The Sky is Everywhere

by Jandy Nelson

[Jo]

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker 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 centre 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, with a nearly magical grin. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But the two can't collide without Lennie's world exploding... From Amazon UK

I don't know what to say about this book. It's beautiful. It's emotional. It's powerful. It's thought provoking. And it's now right up there with my favourites. I have a lot of favourites, simply because they are exciting or thrilling, but a few that touch me and effect me so deeply, I feel this overwhelming joy at being lucky enough to have read such a wonderful book, that such a treasure has fallen into my hands. The Sky is Everywhere is one of these books.

This book is chock full of emotion. To compare it to a rollercoaster ride, like I would normally do, wouldn't work for this book. It just seems silly to do so in light of the depth of feeling running through this book - it would be like comparing the heat of the sun to a radiator. As weird as this may sound, Lennie's grief over Bailey's death is beautiful; it's sharp, it's overwhelming, it's heavy, and it's endless. Lennie compares it to a building, but I'd compare it to the sea; it washes over her - and you - and drags her down, away from the surface, leaving her unable to breath.

Toby and Joe are her only life lines. What happens between her and each of the boys, how they effect her, her grief, become this confusing, wonderful, painful, disastrous, beautiful, chaotic part
of her life... all I can say is Nelson gets it spot on. It's messy, it's understandable, it's human, it's real.

I love the way Nelson writes. She has this way with words and gives her characters these ideas that made me stop and think, or just marvel. The sky begins at your feet, lonliness is like a day without birds, hearing souls in music. There is a part of this book I wanted to quote but can't as it's an ARC. Lennie was thinking about how everything Bailey knew, heard, learned, saw is now gone, the way and the things she thought. It really spoke to me; there are so many things I think, not important things, just random, silly things or opinions, or whatever, that I've never voiced, simply because the subject hasn't come up, and it made me think that perhaps no-one really knows me, and the need to just garble onn at people to make sure it's out there.

The poems Lennie wrote to deal wih her grief were just genius, and made her really relatable for me. I used to write poems as a teen when things weren't so great, I thought of it as therapy. Although I can't relate to her grief, I could relate Lennie's need to write poetry, and they were just great! Bailey dies before the book starts, and the poems are where we really see her, and Lennie's love just jumps out of them.

I have to mention Sarah, Lennie's best friend. There are a fair few moments of humour throughout the book, it's not all doom and gloom, and Sarah's use of animals instead of swearing are some of them. It's just too cool! I so want to go around saying holy horses, jumping giraffes and call people flying yellow ducks. Too funny.

I loved this book so much, I read it in a day. Seriously, you just have to read The Sky is Everywhere. Don't miss out on the beautiful that is contained in these pages. Don't deny yourself this piece of wonderful. You'll be doing yourself a disservice.

From