My love of Miri is what kept me turning the pages of this book. Miri, the protagonist is the woman who we follow back into her childhood to experience this terrible year firsthand.

Based on true events, there were three plane crashes in Elizabeth New Jersey over a three month period, which Judy Blume experienced herself, as she grew up in Elizabeth. The book starts off with a very nervous woman about to board a plane, and then jumps back thirty five years before that to describe the fateful year that is responsible for this woman’s anxiety. I wanted to include this long introduction to my review to make it clear that I am commenting on this book as a nervous flier, so keep that in mind. Not wanting fear to control my life, and/or my reading choices, I soldiered on through In the Unlikely Event, even though I’m a nervous flier, and hopping on a plane in a few days. People who are nervous fliers like me? They definitely don’t like reading about plane crashes, and yet Judy Blume has written about plane crashes, and it’s her first book in a long time, so you can see the conundrum I was in. No one likes reading about terrible senseless tragedies like plane crashes, especially because flying is something many people do numerous times a year. I just said “Yes, please send it to me”. And then, I saw it on my to-read shelf at home, and immediately took it off my bookshelf thinking “Yes, it will be great to finish this book before I go on my trip home, because it’s hardcover, and I don’t want to pack it in my luggage, and I really want to read it now, so I’ll just crack it open today!” I didn’t even clue into the fact that the book was about plane crashes until I started reading the first page. Who wouldn’t? It’s Judy Freaking Blume! I didn’t read the premise of the book at all, hell I didn’t even look at the cover. So, I saw that Judy Blume had a new book coming, and of course I jumped at the chance to review it.

Book in the unlikely event