Having received great reviews all around, and with several awards to its name, TSiE is one hot YA contemporary debut novel for 2010.
Title: The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Publication: March 9th 2010
Publisher: Walker Books (UK)
Review Copy: Hardcover, 1st edition (UK)
Pages: 362
Goodreads description:
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 Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s 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 can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.
My thoughts: The Sky is Everywhere is a beautiful & lyrical but completely different and somewhat contraversial YA novel. The "description" at the back cover (UK)... just disparage that, because I find that it was completely misleading. This novel is so much more than suddenly having the urge to "kiss all the boys at a funeral", or whatever it says. We discover that Lennie's sister Bailey has died, and of course, we don't know her, nor do we really care about her (or at least I didn't). It's rather the effect that Bailey's death has on Lennie, that makes Bailey such a crucial character in the story. Jandy Nelson equips Lennie with a sardonic tone of voice at the beginning of the novel, "My sister has died a thousand times over since this morning" (sorry, can't be bothered finding the real quotes). That tone of voice that we YA lit freaks have grown to love (or just grown accustomed to).
The book flows through Lennie's slow but steady "journey" towards acknowledgement and realisation of what she must learn to do: let go. The Sky is Everywhere touched me so deeply, I don't think I can really explain it, but in some moments I was crying buckets; others I was laughing or smiling... this book was unconventional, sweet but not cheesy, and for me, it was a book I needed to read slowly. I can't quite explain why that is.
Now, for the actual book, the cover is completely different to the book cover as presented here. The colours are less vibrant, which was a bit disappointing. However, the whole book is printed in BLUE ink!! I thought that was really neat, especially since I've never seen a book like that before. I've seen coloured pages, but never coloured text! And all throughout the book! I want to buy the US hardcover and make a comparison someday. I think those US vs. UK battles around the blogosphere are really interesting, and I love going through them.
