April 8, 2025

An April Indie Next Pick

One of Oprah Daily’s Best Books of Spring

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by Lit Hub, Polygon, and Language Arts

Starred Reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly

Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. Weekdays, she earns $20 an hour moderating comments for a video-sharing platform, then rides the bus home to the windowless garage she rents on the outskirts of San Francisco. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could. . . .

Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors by dying in a plane crash, a catastrophic event that would unite her with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself headlong toward the love she’s always dreamed of.

Both subversive and unexpectedly heartwarming, Sky Daddy hijacks the classic love story, exploring desire, fate, and the longing to be accepted for who we truly are.

EARLY PRAISE:

“Audaciously imagined. Slyly executed. Surprisingly tender. Deliciously weird.”—Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch

“Sky Daddy lifts off and swiftly accelerates, breaking the barrier of your preconceptions and disbelief, taking you to utterly new places and insights. . . . A beauteous, drolly funny joy ride.”—Ling Ma, author of Bliss Montage

“This is the craziest, funniest book I’ve read in a while. And I read a lot of crazy, funny books. Get your boarding pass out and get ready for some turbulence. Sky Daddy is insane.”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends

“Sky Daddy is outrageously funny and smartly unsettling, as if J. G. Ballard did a story arc for New Girl. It’s an audacious comic novel about the love that really dare not say its name—also probably the worst (or . . . best?) book to read on a plane.”—Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams

“Wry, tender, and sweetly odd . . . It’s an unforgettable ode to the pursuit of desire.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An utterly confident and endearing portrait of a woman unlike anyone readers have met before.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Kate Folk has an unusual eye and style, but if you buckle up, it’s one hell of a ride.”—Literary Hub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2025”

“Far and away one of the most audacious and surprisingly feel-good books that 2025 has to offer.”—Polygon, “Most Exciting Books for 2025”

“[A] subversive and touching love story.”—Language Arts, “2025’s Must-Read Books”