The Sky Is Everywhere

“The first thing I notice is the sky, so full of blue and the kind of brilliant white clouds that make you ecstatic to have eyes. Nothing can go wrong under this sky...”

A big thank you to Maja and Lisa for hosting the contest which got me a copy of this book. (The good copy that is diary-esque, with all of Lennie's handwritten notes that she left all over town, and even a blue band to keep all the pages together.)

Despite the fact that I've had this book on my TBR list for quite some time, I'm not sure I would have ever picked it up if it wasn't staring me in the face on my bookshelf day after day. I'm not big on YA contemporary literature and even less big on books about death and dying. I love when my books make me happy, when they put a smile on my face, take me away from the monotonous day to day life we all live and ones that fill me with all sorts of book magic. Yes, this book is about loss, it's about death, and it's about grieving, but it's also about overcoming everything and realizing that the experience has transformed you. This one definitely had the book magic.

“... if you're someone who knows the worst thing can happen at any time, aren't you also someone who knows the best thing can happen at any time too?”

This one makes your heart hurt but somehow manages to make it feel good at the same time. Lennie and her sister Bailey were inseparable until she dies unexpectedly from an arrhythmia. The Sky is Everywhere chronicles the process of her grief and rediscovering who she is without her sister. The process was not simple and it didn't follow any sort of established pattern. Her grief was messy and chaotic and her actions failed to make any sort of logical sense to me at times but they never made logical sense to Lennie either. Losing her sister destroyed her completely but watching her piece herself back together was most inspiring.

'I try to fend off the oceanic sadness, but I can't. It's such a colossal effort not to be haunted by what's lost, but to be enchanted by what was.'

The one thing I have been unable to fully grasp is... this is a debut novel? Wow. Jandy Nelson's writing snuck up on me and hit me with lines that astounded. The vividness of which she was able to portray grief was terribly accurate and has left a huge impression on me. She is definitely an author that I will love to read more from.

'Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes part of you, step for step, breath for breath.' ( )

"I don’t know how the heart withstands it."
—Lennie

The first thing that hooked me up to this book was obviously its cover. The heart was striking against the blue sky, and I was just finished reading Twenty Boy Summer when I found this book, and I was in the mood for another sweet YA book, so this book totally made it to my TBR list.

The Sky is Everywhere told us about the life of Lennie Walker, as she coped up and lived every single day in ignorance when her only sister, Bailey, died from a sudden arrythmiac. Her life was just stopped the moment Bailey stopped breathing. And when a new Joe Fontaine moved to her town, suddenly her life's gear started to turn once again. They seemed to click with each other just perfect, a clarinetist Lennie and guitarist Joe. But when Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, came to her to seek solace and Lennie found herself became comfortable grieving and kissing with Toby, what would she do the her 'the-only-one' Joe Fontaine, and with her life that seemed to fly away more and more everyday?

The one thing that I really loved about this book was especially its strong voice and plot. I loved how Lennie was able to narrate this book with a real teenage's feeling and angst. It was not just another soulless monotone, but a real sentence with feeling and just like a personal diary. The plot was perfectly paced too, not to fast for this kind of story, but not too slow to be boring either. I also love Lennie's poems at every chapter's beginning. I think it was such an unique and perfect way to tell us about how her life was before Bailey was gone. It was true, sad, and full of feeling.

Lennie Walker, our main character, was well developed and it was very easy to sympathize with her. Her personality was very balanced, having a good traits as well as a fatal bad one, such as selfishness, and also believable.
Joe Fontaine, our other protagonist as well as Lennie's counterpart, was actually a bit flat. His personality was okay, witty, funny, and all that. But he didn't have any obvious flaw and his past was not too solid either. But I do love how he seemed to fit perfectly with Lennie's life without being too cheesy or seemed to be forced.
Bailey, Lennie's now-deceased older sister, was described in such a great was it was very easy to imagine how she was when she was still around. Her personality was very well-developed too, and I love how she would act impulsively but care for the people she loved as well and tried to do her best for them.
One character I found quite interesting was Toby, Bailey's boyfriend. I love how his grief seemed so real and believable, and I loved how he decided to cope up with it in such a realistic way. And beneath his dark demeanor, he actually had a kind heart, and it was portrayed nicely in this book.

One thing I'm not quite fond of this book was its secondary character, like Lennie's grandmother and uncle, and her best friend Sarah, or her love rival Rachel. It was,kt they were undeveloped and just flat, but rather not finished enough. Their concept actually seemed very interesting, but their personality was floating around with no solid uniqueness.

Overal, if you would like to read a sweet YA novel about teenage's life, love, overcoming grief and loss and change, and ultimately finding the new happiness in an unpredictable place, you should definitely try this one. ( )

Lyrical poems interspersed throughout beautifully crafted text. Lots of great imagery and metaphors, but things do get melodramatic and introspective which will appeal to some readers but not others. ( )

Couldn't really identify with it and was way too heavy when I was wanting something light, but it was really well-written, and there were some nice insights throughout. The self-deprecating, self-centered narrator/main character was really annoying, while all other characters were pretty great. At least she did seem to come around at the end. ( )

When seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker’s vibrant older sister Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is pulled out of her sleepy, safe world of books and band and into the center of her own grief. As she mourns Bailey, she also struggles to figure out what she feels for her sister’s boyfriend Toby as well as newcomer Joe Fontaine, whose musical prowess is even more pronounced than hers. Each boy helps her with her grief in different ways, but she can’t keep them both without risking everything.

Gentle readers, I feel that it is important to tell you that I loved this book so hard that it’s difficult for me to write about it. If I had read this book last year, it would have been on my top 5 list. It would have made every list. It’s that good.

Jandy Nelson’s debut is an honest exploration of grief and loss. The story of Lennie coming to terms with–and moving on from–Bailey’s death delves into what it’s like to suffer such a great loss. Nelson plays with the concept of no two people grieving the same way, and Lennie’s simultaneous guilt and excitement about her actions are spot-on. While some readers will struggle with Lennie’s actions, I found everything she did understandable and absolutely within the realm of possibility.

Nelson’s prose is absolutely gorgeous and often lyrical. The story is split up by scraps of paper that Lennie has written poetry on and stashed around her town, and these poems are both fascinating and beautiful. Many of Lennie’s memories of Bailey are explored through poetry, and it becomes clear very quickly that Lennie possesses more than one artistic talent. Her writing flows like the music she plays on her clarinet, and the reader can’t help but be entranced by each page.

Perhaps the edgiest aspect to Nelson’s book comes from the two very different relationships that Lennie enters into with Toby and Joe. Even though Toby and Lennie had very little interaction prior to her sister’s death, the two of them find solace in their shared grief over Bailey. Their relationship is fiercely, intensely physical, and the scenes between them seem to almost crackle on the page. The undercurrent of the sadness in both characters never goes away, though.

Lennie’s tentative relationship with Joe Fontaine provides the stark contrast to her relationship with Toby. Joe is drawn to Lennie, and she to him, and their mutual attraction to each other helps to illustrate the differences between both boys. Both boys provide an escape for Lennie, and she finds herself caught between them in a way that she can’t even articulate. Because Nelson is a gifted writer, both boys are multi-dimensional and flawed, each with their own distinct personalities. The one weakness present in this part of the story comes from the fact that Nelson could have explored Toby’s grief more than she does.

The Sky is Everywhere is an introspective look at grief and loss. Nelson is an absolutely skilled writer who has crafted a story that is both sensuous and heart-breaking. Highly, highly recommended. ( )