Book Review: The Sky is everywhere

The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Published: 2010

The Sky is Everywhere is a touching story of growing up and creating your identity whilst trying to adjust to life without your best friend, your sister, your rock.

Written by Jandy Nelson this atypical coming of age story follows Lennie and her family as they attempt to adjust and come to term with Bailey's sudden death and the strange emotions that follow as part of their grief.

Author Blurb:

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 sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies suddenly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, 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.

Written in an empathetic and sensitive style this gem of a book informs the reader in an understandable and sometimes humorous way that grief is OK and that although it is sad and my never completely go away there can be no way of predicting how and when it will affect an individual; Gram paints, Big tries to resurrect insects and falls in love (again), whilst Lennie withdraws from the world whilst simultaneously clinging (in a somewhat inappropriate way) to Bailey and the only other person whom she feels understands - Bailey's fiance.

Lennie also writes poems and notes. These cleverly inserted private snippets of Lennie's grieving process are what makes this, already highly special, book completely unique and unmissable. If you read this book on some kind of e-reader then you will be missing out!

***

I love this story and have a very strong feeling that it will stay with me for a long time, if not forever.

I was initially concerned and slightly confused by just how colourful and big the characters around Lennie seemed to be. I thought that it would make the story seem unrealistic and the characters unrelatable. However, I carried on reading and I am very glad that I did.

The characters and the style of writing sweep you along in a bittersweet whirl of sadness and humour with a healthy dose of laughter, tears (really), gasps and exclamations along the way. I couldn't put this book down.

When I had finished the book and began to think, as it is a book that makes you think, I realised that the eccentricity of certain characters was not the product of Nelson's imagination gone wild but rather, I think, careful thought and observation. All the characters possessed different characteristics and personalities, some clear to see and some more subtle. Every character had some part of them which was relatable to the reader. This clever use of character and plot development gave an insight into how grief and living work. Neither can be universally applied, they are both personal and unique. For me it felt a little like being presented with multiple jigsaw puzzles and only selected the pieces which I liked, these pieces, for you, will fit together perfectly creating a perfect image but for someone else to achieve the same effect they would take a different selection of puzzle pieces. That feeling, and that image of grief and yours is truly personal to you. No-one will see the picture exactly as you do.

This book is amazing, incredible, deep and light, happy and heartbreaking, funny and enlightening. The only thing this book isn't is not worth a read.

Rating: 5/5