Review: "The Sky is Everywhere"

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
5 out of 5 stars

This book. Wow. It was my last read for 2012 and I am so so glad. I'm just mad it took me so long to read it! I really didn't know anything about it, except that it was on everyone's Top 10 lists and there was lots of raving about it. I'm such a follower lol...but that's okay, because this book totally lived up to the hype! If you haven't read it yet, stop reading this review right now and go get it. Then, come back when you finish it. Go on, I'll be here waiting.

Okay, so there's this girl, Lennie, who is in high school and lives with her sister and grandmother and uncle. The girls' mother left them a long time ago but Gram says it's just because of her "wandering spirit". Gram is an old hippie herself, loves flowers and plants. Uncle Big is a pot-smoking, tree-hugging (literally) giant, romantic softie. Lennie is 17 years old, plays the clarinet, and feels like the companion pony to vivacious, popular, wonderful, big sister Bailey. Until Bailey dies suddenly and everything is flipped upside down. There are also these boys: Toby, Bailey's boyfriend, who seems to be the only one who knows and understands Lennie's grief. And Joe Fontaine. Joe with the mega-watt smile, the lovely eyelashes, the vivacity for life.

The heartache that pours out of these pages takes your breath away sometimes. Nelson's writing is magical. "Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving Bailey because I will never stop loving her. That's just how it is. Grief and love are conjoined, you don't get one without the other. All I can do is love her, and love the world, emulate her by living with daring and spirit and joy." Yes, this is a book about loss and death and despair. And Nelson does that honestly and beautifully. But, for me, it was also a story about hope and love and creating.

I don't know if this was an odd reaction to this book or not, but it made me want to create things. Anything...crafts, words, music, passion. I wrote my 2013 Resolutions right after finishing this and I think it shows. Joe's passion for music, Gram's love for her flowers, Lennie's little notes all around town, it all adds up to something big. I want to be that passionate about things, people, feelings.

"Or maybe she thinks other forms of nourishment are more important."

This isn't even a real review, is it? I hope it's gotten you interested anyway. <3