A review by emtheworld
Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

2.0

The premise of the book was interesting at first but unfortunately it didn’t meet my expectations. I did not care about the characters at all so right off the bat I knew this was not going to end well. Samantha as a protagonist bothered me sometimes, especially when the romance aspect came into play (which is also another thing I dislike about the book bc it was really unnecessary IMO) and I felt like this would be way more interesting had it been written in Annamae’s perspective. As for the reading experience, I felt myself skimming over the paragraphs because the writing style was too dense and I just got bored of it. However one of the redeeming qualities of this book is that I really liked Annamae and Samantha’s friendship because it was evident how much their relationship has evolved from something circumstantial to a close bond. I enjoyed their dynamic and it was really heartwarming to see these two girls confide and rely on each other throughout the story. Overall, wouldn’t necessarily recommend, but if you do want to read, I recommend an audiobook—save yourself the pain.