The Sky is Everywhere

The Sky is Everywhere
by Jandy Nelson

Genre: Young Adult
Published:  3/9/2010 by Brilliance Audio
Length:  7 hours, 14 minutes
Format: Audiobook

My rating:
2 out of 5 stars





The Sky is Everywhere is about Lennie Walker, a 17 year old girl who has just lost her sister Bailey.  As she deals with her grief, Lennie meets and falls in love with the new boy in school, Joe Fontaine, a fabulous musician who sweeps her off her feet and helps her forget her sorrow.  However, her relationship with Joe is complicated by the strange feelings of attraction she has for her (dead) sister's boyfriend Toby.

And so begins my problem with this novel.  I just could not buy into the two main points of the plot:  1) that Lennie could fall madly in love with Joe, who she really doesn't know at all, in just a couple of days time and 2) that Lennie would be attracted (and act on her attraction) to her dead sister's boyfriend.  I just found these plot points to be extremely annoying, and I really could not enjoy anything else in the novel.  I gave it 2 stars only because I did stay interested enough to finish, but just barely.

To expand on those points, I realize that this is a novel written for teenagers.  So as a 33 year old, I am definitely not the target audience.  So that could be my problem.  However, I have read many, many young adult books that I truly loved.  Just not this one.  The idea of Lennie "thinking" she is in head over heels in love with this boy Joe who she just met is probably realistic for many teenagers.  But the romance in the story had no build up; there was no explanation of how the two characters grew to know each other or how their love blossomed.  They just met and then suddenly they were in love, except that Lennie kept making out with her sister's boyfriend Toby as well.  Enter annoying plot point number two.  And I was just continually annoyed as I turned the pages.  

Reading other reviews, many people seemed to connect with these characters and this story. So maybe I am missing something in this book.  For me, it didn't feel real and I didn't feel a connection to anyone in the story.  Perhaps it was well written as many others have said?  I was too annoyed by the story to pay much attention to the writing!