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A review by melaniereadsbooks
The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Netgalley for the arc of this book!
Let me start off by saying I thought this book was super adorable and heartwarming in A LOT of ways! I also thought there were some really great messages in it!
Sky has really good character development and I love that he learns to really appreciate his loved ones by the end of the book. I also loved Teddy and was glad Sky learned he had been stereotyping him.
With all that, I felt there were some problematic and potentially harmful things that happened in this book. There may be minor spoilers below.
The first thing I noticed that made me cringe was the way Sky kept describing everything he did as gay. Like he walked in a gay way. Talked gay. Gay voice. Held his books gay. I got that this was to show that he was constantly feeling the need to monitor his behavior to not make others uncomfortable by falling into stereotypes of queer people, but I felt this could have been shown in a more subtle way that was less potentially harmful.
A few other minor things I thought were problematic: one of Bree's brothers is said to have autism in a one time throw away comment. He barely does anything at all in the story and it honestly just felt like that was added for diversity points? That character could have had some kind of meaning in the plot, but he didn't.
Another issue was the use of the R-slur. The character was obviously supposed to be rude who was saying it, but I honestly didn't think it was at all necessary to throw in such triggering language there when it had nothing whatsoever to do with the story.
I was sad about the way Sky felt about his scar. I was hoping he would have learned to accept it over the course of them book. Instead he covered it up. It also took a boy for him to start hating it even slightly less. That didn't seem very body positive at all.
My biggest issue, however (slight spoiler?) Were the "Gay for X" t shirts everyone started wearing. Enjoying something does not mean you are gay for it. Honestly I don't think a straight person should ever say they are gay for something like that. They don't understand what the term means or how hard it can be for a queer person to claim it for themselves. And there was no pointing out at all that this was problematic? Sky encouraged it.
The message was that everyone was supporting him, but there could have been SO MANY other ways for that to happen without completely bulldozing over the word Gay.
I did enjoy reading this despite these problems.
Let me start off by saying I thought this book was super adorable and heartwarming in A LOT of ways! I also thought there were some really great messages in it!
Sky has really good character development and I love that he learns to really appreciate his loved ones by the end of the book. I also loved Teddy and was glad Sky learned he had been stereotyping him.
With all that, I felt there were some problematic and potentially harmful things that happened in this book. There may be minor spoilers below.
The first thing I noticed that made me cringe was the way Sky kept describing everything he did as gay. Like he walked in a gay way. Talked gay. Gay voice. Held his books gay. I got that this was to show that he was constantly feeling the need to monitor his behavior to not make others uncomfortable by falling into stereotypes of queer people, but I felt this could have been shown in a more subtle way that was less potentially harmful.
A few other minor things I thought were problematic: one of Bree's brothers is said to have autism in a one time throw away comment. He barely does anything at all in the story and it honestly just felt like that was added for diversity points? That character could have had some kind of meaning in the plot, but he didn't.
Another issue was the use of the R-slur. The character was obviously supposed to be rude who was saying it, but I honestly didn't think it was at all necessary to throw in such triggering language there when it had nothing whatsoever to do with the story.
I was sad about the way Sky felt about his scar. I was hoping he would have learned to accept it over the course of them book. Instead he covered it up. It also took a boy for him to start hating it even slightly less. That didn't seem very body positive at all.
My biggest issue, however (slight spoiler?) Were the "Gay for X" t shirts everyone started wearing. Enjoying something does not mean you are gay for it. Honestly I don't think a straight person should ever say they are gay for something like that. They don't understand what the term means or how hard it can be for a queer person to claim it for themselves. And there was no pointing out at all that this was problematic? Sky encouraged it.
The message was that everyone was supporting him, but there could have been SO MANY other ways for that to happen without completely bulldozing over the word Gay.
I did enjoy reading this despite these problems.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Car accident and Death of parent
Body negativity, slurs, self-hatred, depression, disowning