A review by bookloversofi
Wider Than the Sky by Katherine Rothschild

2.0

I want to thank NetGalley & Soho Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciate so much many of the discussions that this book has and tries to have, as well as the amount of diversity since it shows polyamorous relationships and bisexual characters, on the other hand, the execution doesn't seem to be successful, it felt quite messy and the actions of the characters are simply rude and inappropriate. I cannot speak for own-voices readers so I will not, I will just give my opinion as always from my point of view when reading the book, which doesn't represent the whole truth.



2/5 ⭐⭐

You can find more of my reviews & funt content on my blog A Book. A Thought.


In this story, we follow the identical twin sisters Sabine & Blythe, and we see them go through difficult times after the death of their father, each trying to handle the loss as much as possible. But everything begins to change when her mother decides to move into a Bay Area mansion owned by a man named Charlie. The girls embark on this mission to discover who this mysterious man really is, who seems to know everything about them and that's how they discover that Charlie was their father's boyfriend and her mother seems to know everything about it. As the sisters try to assimilate this new information, Sabine decides to learn everything she can about this side of her father that she didn't know and must decide if she decided to embrace the last legacy of her last wish for her family legacy.


I think the idea of ​​this book is SO solid and so interesting, just by reading the synopsis you can realize that there are thousands of paths that the author may have decided to take on such an intense plot, but the one that was taken and how it was executed didn't work for me. I do appreciate the representations even though I feel that there's perhaps a bit of a stereotype regarding bisexuality, I cannot speak for own-voices readers, but I needed to convey this as I wouldn't want any of my beloved bisexual readers to feel hurt when encountering situations inappropriate perhaps in this book. The discussion of polyamory is interesting, yet the last word will always be for those who can really see themselves reflected in the story. There are a couple of twists that didn't quite convince me, as well as the choices the characters took, especially Sabine, didn't resonate with me. I can't give too many details because of spoilers, but I think sometimes her POVs and her pain lead her to say painful things or to make harsh and hasty decisions. It's not my character style at all.

This book discusses HIV, a highly sensitive subject that must be treated with the respect it deserves, so I think it's interesting to note that it's one of the topics to be discussed in the book and that it's discussed due to the weight it has


The romance shown in this book is a complete disaster, I don't want to delve too deeply into this topic, as I don't really have anything positive to share, but basically, I think the characters are both too annoying and pretentious, and I also think that there's no chemistry between any of them, to be honest.


I think that one of the weakest points of the book is that I think I've understood the message that the author wants to convey with it, but at the same time, I don't think it has been successful. In fact, from my point of view, Sabine's character doesn't learn anything, and I think showing growth in the main character is important, so having a character that is literally the same at the end as when it started is tiring and disappointing. One would expect a maturation in her character due to all the situations she has to face, and I understand that she can be somewhat cruel at the beginning because I can come to understand that in her ignorance she doesn't understand when she's being hurtful, and although I see her questioning things, I don't see her learning from her mistakes. If you have a character who must learn from her mistakes because she simply doesn't have good or positive actions towards those things in which she has excelled in the past, it doesn't serve me to have a character that questions things in her mind but doesn't transform them into actions, you know? There's SO MUCH more that could have been done with such a rich plot idea, I'm sad to say, but I think it lost track of the true meaning of this story, or at least what I understood the ending might have been.

I felt absolutely tired of the attitudes of the characters, especially of Sabina, who has a very particular way of showing that something matters to her, her emotions are always transformed into rebellious and selfish actions. I didn't like this character, and you know that when that happens to me in such a strong way, I usually cannot fully enjoy the intensity of the book.


To end with something positive about the book, I can say that the writing style is very beautiful, I don't know if I want to read more of the author, being honest because I don't know if her stories and her creations would resonate with me, but I do believe that her future stories can be recommended since their style has a very special tone.

I'm so sorry to have brought you a more negative than positive review but you know that no matter what I'll always be honest with you regarding my feelings and thoughts. I want to clarify that the fact that I didn't like it, doesn't mean that you cannot like it, but as a reader, I couldn't recommend it, there's a lot to work on in terms of misplaced stereotypes, to work on those characters, especially on their growth and maturation throughout the story & last but not least, needs more work in terms of direction and impact. I was looking for a lot when I get into this book, and I absolutely adore the cover as well as the author's style, but it just didn't work for me.














First Thoughts 01/23/21

In many ways I appreciate what the book tries to do, but on the other hand I couldn't connect with the main character, especially because of her selfish attitudes, don't get me wrong I don't mind having an unlovable character, but there are some moments that can be too rude and pass some lines. I understand the author's point of view and I like the diversity it shows in familiar terms, but the execution of the story didn't quite hit the mark for me.