The Sky is Everywhere By Jandy Nelson
"When he plays all the flowers swap colors and years and decades and centuries of rain pour back into the sky"
Rating
Pub. Date: March 2010
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Format: Hardcover, 275 pages Source: Bought
"Oh, God,’ he whispers, reaching his hand behind my neck and bringing my lips to his. ‘Let’s let the whole fucking world explode this time.’ And we do."
Synopsis - What's wrong with me? What kind of girl wants to kiss every boy at a funeral, wants to maul a guy in a tree after making out with her (dead) sisters boyfriend the previous night? Speaking of which, what kind of girl makes out with her sisters boyfriend at all?
"She will die over and over again for the rest of my life. Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving because I will never stop loving. 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."
My Thoughts - What kind of girl wants to kiss boys at her sister’s funeral, what kind of girl kisses her dead sister's boyfriend? I'll tell you. Lennie; Bailey's younger sister.
I've read some reviews on this novel, and I get that you can't understand why Toby and Lennie gravitated to each other, and no, to me it didn't feel as if it was all lust. They needed that; they needed those moments to feel whole. Through doing what they did they hoped to keep Bailey alive and tried to put her together again. I don't think I would have handled things how Lennie did, but then again we are all different and we are allowed to make mistakes; isn't it a part of life? It's such a hard read. I'm okay with feeling emotional mainly once in a book - perhaps rarely twice, but what the hell do you do when you’re an emotional mess throughout!?
Lennie has always been in Bailey's shadow, so when she dies all of a sudden - a part of her has faded. Lennie feels angry and betrayed. Bailey promised; she promised she would never leave her like their mother did! But there is no Bailey anymore, no one to share her grief. She's alone and lost, so what should she do? She can't bring herself to talk to Gram or her Uncle. She's loosing grip on the old her and now she can't stop thinking about Toby.
It's when she meets Joe does she begin to feel her old self again. He makes her feel like she is flying, he makes her feel beautiful and wanted. But she can't ignore Toby, she loves Joe, but right now she needs Toby; what should she do? There are also some well - hidden secrets that will bring the reader as well as Lennie to their knees, and make you want to sob your heart out.
This novel is so heart - wrenchingly beautiful that I was definitely not prepared to be moved how I was. There was so much depth to the characters that you felt like you new them inside out. This book as well as dealing with the death of a loved one deals with loosing a mother too.
Bailey and Lennie spend all their life figuring out where their mother might be; in a fancy restaurant, on a date with a good looking man, a celebrity, a star! They create so many situations and illusions because it is the only thing that keeps them going, the only way they manage their heart from breaking. There were times when I had to put the book down because it was just so hard to read on.
You really connect with Lennie. She is just such an amazing character. The kind of girl I would love for a friend. She reminded me of myself in her being a little restless and reckless. Maybe that's why I related to her so well. Although at times I was frustrated with Lennie because she went back and forth between the two, I was more annoyed though because I knew she was only going to hurt herself and the others in doing what she was doing.
Lennie has this thing, it's something that made me smile and sad - over and over again. She writes letters. They are not the kind of letters you keep safe though, they are spur of the moment thoughts jotted down and when they are written Lennie lets them go. She hides them in the most unusual places; behind a rock, in a bin, a cafe, the library, behind Bailey’s closet, in a book. She doesn't expect anyone in particular to find them; it's just a part of her. It's how she expresses herself and connects with her sister.
I found the whole concept of it so beautiful that it's hard to explain. I understood her actions as it's something that I would love to do when I'm feeling adventurous and spontaneous. Like Lennie I have this big-wild imagination that tends to get the better of me from time to time. It's what makes us so eerily alike. I understand her too well.
Joe is very likable. I wasn't sure about his feelings at first, but when it became obvious how much he was really into her I was glad. He's a lovely person who genuinely cares for her. He gives what they have his all and he is patient with her. Despite all this from the get-go my heart belonged to another.
Maybe I'm strange in the sense that apart from Lennie my other favourite character was Toby. In fact I fell in love with him. There is something about him which I can't exactly pin - point, but I was so hopelessly drawn to him. I don't know what I feel is right, but a part of me - however silly it may sound- wanted Lennie to be with Toby. Although I know Bailey may not want it - it felt right. I felt together they could heal, and maybe if not with someone else they could fall for each other. But that may not be the case, and I had to accept that.
Toby may just be one of my most favoured male characters EVER! With him it's not about looks, it's solely on personality. I just clicked with him. Maybe I'm the girl he's searching for eh? A girl can dream right? :D
There are so many books out there; books that touch us inspire us time and time again, but then there may be those very few that make you want to change as a person. Those that make you question everything. The sky is Everywhere is one of those. I absolutely devoured this book. I just finished Minder a few hours ago and snatched this up right away. I finished it literally in one sitting, and could not stop reading it! I was completely sucked in. To the point when I came close to the end I couldn't help but feel cheated. So that's it? I've become so attached to this story within hours, so immersed in Lennie' life and that's it? She gets the ending but what about me? I felt sad and angry because I wanted more. I wanted more answers and I wanted more of Lennie' life.
This is one of the things you have to accept when getting attached to a character - that all things have to come to an end, and as a reader you can only watch from afar because it's not your story.
I mentioned before how I wasn't too fond of the UK US
The one thing that I felt uneasy about was the unexplained things at the end. As readers we are so used to an happy ending, and in a way for most of us there will be an happy ending for Lennie' story, but for me something was missing. I wanted to know more about their mother and wanted her situation explained. I wanted something more for Toby - maybe because I did connect with him. It was hard to realise his thoughts at the end because it made what I wanted for him all along throughout the book unrealistic in a sense. I had gotten it all wrong, but I still wanted it for him. I guess I just wanted him to be happy. Lennie got her ending, but what about him?
There is no doubt that I have fallen in love with this book and fallen hard. My words as well as my first ever six star rating shows just that. I knew I was anticipating this book for so long with good reason, I knew it would blow me away. I just had this feeling. The Sky is Everywhere to put it bluntly is an amazing read. Cherish this book because you don't get many like it out there, and you definitely won't ever find another Toby or Lennie that's for sure!
Here is one of Lennie' letters =) (It nearly made me cry the first time I read it, it still makes me emotional.)
"There once was a girl who found herself dead.
She peered over the ledge of heaven
and saw that back on earth
her sister missed her too much,
was way too sad,
so she crossed some paths
that would not have crossed,
took some moments in her hand
shook them up
and spilled them like dice
over the living world.
It worked.
The boy with the guitar collided
with her sister.
"There you go, Len," she whispered. "The rest is up to you."
She peered over the ledge of heaven
and saw that back on earth
her sister missed her too much,
was way too sad,
so she crossed some paths
that would not have crossed,
took some moments in her hand
shook them up
and spilled them like dice
over the living world.
It worked.
The boy with the guitar collided
with her sister.
"There you go, Len," she whispered. "The rest is up to you."
(Found on a folded up flyer on the sidewalk, Main Street
"I know the expression love bloomed is metaphorical, but in my heart in this moment, there is one badass flower, captured in time-lapse photography, going from bud to wild radiant blossom in ten seconds flat."
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