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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
a book has never made me so emotional in my entire life. i cried... not a normal amount. i don't know what it is about her books, but this author manages to rip me open and pluck at every sensitive nerve i have, until i'm a broken, raw mess. (in a good way. sort of.) every moment of the story was bittersweet, agony and bliss. my heart ached for every inch of pain hannah and baker suffered, and it sung for the moment they were met with peace. i can't, even, put into words, how seriously perfect this book is. it's insane. it's going to live in my mind forever.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't have enough words to describe how much this book resonated with me. It really is one of the most believable and relatable things I've ever read. I particularly loved how honest and real it was in regards to religion, something I struggle with a lot. I feel that this topic is often presented as something tragic and from a very atheist perspective and in this case it is, but it also gives you hope in terms of learning to be able to balance these two aspects of the person. On a less serious note I loved the best friends to lovers trope, the angst, the slowburn, all that was chef kiss.
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This book...
Man, this book broke me. Coming from a super religious background, I felt my life being reflected back to me as I read Hannah’s worries. Although, I separated myself from religion for other reasons, I was affected by it.
I don’t have enough words to describe how much it hurt me reading this book. It was absolutely painful to read and yet it was reliving to see a character have the same worries I had/have.
We are all perfect and good the way we are. Nothing less and nothing more. That’s all that matters.
Man, this book broke me. Coming from a super religious background, I felt my life being reflected back to me as I read Hannah’s worries. Although, I separated myself from religion for other reasons, I was affected by it.
I don’t have enough words to describe how much it hurt me reading this book. It was absolutely painful to read and yet it was reliving to see a character have the same worries I had/have.
We are all perfect and good the way we are. Nothing less and nothing more. That’s all that matters.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
wow I teared up (kinda rare for me), and I've made a playlist.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia
Moderate: Outing, Alcohol
Minor: Eating disorder
I decided to give this a try because I loved Quindlen's "Late to the Party" (it's one of my favorite YA contemporaries), but I'm very sad to say that I just didn't vibe with Her Name in the Sky at all.
First of all, I felt like it was seriously lacking in the character department. The main character didn't have any sort of motivation or goals for anything, so I couldn't connect with her, and this meant that I couldn't connect with the story at all. There were also too many characters in her group of friends, but none of their voices were distinctive enough for me to differentiate between them, and I wish their personalities had been developed a little bit more.
And then there's the love interest. Holy crap, that was a pain. There was a point where I was just rooting for them NOT to end up together, I seriously wanted the MC to realize that this wasn't a good relationship for her and that she needed to move on, but of course that didn't happen. The narrative didn't give me any reason to be sympathetic to the love interest, she was barely even in the book! I could, theoretically, sympathize with her anxiety and her fear and it could make for a very compelling story about getting over those emotions, but instead what I got was a love interest that was barely present and who kept acting very---not selfishly, not really, but she wasn't a great person, and I just didn't care for her struggles, I didn't care if she ever got over her insecurities, I just wanted Hana, the MC, to get over her and find her own happiness.
Overall I didn't like how the relationship was handled. The whole structure of the book is strange, I don't know if this is trying to be a romance novel or a coming-of-age story relating queer struggles within a religious community. At the end it falls flat on both accounts, trying to be too many things at once. I didn't feel like Hana's struggle to reconcile her faith with her sexuality had any sort of depth or impact on the story, I'm not religious so I can't speak on how accurate it was, but it just felt so inconsequential to me.
I think this book failed from a structure perspective. There should've been more moments between Hana and Baker in order to draw me into their relationship, other than just having a few scenes with them, then a bunch of scenes where nothing happens, another scene of them together, and an immense part of the book just angst, no real connection to Baker's side of things, or the other kid's side of things. There should've been a clearer goal that the story builds towards, and the struggles that Hana goes through should've been a little bit more defined and less vague.
I will probably still read Quindlen's next book, whatever it is, because this really had a lot of potential and everything that I didn't like was clearly fixed in Late to the Party, so I'm holding my breath to see what this author does next!
First of all, I felt like it was seriously lacking in the character department. The main character didn't have any sort of motivation or goals for anything, so I couldn't connect with her, and this meant that I couldn't connect with the story at all. There were also too many characters in her group of friends, but none of their voices were distinctive enough for me to differentiate between them, and I wish their personalities had been developed a little bit more.
And then there's the love interest. Holy crap, that was a pain. There was a point where I was just rooting for them NOT to end up together, I seriously wanted the MC to realize that this wasn't a good relationship for her and that she needed to move on, but of course that didn't happen. The narrative didn't give me any reason to be sympathetic to the love interest, she was barely even in the book! I could, theoretically, sympathize with her anxiety and her fear and it could make for a very compelling story about getting over those emotions, but instead what I got was a love interest that was barely present and who kept acting very---not selfishly, not really, but she wasn't a great person, and I just didn't care for her struggles, I didn't care if she ever got over her insecurities, I just wanted Hana, the MC, to get over her and find her own happiness.
Overall I didn't like how the relationship was handled. The whole structure of the book is strange, I don't know if this is trying to be a romance novel or a coming-of-age story relating queer struggles within a religious community. At the end it falls flat on both accounts, trying to be too many things at once. I didn't feel like Hana's struggle to reconcile her faith with her sexuality had any sort of depth or impact on the story, I'm not religious so I can't speak on how accurate it was, but it just felt so inconsequential to me.
I think this book failed from a structure perspective. There should've been more moments between Hana and Baker in order to draw me into their relationship, other than just having a few scenes with them, then a bunch of scenes where nothing happens, another scene of them together, and an immense part of the book just angst, no real connection to Baker's side of things, or the other kid's side of things. There should've been a clearer goal that the story builds towards, and the struggles that Hana goes through should've been a little bit more defined and less vague.
I will probably still read Quindlen's next book, whatever it is, because this really had a lot of potential and everything that I didn't like was clearly fixed in Late to the Party, so I'm holding my breath to see what this author does next!
emotional
reflective
this was so beautiful and so raw and so personal please everyone read it ESPECIALLY if you're a queer teenage girl