TBR Jar Review: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

I really enjoyed this book, and it was actually a pleasant surprise since I haven’t had the best of luck with my TBR Jar reads lately (or ever). 

This book is about a young girl, Lennie, whose sister suddenly dies. She doesn’t really know how to cope and pushes everyone away until a new boy, Joe, turns up. They pretty much immediately fall for each other, but Lennie is not really making great life decisions and some of her not-so-great-ones come between them. This makes is sound like the entire book is about that relationship, but there is much more too it than that. We see how Lennie tries to deal with the grief of losing her sister and how this affects her relationships with pretty much everyone she knows. 

As I said I enjoyed this book, even though I found it a little melodramatic at times. Both plotwise and the writing style itself. Sentences like “we drank the rain from each other’s lips” (quoted from memory so probably not exactly what it says but something like that) makes me cringe a little. On the other hand it would be kind of boring if it just said “then we kissed in the rain”. So I can sort of forgive the dramatic writing style. As for the plot I thought that the issue with Joe was a bit overwrought. I kept thinking there must be something more to his story than what we eventually found it, but that was it. Of course, what happened is never a good thing or something that should be easily forgiven, but even I (a stubborn, unforgiving cynic) thought he took it a bit too far. 

I enjoyed pretty much all the characters, but probably Lennie and her family the most. I felt like we didn’t really get to know Joe too well, he was just the swoon-worthy new boy with “troubles of his own” (that, in my opinion, turned out to be not so big). The book is written from Lennie’s perspective so it makes sense that we know her and her family better, but still Joe seems very one-dimensional and the way the two instantly fall for each other smacks of insta-love. Which is never a good thing. But at least Joe is a good guy (from what little we know) and not like some of the other insta-love-YA-boyfriends that seem so popular. 

I gave this book 3 stars out of 5. Verging on 3,5 stars, but the hints of insta-love and the drama pull it down for me. 

The next book from my jar was not available from my library, so I put it back in, and digging deep, came up with “Immortal Beloved” by Cate Tiernan instead. That has been ordered, but I must say I have mixed feelings about it. I have enjoyed Tiernan’s writing in the past, but I feel like this book has mixed reviews. But I will soon find out, I guess.