Book Review: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

I'm going to start off in here with a review of a book I read in the beginning of 2012 and it's so far my best read this year. The book I'm talking about is The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson.


From Goodreads:

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.

My opinion:
 The Sky is Everywhere has many of the ingredients of a classic YA-novel, a love-triangle, a teenage girl struggling to find herself and an "evil" rival at school. So what made this book stand out for me? First off all it is beautifully written. It also contains a number of weird characters imposible not to like. For instance her giant of an uncle, who's quite the ladies-man and most of the time sits in a tree (!), the amazing Joe Fontaine, and the main character Lennie is also very realistic and complex.

The book mixes humour with sadness and soreness in a very successfull way. It combines more serious subjects as the grief of a sister and the abandonment of a mother with a beautiful an really cute story. It tells this story at times in a hilarious way (I saw the movie The Descendants just a week ago and this kind of storytelling is just my cup of tea.). Lenny is a bit melodramatic and the romance intense but in this particular book it really works for me. It's like all the emotions of the book are so strong that they come out of the book covers (it seems writing about this book makes me melodramatic;-). Though the book has some cliches, the weirdness and humour prevents it from getting to sentimental. In the beginning of it I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the writing but then I decided to just lean back and take it all in, and I didn't regret it for a second. Another thing I really liked about the book are all the little notes and poems Lennie writes on papercups, napkins, bathroom-walls, receipts and even on the soles of her shoes.

Goodreads says in the end of the synopsis that this book is perfect for fans of among others Francesca Lia Block. I have not read anything she's writtten but I have heard a lot about her. I know Mari was a bit sceptical about one of her books in this review, but I still think you should try this one though:-)

This book is so beautiful, and is both sad and funny. It has some really weird (in a good way) characters and is just bubbling with the emotions of a grief-stricken teenage girl in love. In case you didn't get it by now, I warn you; it's a very emotional read:-) 

Unfortunately I don't have the english copy available at the moment because there are so many quotes I would like to share with you. I'll be sure to share one with you later on Memorable Monday.

My rating of this book:

/ 

Source:

Review copy from the norwegian publisher Gyldendal in exchange for an honest review

Silje*