Call me deranged myself, but I feel like this could have been more unhinged, or, since we're dealing with planes, unwinged.

Linda is a content moderator with a rather strange secret: she's attracted to planes. Yes, I'm being serious. She spends her Friday nights plane watching at a bar, and any of her disposable income is put aside for a monthly regional flight, which she refers to as a "date."

It's clear that some of her enthusiasm for planes is directly linked to her mental state, since in the aftermath of her father's death, she goes on a bit of a rampage when it comes to flying, and she does the same later in the novel when her life starts unravelling.

I don't actually know how to rate this book. It wasn't the best or worst thing I ever read, so it gets three stars from me, I picked it up out of pure curiosity. I think in order for it to get a higher rating for me it needed to either focus in on mental health and grief a bit more, or be even more deranged and unhinged. If you're going to go there, go there. Otherwise you end up with a book that I'll remember for being the one where the main character loves planes, but not much more besides that.

I am interested in reading more from Kate Folk though because I think her ideas are interesting.

I loved Kate Folk's short story collection Out There and so requested this ARC without fully reading the blurb (avoiding spoilers!). Turns out that was a stupid thing to do as I'm VERY scared of plane crashes.

I didn't want to leave you without a review so asked my non-plane-phobic partner, who also loved Out There, to read it and write a review in my stead. The following is his review. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to read and feed back on this - sorry I am too scared to read it!

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A turbulent flight as a young teenager awakens an unshakeable understanding in Linda: she is sexually attracted to planes and is destined to marry one in a fatal, fiery ceremony.

Linda’s entire life has been shaped to realise this dream. She lives paycheck to paycheck as a highly effective content moderator for a social media platform. She rents a windowless cube built inside a garage and subsists on cheese strings and ramen pilfered from the breakroom. She spends as little as she feels she can get away with on niceties such as clothes and personal grooming, so that every spare penny can be put towards flights to wherever. For most of us, flights are an inconvenient means to an end, but for Linda, each one is a sexually charged chance to meet the plane of her dreams.

I read Kate Folk’s Out There earlier this year and absolutely loved it. She has a knack for spinning completely believable stories around utterly fucked up concepts, in a way that makes you think ‘Oh, no. That’s going to happen isn’t it…’

Folk’s prose is hugely readable. The book is very funny, often morbidly so. I also found it by turns hugely sad and enraging, as Linda navigates the grimy, transactional, pathetic, patriarchal world. Linda herself is utterly believable, despite her unique obsession. The characters that flail through life around her are all also incredibly well rendered. Folk manages to make even the crummiest dorks and oblivious narcissists feel like real humans deserving of at least a little sympathy, if only for the ways they’ve been mangled by the stupid cultural and institutional systems we’re all subject to.

At times Linda’s descriptions of the various handsome planes she lusts over started to feel like a gimmick stretched too far, but I admired the dedication to the bit. Occasionally Linda’s observations feel like they have come from the author rather than from the character, though they’re generally devastatingly on point and very, very funny, so it feels churlish to complain.

More troublingly, I’m not sure exactly what to make of Linda’s portrayal. Unfortunately I’m ill-equipped to effectively articulate why or to fairly analyse it, but I’ll try. In short, aspects of Linda’s behaviour really reminded me of neurodivergent folks I know, and of characters who are coded as neurodivergent, specifically, autistic, in other media. I’m not sure if this was Folk’s intent here. If it was, the nuanced, empathetic portrayal of these aspects of Linda’s character sit uncomfortably for me alongside the more sensational elements that seem intended to shock or amuse. Folk has such clear love for Linda that I don’t believe she’s meant to be the butt of the joke. And yet… Frankly, I’m not sure how to reconcile this. This may be entirely a me issue.

Finally, the ending felt right and satisfying, but to be honest I can’t help but feel that something has gone over my head, so to speak. I feel like Folk might be saying something bigger here that I’m just not getting. I’m open to the idea that that’s just me missing the point, perhaps owing to my lived experience as essentially a straight, white, neurotypical man.

But on the other hand, maybe it doesn’t need to be about anything bigger than the simple idea that we’re all a bit fucked up in our own unique ways and it’s pretty nice to have a friend or two who gets that.

I had heard about this book coming out so much that when I saw it on NetGalley I had to pick it up! These weird books are getting more and more deep. Linda has an obsession with planes that - takes her to the mile high club?! - it’s so weird but goes into grief and mental health. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone but if you can handle the blob and the book with the fork, go for it!

A uniquely unlikely love story of sorts.

Once a month Linda boards a plane for a rendezvous with her mysterious lover. None of her fellow passengers realise that Linda's lover is the very plane they are travelling on.

Forced to appear 'normal' at work, Linda agrees to join a group of vision board enthusiasts using a ruse of wanting to marry a pilot to conceal the real object of her real desire; 'marrying' her lover whilst dying in a plane crash.


A riotous, incendiary of a novel.

This is one of my most anticipated reads of 2025 and boy did it live up to my expectations. Such a quirky book but really fascinating to read. I really loved the characters, the storyline, and just how damn right weird it was! 100% recommend if you love your books weird and wild. Well done again Kate Folk!!

Sky Daddy is a novel about a woman who wants to 'marry' a plane by dying in a plane crash, and what happens as she tries to achieve her apparent destiny. Linda works as a content moderator, ensuring comments adhere to a tech company's terms and conditions, but once a month she takes a flight somewhere, to be with her true love: planes. When her only friend, co-worker Karina, invites her to vision board brunch, Linda has to find a way to hide the fact she's attracted to planes and wants to die in a plane crash but still create a vision board that represents this, and as her life starts to be changed, she has to decide whether to follow her true dream or not.

This is the sort of book that you feel you need to read, because the concept is so weird, but then you actually read it and it is actually quite sweet and explores what it means to live the way you want and have meaningful connections with others. In particular, it has an underlying exploration of friendship between unlikely friends, and what it means to be there for someone. However, it does also live up to the weird, not shying away from Linda's attraction to planes and the fact she believes that she will find her soulmate, a plane in which to die.

I had a great time reading Sky Daddy: it's fun, it's occasionally sly and funny, and it takes something pretty weird at face value. It sits alongside other recent novels that take a weird concept and actually do something both fun and tender with it, without taking themselves too seriously.

This book is truly unlike anything I’ve read before. It is strange and wild and so enjoyable. Linda is a fascinating character and I loved getting a peek into her world. I’ve never made a vision board (and perhaps never will after reading this) but I thought it provided a great container for the narrative too.

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk is an imaginative and quirky read that is darkly humorous and explores themes of obsession and friendship.

I have been a fan of Kate Folk since her story “Out There” appeared in the New Yorker. As soon as I saw the ARC for Sky Daddy was available, I stopped everything and ran (digitally) to NetGalley to beg/plead/scream/cry for the book.

It is everything I hoped it would be and more. Do yourself a favour and pick up this original and engaging book.

5/5 Stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the Arc!

Sky Daddy follows Linda who has an obsession with planes. She works as a content moderator monitoring comments that violate the company’s terms of service. In her free time she looks at images of planes as well as going to an airport bar and looking at planes on the runway. Once a month she treats herself to a flight where she gets to experience her love and sexual attraction for planes. Linda believes she is destined to marry a 737 named N92823 by dying in a plane crash so they can be together forever.

This book was absolutely wild and I had the best time with it. The whole thing was so random and weird but I loved it. The writing was so good and I connected with Linda even though she loves planes. Other than the plane obsession Linda’s life and issues were very relatable. This reminded me of books by Kevin Wilson just in the vibe and the strangeness. At times this felt like satire but at other times it felt like Linda’s plane obsession was an escape from her real life. I laughed out loud at parts of this and I truly had the best time with this. The concept is absurd but it made for a brilliant novel. I’d recommend this for fans of weird fiction and people who enjoy sad girl literary fiction.