Book ~ "Dear Edward" (2020) Ann Napolitano

From Goodreads ~ One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. 

Edward's story captures the attention of the nation but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery - one that will lead him to the answers of some of life's most profound questions: When you've lost everything, how do find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

Eddie is 12 years old and he and his older brother, his mother and his father are flying from New York City to Los Angeles where his mother has a new job. During the flight, the plane crashes and Eddie is the only survivor. After his recovery, he goes to live with his mother's sister, Lacey, and her husband, John, in New Jersey. Once he is better physically, he struggles to recover emotionally and mentally. His next door neighbour, Shay, who is his age, becomes his only friend.

I thought this story was just okay. It starts when the plane is taking off and jumps back and forth in time from Edward's (as he know wants to be known) present time to the time on the plane leading up to the crash. We get to know handful of passengers ... Veronica, the flight attendant; Florida, a free-spirited woman who is living in her most recent reincarnated body; Linda, who just found out she is pregnant and is hoping the baby's father will be happy to see her; Benjamin, a gay injured soldier returning from Afghanistan; Mark, a Wall Street exec whose goal is to make money and show how good he is; and Crispin, a bitter old rich man whose health is failing. It's written in third person perspective in various voices (including Edward's, his parents, his brother and the passengers we've gotten to know) depending on where the focus was. I thought the writing style could have been tighter as I found it dragged at times. As a head's up, there is swearing.