The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

I picked up The Sky is Everywhere a few years ago because Jandy Nelson's second novel, I'll Give You the Sun, is one of my favorite young adult titles of all time. I was hoping that I would fall in love with this story the same way I fell in love with the other one. As a result, I started reading with my expectations sky-high. I bet you can already tell where this is going, but first, a summary.

The story follows Lennie Walker, a high school student living in Northern California with her older sister Bailey, her grandmother, and her uncle. At the beginning of the novel, it is revealed that Bailey has unexpectedly died from a heart condition. This death absolutely devastates the family and throws Lennie into a deep depression. The girls had an extremely close relationship and Lennie doesn't really know how to function without her sister in her life. She can't fathom a future in which Bailey isn't there.

Lennie tries processing her grief through writing scraps of poetry about her sister and leaving them in random places around town. These poems are sprinkled throughout the novel and help to develop the depth of her grief. This practice helps her a little, but she is still hurting inside and stuck in a kind of living purgatory. It feels sad and disrespectful to move on with her life when her sister can't do the same. In her despair and confusion, she begins a physical relationship with her sister's boyfriend Toby, who is just as lost and depressed as she is. Far from providing comfort to her, this relationship feels like a monstrous betrayal to the memory of her sister. However, she can't seem to control herself around Toby, and is unable to give him up. She believes he is the only one who understands what she is going through, and is thus drawn to him.

To further complicate matters, Lennie also develops feeling for a new boy at her school named Joe Fontaine. Joe never knew Bailey, so the times they spend together aren't plagued by memories of her sister. His companionship helps to alleviate some of the heavy feelings she is struggling with. The pair soon fall into a deep, storybook kind of love with each other, but Lennie can't bring herself to let go of Toby. Her continued secret liaisons with him threaten to disrupt the relationship she has with Joe.

Sadness, guilt, confusion, and love swirl around in Lennie's head all at once. When Joe finally catches her with Toby and breaks up with her, she must find a way to sort out her feelings and put things right again. Learning to live with her grief and apologize to those she has wronged will be difficult and perhaps impossible, but Lennie is realizing that she needs to try if she ever wants to move on and live the life her sister would have wanted for her.

This book was beautifully written and I did enjoy it, but I struggled a bit with how sad it was. Lennie's grief is a palpable force in this novel, and pages and pages are spent on her despair. It was difficult to read. I usually like sad books, but this one was hard for me. It might have been a little too much. I stopped several times while reading and remarked on how bleak it was. Anyone who has ever lost someone they were particularly close to will probably have difficulties making it through the text. I don't think its emotional elements were necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely put me in a sad mood while reading.

Lennie's relationship with Toby also made me uncomfortable. I accept that grief can make people do rash things sometimes, but I found it unlikely that Toby, who is around 20 years old, would think fooling around with his dead girlfriend's 16 or 17 year old sister was remotely okay. There was a difference in power and agency between the pair that felt wrong.

The overall message of the story and its ending, however, were wonderful. I liked how Lennie ultimately processed her grief and came to terms with Bailey's death. I wish there had been a bit more to the plot, but what was there was interesting and felt genuine. I probably would have rated this novel higher if I had read it before I'll Give You the Sun. I went into this with my expectations too high. Knowing what Nelson is capable of achieving made me like this story a little less. Regardless, The Sky is Everywhere is a solid read. Sad, but solid. I'll definitely be interested in reading more works by this author in the future.


Challenge Tally
TBR Challenge (previously owned): 58/60

Total Books Read in 2017: 73