Latest Read: The Sky Is Everywhere

Here are the basics ...
Book: The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Site: http://www.jandynelson.com/
Category: Young Adult

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 - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's. Joe is the new boy in town from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding. (Adapted from goodreads.com) 

My thoughts…

The good:  Everyone handles grief and the loss of someone dear to them differently.  Sometimes you shut down, break down, lash out and think/do things that surprise yourself and don't make any sense.  Sometimes all you want to do is scream and cry, maybe both at the same time.  This book does an amazing job of exploring that through Lennie's grief, as well as through some of the other characters like Grams and her sister's ex-boyfriend Toby. They all work through the aftermath of Bailey's death in different ways but ultimately this is Lennie's story.  She's alway been the "little sister" but not in a way that made might've made her resent Bailey. It was the opposite. They were so close and loved each other so much. She doesn't know who she is without her and this makes her evaluate everything. Life, love, their family, herself. One of my favorite things about Lennie (and the book) was that she wrote poetry.  Random bits of her poetry began every chapter and I found her words so moving. To me, the depth of Lennie's love for her sister and discovering who she was without her was the heart of the story.  But of course there's a lot more going on..

The bad:  Of course, there's romance. Joe Fontaine comes into her life and everyone, I mean everyone, thinks he's the most amazing guy ever. And this gets repeated a lot.  I did like his relationship with Lennie though but I wasn't exactly swooning over it.  It could be over-the-top at times and things progressed really fast but I still thought it was sweet.  They definitely had their moments but I had higher expectations.

Do I recommend?: I do.  Even though I did have some issues with the book, I felt that the story, Lennie, her family, the poetry and its poignant heartfelt moments were so good that I could overlook them.  And the epilogue was super cute, so the author gets bonus points for that.

Happy reading!