a wild read, often disturbing, but never dark; it was also both very funny and often very melancholic. I think I can safely say I have never read a book quite like this one, but it really worked for me. I loved Out There, Kate Folk’s debut short story collection - after Sky Daddy, I can't wait to read whatever she writes next.

This was a very weird book but I absolutely loved it. It was definitely a wild book that gives a unique perspective.

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’I had more than my own future to consider’

Sky Daddy, is at its essence, a story about a woman named Linda who is sexually and romantically attracted to planes, and wants to marry one, which in her mind constitutes dying in a painful plane-crash.

But Sky Daddy is also way more than that. It’s a tender and wholesome look at the importance of female friendships, and forming meaningful human connections. It’s a book that says no matter how bloody weird you are, there’s someone out there that wants to be your friend, and I think that’s a pretty damn beautiful message.

And you know what? I liked Linda. Is she strange? Hell yes! Is the plane fetish disturbing? Also hell yes! But she was funny, awkward in an endearing way, unusual but loveable. I loved reading from her perspective, her odd way of looking at everything in life, from relationships to romance to work, even to just existing, was engaging and interesting, and I can say I didn’t spend a single second of this book bored. I also absolutely adored Karina, Linda’s best friend, and their friendship was the highlight of the story for me. It seems that everyone who reads Sky Daddy gets something different out of it, and for me it was how it highlighted the value of finding your platonic soulmate - that one person who will never judge you or leave you when you’re down.

I also really liked the discussions around fate and manifesting your own destiny. I’m not one really for the whole manifestation / affirmation trend, but I can’t deny the power in being completely determined to get exactly what you want. I think Folk did a brilliant job at balancing Linda’s often irrational trust in the universe, with her own desire to plan every single aspect of her life. The contrast of her controlling every detail of her existence but her greatest dream being completely down to luck / unluck (depending if you want to be in a plane-crash or not, I guess) was such a great detail, and done so well.

Overall, Sky Daddy will not be like anything you’ve ever read, and that’s what makes it so much fun. 4/5 stars, I can’t wait to read more from Kate Folk!

I loved Kate Folk's short story collection, Out There. I was wary of trying her novel, however, because the concept didn't appeal to me. It's narrated by Linda, a woman in San Francisco who is attracted to aeroplanes and feels it is her destiny to marry one via a fatal crash. This is weird but not in the speculative sense that I enjoyed in the short stories, unless you consider the use of vision boards (posters with images representing what you want the universe to manifest) slightly paranormal. I decided to give the book a try, because I like the author's writing style.

I found the book to be unique, memorable and disturbing, although not dark. I'm not convinced that I enjoyed the book, but I appreciated the skill put into it. I liked how the reader is persuaded to root for this odd, twisted, but kind of relatable character. If you're looking for something very different to read, or if you're a planespotter, I suggest this strange book!

this book is weird. and wild. and so unique. but somehow in all the best ways. and its so much more(like many things) than the title or identity we give to it. its full of warmth, hilarity and a rare view on just how we judge or learn or show ourselves.
i thought the premise was a great way to learn more and think more. and Linda was such a character that i just wanted to get to know, and listen to what she had to say. there is friendship, and grief and loss. and moving on and learning. its a little unexplainable because the plot points are so very their own. but its great. and i think many people should delve into this book and come out feeling just a little bit lighter somehow.

4.5 stars! A well-written and witty book that had me captivated from the first page. I saw a review that described it as “Moby Dick as plane,” and yeah, that sums it up (if Ahab was REALLY into whales).

Sky Daddy takes a bold and bizarre concept - Linda’s sexual attraction to planes (and her desire to marry one) - and uses it to explore themes of identity, grief, and coping mechanisms. At its heart, though, it’s a tender story about female friendship. I really loved the attention to detail, not just in the characters but in bringing the planes to life.

For me, this has definitely earned its place in the ‘weird girl lit’ hall of fame. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon!

This book had such an original premise - I can confidently say I have never read anything like this before! Interesting and sad in equal measure, I found myself absorbed and I really loved learning more about Linda. Strange in the best way.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I LOVED Folk's short story collection, so was willing to trust her enough to give the novel a go even if I wasn't fully sold on the premise, and, sadly, it didn't quite live up to what I'd hoped it'd be.

I found Folk's writing and character study to be brilliant, but there was a bit of a disconnect between the metaphorical and literal in the book for me. It wasn't quite weird enough to be for the weird lit girls, and it wasn't quite grounded enough to be for the litfic reader, so I think the target audience lies somewhere in between (in a space that wasn't quite for me). I thought that the core metaphor was a bit obvious (and was buying into it), up until cca. the 80 something % mark when it was explicitly named in the text, and kind of lost what made it a compelling study.

This could've lived slightly higher in my mind if I didn't find the ending to be such a hopeless (to me, if not the protagonist) cop-out.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This novel focuses on our main character, who has a sexual attraction to planes. On the surface, this would be considered a 'weird girl' book, but this has so many layers to it that it goes a lot further.

This novel ended up being quite sad, the characters have so much depth and I really connected to the protagonist. This is my first time reading Kate Folk, but I will keep an eye out for any of her works in future.

I would highly recommend this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

I love it when books make me actually root for the main character to die in a plane crash – but, you know, in a positive way. This one was a wild, fun, and freaky ride. Unhinged characters, female friendship, social awkwardness, obsession, and of course, planes. If I ever board a plane again, I’m definitely going to think of you, Linda.

Now, I’ve got to clear my search history of all those plane reference photos.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Kate Folk, and the publisher for the eARC!

I loved Kate Folk's short story collection Out There and I was very much looking forward to her debut novel and Sky Daddy soars high.
The funniest novel I've read in a long while until it because a very sad novel. Linda is a fascinating character and a narrative voice is uniquely funny.
Fantastic.

Fun, quirky, and deliciously weird. A testament to friendship, belonging, and creating your own destiny. There’s a perfect balance of plot and character development, with some hilarious and heartful moments. I loved it so much!