The Sky Is Everywhere Review

The Sky Is Everywhere
By: Jandy Nelson
Level: Young Adult
Pages: 288 pages

SUMMARY
Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Baileys boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennies own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they cant collide without the whole wide world exploding. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennies struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.
MY REVIEW
I really really enjoyed this book. I loved the voice and tone and the entire feeling of the book. I was wrapped in it right from the beginning. Typically sad stories and dealing with loss are not my style of books that I enjoy. This was a beautiful heart felt story with sadness and well with enough romance and love to be my style. I loved the intensity of the moments and the drama of being torn between two love interest. The book was a bit on the mature side so I must suggest that this book be for the more older readers, however I still completely really loved this book and couldn’t keep from wanting to know more. Reading it I was on edge and sad at times, and sometimes I burst with laughter so it was quite the astounding rollercoaster ride of emotions.
Characters: I really loved Jandy’s characters, but characterization in this book is quite complicated. I liked the different attitudes and approaches to the characters. The voice and point of view of the book allows the reader to learn, approach and interpret the characters similarly as the main character does, which was quite unique to me, so even though you get a fairly great understanding and visualization of them its all viewed from the thoughts and mind of Lennie. I liked Joe as the love interest, he was quite a unique individual and i found him fascinating just as Lennie did.
Writing: I really really loved Jandy Nelson’s writing. I loved the voice and writing perspective. I liked her writing language, meaning pretty much excellent word choices and descriptors. However the author did seem to have quite the dramatic usage of modern acronyms, IM language and exclamatories and perhaps it was quite recognizable and understandable for the Young Adult world, but I just feel that literary wise, authors should tread lightly with such grammar and structure, and its usage, as it can become rather harmful to the authors writing. I did like Jandy’s use of analogies and it help bring a better understanding. Jandy’s writing can make you feel so strongly and deeply of the emotions of the character. The connection between you (the reader) and the main character (Lennie) is so enthralled and entailed that it’s almost impossible to differentiate the ending of one and the beginning of the other.

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