The Sky Inside

A fascinating book book for younger teens that careens back and forth between horrifying and hysterical as it looks at a Brave New Worldish future. A great deal of the joy is in the details, game shows where the contests are criminals who are terrified to lose, robo pets who change to whatever their owner wants, and adults who vote every morning on important issues such as what color drapes should hang in the oval office. But don't forget to vote - no one's sure what happens to less than perfect citizens. This book is not so frightening or difficult that younger readers can't enjoy it.

Young adult, but not as young adult as it looks.

The prologue is a great example of counter-productive prologues. It tries to get you interested in the story by showing what's at stake, but at this early point I have no reason to care about the characters who are suffering. Later on in the book, after the naive (understandably so; he's a kid) protagonist has sought and earned and found the knowledge of what's going on, we find ourselves confronted with the same situation, and this time we care.

The book (ignoring the prologue) starts out simply, the setting almost cliched, but there's enough nuance to it that it builds into something quite powerful. Often I can't believe in the inhabitants of dystopias, but these characters were all real show more people leading real lives within their limitations - and it wasn't only the main character resisting those limitations. The ending, too, is hopeful without being unrealistic. show less

Everyone lives in a domed suburb, watching TV, buying more goods, voting in meaningless elections - a thought provoking look into our future. Martin's sister Cassie is one of the Wonder Kids, a genetically engineered group that are shipped away as their thirst for knowledge and ceaseless questions are viewed as a threat. Descriptions of this future world were not always well crafted, but there are many points for discussion in the book.

Martin lives in a world that's contained in a dome. He doesn't know what's going outside, and mostly he doesn't care. And then one day his sister Cassie is taken away. Martin must venture out of his home, outside of the dome, in order to find out what happened. I enjoyed the book, though thought the resolution was kind of weird.

Honestly, I'm a bit torn on my opinion of The Sky Inside. While it was quite a page turner, I found myself feeling that it could have been better. The characters and ideas were intriguing and certain plot elements seemed perfectly done, but there were also parts that went too quickly to understand. As I neared the last twenty or so pages, I found myself wondering if it was supposed to have a sequel, b/c I didn't feel that the ending was even close to completion. As someone stated already, it seemed to end just before it should have.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the experience of The Sky Inside. It really does make you think about how we live our lives and how what we do will effect the future.

This book has a lot of elements of the other dystopia themed young adult fiction that we've seen recently (Hunger Games, The Maze Runner) but manages to be interesting enough to be worthwhile. In fact, I found it very interesting and was engrossed throughout. This book has one of the elements that the others missed... a dog! Even though I think it is intended to be YA fiction, it is dark enough that at times I felt as though it was more geared towards an adult audience. Fun and fast paced. Read it if you like sci-fi and dystopia and have a bent towards YA fiction.

Martin lives in a world of Stepfordian glory. All houses are the same, color coded and in neat little lines underneath a sky that is always blue. His neighborhood stays safe from Earth's noxious air by being always protected inside a dome. Every morning, the people in his community watch the TV to see their president and vote on important issues (the color of curtains) to help make his job easier. Babies literally arrive by stork and parents can select the model they want. School is... ok... school is the same, dull, monotonous, you get the picture. Martin is bored by this lifestyle and is constantly testing boundaries. Until one day his over-the-top smart sister is taken away. Then Marten decides he has to break through them altogether show more and risk going outside the safety of the dome-world he has always known. With his A.I. dog in tow, Martin becomes a fugitive in the hopes of rescuing his sister.

Eh. Anyone who reads my reviews (yeah, I know there aren't that many of you but still) knows how I feel about dystopia's. And series ones at that. But this one just really fell short for me. The premise is full of social commentary, which I don't mind at all as long as it's accompanied by an engrossing story. I felt like this book had a distinct lack of decent descriptions. Scenes move quickly in the beginning with little explanation of characters, their backgrounds, or their personalities. You never get a sense of who these people are. This was really frustrating because, especially when you are creating a dystopian society, yes some things can be vague, but the reader needs to be able to catch on and follow from there. Also, as you can tell from my review, this story was a little dull. It was the same kind of story you've read a hundred times with little to separate it from others of it's ilk. There were two moments I really loved about this book: The first is when Marten sees what it is really like outside for the first time ever. His glee is believable and engaging. The second is when Marten gets his first sunburn and thinks he is dying. Hilarious. Otherwise, a predictable book with a predictable segue into a (most likely) predictable sequal about bringing down the government and it's ridiculously controlling hierarchy. Not a terrible book. But nothing earth shattering here, either. show less