Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

1 review

clovetra's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

this was a nice little book honestly, but as someone who's lost someone close to them, it fell a bit... odd? incorrect? like once the end of the book comes sure lennie says something like "my sister will always be with me", and that grief is permanent, which i liked. but
it didn't feel like lennie felt that? idk it felt like she was awful and then got everything she wanted. i felt like she should've faced some reprocussions - sure her sister dying is probably the biggest reprocussion & she was grieving, she shouldn't be punished,
but idk it felt a bit unrealistic and that peeved me a tad.
now i haven't lost a sister (only child things). but i did lose my dad. and with a book so centred on grief, the way lennie expresses her grief, i felt like it was very unrealistic. like yeah i know that everyone expresses grief in varying ways, but oh my god
hooking up with ur sister's boyfriend? girl what the fuck? i know she explains it too by saying something like "when im with toby our hearts rebuild bailey" or some shit but im sorry i could not look past that.
. just because someone is grieving does not mean their shitty behaviour gets to be excused, and i think that's what im most hung up on.
i also didn't like how
easily joe forgave lennie. sure yeah they're in love whatever but tbh i would've preferred it if she ended up alone! girl get away from relationships! she doesn't even know who she is without her sister, and instead she filled the void with toby and then joe.

i also felt like the characters kind of fell flat? lennie is very much the main character but other than that, i feel like the characters needed a bit more fleshing out. and honestly the character who was fleshed out (lennie), i found insufferable.
i think that's my main issue - not that lennie was a bit of a shit person throughout this book, but that i didn't feel any sympathy for her. like usually i can love-hate a protag like this. idk why but with nelson's other book <i>i'll give you the sun</i> i found this to be an issue with me as well - the characters were so incredibly self-destructive and awful to everyone around them i couldn't function. like no redeemable traits in lennie for me. 
overall though i felt like this book was quite realistic in the way the characters express their grief, but i don't know i just did not like lennie. i don't know if that was nelson's intention but all i know is i was not live laugh loving as much as i hoped i would be :(
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