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A review by paragraphsandpages
Wider Than the Sky by Katherine Rothschild
1.0
First, I would like to thank the author, publisher, and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book. While an egalley was provided for me, my thoughts and opinions are my own.
This books covers a lot of sensitive topics that don't often make their way into YA (polyamory, HIV/AIDs, bisexuality, homelessness, and other sorts of trauma. However, I don't know if I can say this was well-balanced. While I can't comment on the exact rep for most of these topics (except for perhaps bisexuality, which wasn't really a focus), it generally seemed like the book was trying to do too much, and wasn't able to give any one topic the space it needed. I also don't think Sabine was the sort of character to handle being in this type of story, as she was a very selfish character and the spotlight was mostly focused on her grief and trauma after learning her father had another lover. Her disgust with being lied too wasn't distinctly separated from the fact her father was queer (poly + bi), and it felt uncomfortable sometimes. While I don't think this was the intention, more space could've been given to showing that Sabine didn't have an issue with her father's queerness, but an issue with his lies. This was the general idea, but some comments just felt off. But in general, there was just too much going on and too little room to properly give those topics the space they needed to be discussed.
Unfortunately, the story beyond these issues isn't much better. Sabine is cruel, using harsh methods to get what she wants while acting innocent and kind. She gets a friend forcibly removed from their house and separated from their father, and she also is the reason that her family is evicted from the house they are renovating as a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people (under the pretense of wanting to go back home/have a home to herself/not wanting to stay in that house with her father's lover). She consistently places the needs of herself over those around her, and I don't think the book properly punishes her for those choices. She very quickly makes amends to those she hurt, and all seems fine in the end. (These also characters also all have very strong faults that they often apologize for, only to continue doing. So it's not even that I felt the side characters were compelling). I'm also unsure if Sabine's compulsive poetry was meant to be a representation of compulsions and/or tics, because it was never really truly explained. It may have been a side effect of the trauma of losing her father, but it was half explained that she had been doing for a while. It was only ever named here and there as some 'literary disorder/tic/compulsion', and I just don't know if this is supposed to be more of quirky trait of the character or representation. It felt off to me.
The romance also felt quite toxic, yet seemed to be held up as Sabine's great love. Sabine literally enacted revenge against Kai's best friend because she was trying to 'steal him', and Kai let the best friend be led on/didn't push off her advances even though he was with Sabine and didn't care for his friend like that. It just didn't seem like a good relationship at all, or that there was even any chemistry beyond the fact that he was the only one that didn't mock Sabine's poetry.
Overall, I feel like this book just didn't have the space to fully deal with everything it brought up, and it made the book feel weak and shallow, and possibly even harmful in it's generalizing representation.
This books covers a lot of sensitive topics that don't often make their way into YA (polyamory, HIV/AIDs, bisexuality, homelessness, and other sorts of trauma. However, I don't know if I can say this was well-balanced. While I can't comment on the exact rep for most of these topics (except for perhaps bisexuality, which wasn't really a focus), it generally seemed like the book was trying to do too much, and wasn't able to give any one topic the space it needed. I also don't think Sabine was the sort of character to handle being in this type of story, as she was a very selfish character and the spotlight was mostly focused on her grief and trauma after learning her father had another lover. Her disgust with being lied too wasn't distinctly separated from the fact her father was queer (poly + bi), and it felt uncomfortable sometimes. While I don't think this was the intention, more space could've been given to showing that Sabine didn't have an issue with her father's queerness, but an issue with his lies. This was the general idea, but some comments just felt off. But in general, there was just too much going on and too little room to properly give those topics the space they needed to be discussed.
Unfortunately, the story beyond these issues isn't much better. Sabine is cruel, using harsh methods to get what she wants while acting innocent and kind. She gets a friend forcibly removed from their house and separated from their father, and she also is the reason that her family is evicted from the house they are renovating as a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people (under the pretense of wanting to go back home/have a home to herself/not wanting to stay in that house with her father's lover). She consistently places the needs of herself over those around her, and I don't think the book properly punishes her for those choices. She very quickly makes amends to those she hurt, and all seems fine in the end. (These also characters also all have very strong faults that they often apologize for, only to continue doing. So it's not even that I felt the side characters were compelling). I'm also unsure if Sabine's compulsive poetry was meant to be a representation of compulsions and/or tics, because it was never really truly explained. It may have been a side effect of the trauma of losing her father, but it was half explained that she had been doing for a while. It was only ever named here and there as some 'literary disorder/tic/compulsion', and I just don't know if this is supposed to be more of quirky trait of the character or representation. It felt off to me.
The romance also felt quite toxic, yet seemed to be held up as Sabine's great love. Sabine literally enacted revenge against Kai's best friend because she was trying to 'steal him', and Kai let the best friend be led on/didn't push off her advances even though he was with Sabine and didn't care for his friend like that. It just didn't seem like a good relationship at all, or that there was even any chemistry beyond the fact that he was the only one that didn't mock Sabine's poetry.
Overall, I feel like this book just didn't have the space to fully deal with everything it brought up, and it made the book feel weak and shallow, and possibly even harmful in it's generalizing representation.