Flight Risk

A Novel

By: Joy Castro

Narrated by: Rebecca Mozo

A woman is forced to face her past in a heartbreaking and triumphant novel of old wounds and family secrets by award-winning author Joy Castro.

Isabel Morales is a successful Chicago sculptor hiding a brutal family history - one not even her husband knows. After decades of turning her back on her past, she’s forced to return to Appalachia when she receives news of her estranged mother’s death.

But going back means revisiting the traumatic childhood she escaped - and the family that cast her out when she needed them most. Back on the land she has inherited, she’s flooded with memories of the forest where she once roamed free, of her beloved lost brother, and of the old house in the West Virginia hills where she grew up. Her mother has left her another legacy, too, which reveals secrets that Isabel is only beginning to understand.

As forces bear down and threaten to take what she has left, it’s time for Isabel to step into her power, reclaim her roots, and finally confront the painful memories that have kept her from the life she truly wants.

©2021 Joy Castro (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“…the characters and emotions portrayed make this well worth reading.”—Booklist

“In Flight Risk, [Castro] does an excellent job at balancing the ambiguity of her characters’ choices, while challenging readers’ expectations. Raised in West Virginia, she shows her insider knowledge in the concerns and interactions of the characters.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Joy Castro’s writing is like watching an Acapulco cliff diver. It takes my breath away every time.”—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

Loved it

Complex emotions and possibilities
Loved “hearing” it…well spoken without self pity. Sumptuous descriptions of wealth and not

Convulated

The basic story line and the life lessons deserve a 5 star rating. Stretching the book out and mixing up the timeline just takes away from the book. It was a difficult book to finish because of this.

Good story with surprising ending

I would never have picked up this book on my own, due to the poor reviews and the not great cover, but a good and trusted friend recommended it to me. I enjoyed it thoroughly! I loved how the author was able to take me from a luxury high-rise in Chicago to the clapboard homes in disrepair next to an abandoned mine in West Virginia.

For those who love great writing, this book is a treasure trove. Here's a quote about a funeral director: "He paused between utterances, as if to give each phrase sufficient time to sink and sift through layers of stunned grief in the hearer's mind before finally settling on the sandy floor of comprehension, and he used no contractions, as if mourners might be insulted by the casualness of leaving letters out." Genius!

I did not understand the negative reactions in other reviews to the underlying messages of this book. I did not feel like the author lectured, just simply reflected an opinion about things like the hazards of coal mining, but never got too heavy handed. To me, it was a small part of the book and gave it some added depth. Over all, a fun, engrossing read.

Surprise Ending

I didn’t have a clue how this book would end. Ms Castro is an excellent writer. Plus, I felt like I had learned a lot about the challenges of and artist’s life.

The storyline of our heroine is convoluted and painful. Unfortunately, the story is too true to the lives of far too many people who are disadvantaged. People who are told they are losers begin to feel and act like they are losers. Isabel has done so much to overcome the limitations. The battle to survive her worst impulses seems hopeless. For me, the story builds momentum right up to the end.

I listen to most audio books at 1 1/2 speed. Maybe this reader was trying to emulate some southern speech patterns but I had this story running at over 2X the normal speed without any loss of understanding.

I found this book a very worthwhile read.

Great story! Hard to put down!

The story started out slow but turned out to be an excellent and captivating story.