[Review] The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson

Title of Book: The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Publisher: Walker Books
Publication Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320

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 suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two boys. 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...

Lennie Walker has just lost her sister, Bailey. One day Bailey collapsed at school and she’s gone forever. Lenny was shocked, since Bailey is the closest family she had. While grieving, she found herself getting closer and closer to Toby, who is Bailey’s boyfriend. She feels a connection with him because both of them are experiencing the same kind of loss. At the same time, there’s a new boy in school, Joe Fontaine. He’s fun, talented, and has beautiful eyelashes. As Lennie’s drawn to Toby, at the same time she also feels attracted to Joe. In grieve; it turns out Lennie discovered love along the way.  

The Sky is Everywhere is Jandy Nelson’s debut novel. This isn’t my first Jandy Nelson’s book though. I’ve read her other book, I’ll Give You the Sun, and I love it. So I kind of had high expectation going into this book. To be honest, when I know that there’s a love triangle situation in this book, it puts me off a bit. But I read it anyway since I love I’ll Give You the Sun.

Unfortunately, I don’t like The Sky is Everywhere as much as I like I’ll Give You the Sun. I couldn’t relate to Lennie at all. Most of her actions don’t make sense to me. I feel that the way she rationalized her actions are unacceptable. For example, when she found out something sad about Bailey, she kissed Toby to console him. No, there are other ways you could comfort someone without involving kissing. I think Lennie is selfish. It’s almost like she thinks that the world revolve around her. She keeps on making bad decisions and use grieving as her excuse. Well she’s not the only one who lost Bailey. Her grandmother, her uncle, and Toby lost Bailey too. Granted, she comes to terms with it much later in the book. Still, it shouldn’t take you that long to realize that. 

At the same time, I want to believe that everyone grieves differently. Maybe that’s how Lennie does it, especially considering that Lennie and Bailey are close-knit. Their mother left them when they’re younger and they never know their father. So Lennie’s grieving process doesn’t appear too dramatic.

I like that Lennie wrote poems to help with the grieving process. The poems are simple, yet beautiful. I also like the details that she scattered the poems throughout the neighborhood. They seem genuine because the poems are often written spontaneously on various mediums that were available to her at the time.

The Sky is Everywhere is a good debut novel. I still prefer I’ll Give You the Sun though. But if you like reading contemporary young adult, this book could be a nice choice.