You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
quadrille 's review for:
The Sky Is Everywhere
by Jandy Nelson
A super-quick read, as most YA is! I'm really liking my new method of deciding what to read next: I point at the bookcase full of a friend's books and tell my roommate, "Choose a random title from the shelf," she does, and then I read it.
The Sky Is Everywhere (which is most the horrendous generic title btw) gets 5 stars for Nelson's emotive writing and her quirky turns of phrase. I loved loved LOVED her prose, which was all bursting with feelings and harnessing the rollercoaster ride that is the teenage emotional range; I also loved her portrayal of grief & love, both all-consuming, opposite ends of the spectrum but so hopelessly entwined. Also props for sisters feelings, recovery from grief, Lennie's family, and her friendship with Sarah. The writing was super-twee a lot of the time, but I forgave it for Nelson's descriptive creativity.
However, [vaguemumble] stars for:
5 stars for Joe Fontaine and his brothers. JOE IS THE BEST.
My gripes even it out to 2 stars, though. I've heard that Nelson's second book is AHMAZING and this one sort of mixed/meh especially in comparison, so I'm still very much on board! Her writing is lovely. The premise of this one just really ain't my bag. Apparently I can be pretty picky about ships, who knew.
The Sky Is Everywhere (which is most the horrendous generic title btw) gets 5 stars for Nelson's emotive writing and her quirky turns of phrase. I loved loved LOVED her prose, which was all bursting with feelings and harnessing the rollercoaster ride that is the teenage emotional range; I also loved her portrayal of grief & love, both all-consuming, opposite ends of the spectrum but so hopelessly entwined. Also props for sisters feelings, recovery from grief, Lennie's family, and her friendship with Sarah. The writing was super-twee a lot of the time, but I forgave it for Nelson's descriptive creativity.
However, [vaguemumble] stars for:
1) This book being advertised incorrectly! The blurb really emphasises the love triangle aspect, and Lennie being ~pulled~ to both Joe and Toby, when the latter relationship is horrible and trainwrecky and unhealthy. It turns out that the love triangle is not the real point of the story, and it thankfully ends up going in a different direction, but it still meant I spent the first half of the novel exasperated, annoyed, and wanting to pull out my hair out, because of the focus on it and because of Lennie's stupid (stupid STUPID) decisions. (Then again, I haven't suffered any real loss so who am I to talk about terrible coping mechanisms idk.)
2) I'm so tired of love triangles where one character. TIRED OF IT.Spoiler
spontaneously uncontrollably smooches another, and then turns around to find the Love Of Their Life standing in the doorway horrified
3) This all-consuming, obsessive giddy passion to the selfish exclusion of everyone else in Lennie's life = not something I'm especially into, actually something I quite actively dislike seeing in people, so I couldn't connect to Lennie because of it. I do love well-done fictional romance & ships, so I think it's just the 0-to-100 sudden ramp-up of this one: it's paced SO quickly and they're all just 100000000000000000000% into each other when they barely know each other. Give me slow burn and cautious approaches and intellectual bonding, not head-over-heels-at-first-sight infatuation. #notmycuppa (I keep referencing this other book, but [b:First & Then|23310751|First & Then|Emma Mills|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1426513843s/23310751.jpg|40149265] is my picture-perfect example of contemporary YA romance. BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH AT EZRA/DEVON.)
4) Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite books too, but as a romantic model it is fucking terrible. For most of this book I was annoyed at the main character for idolising it so much; Nelson only really fixed it in the last few chapters, when Lennie finally seems to acknowledge that Heathcliff/Cathy's love is ruinous and full of mistakes. So I guess it was the point. But. Again, it meant being frustrated with the MC for so long.
5 stars for Joe Fontaine and his brothers. JOE IS THE BEST.
My gripes even it out to 2 stars, though. I've heard that Nelson's second book is AHMAZING and this one sort of mixed/meh especially in comparison, so I'm still very much on board! Her writing is lovely. The premise of this one just really ain't my bag. Apparently I can be pretty picky about ships, who knew.