The Sky is Everywhere

by Jandy Nelson

[Joni Reads]

I won this book from a contest Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay and Where She Went, a while ago. It's signed by Jandy Nelson, which is incredibly cool. The book had been in my TBR list for a while and I was so excited that I won it. And it was amazing, let me tell you.
For some reason I seem to be drifting towards books where the main character has someone close to them die. Not sure why but I think that this is a storyline that can be done uniquely every time. This book is just tugs on the heart strings as the reader travels with Lennie through the months after her sister has died. She is trying to not fall apart and hold things together and finally she finds someone who she can share her grief with: Toby, her sister's boyfriend. Toby is just as grief-stricken as Lennie is and when she is with him she can just put down the walls she built around everyone else and just be exactly what she is: sad. But when Toby kisses her Lennie is filled with mixed emotions again. She feels as though she has betrayed her sister but st the same time, she isn't feeling anything at all when she is kissing Toby.
And then Lennie meets Joe, a new guy at school who doesn't know her as The Girl Whose Sister Died. With Joe, she has no reminders of her sister and can just go back to living an almost normal life.
The cast of characters of this book was so rich, I loved all of them. Lennie's grandmother was so lovable, I wish she was my grandma. And I wish I had an eccentric Uncle Big like Lennie has. Joe was the perfect guy and Toby was so beautifully heart broken. And then there is, of course, Lennie who has so many emotions she leaves scraps of poetry written on receipts, napkins, etc all over town in an attempt to pour her feelings out onto paper. A great read that I recommend to anyone who loves Contemporary YA.