Author: Jandy Nelson
Publisher: Walker
Genre: Contemporary, romance
Published: 2010
Goodreads summary
Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and 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 center stage of her own life - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.
This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie's struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.
Publisher: Walker
This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie's struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.
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"What do you do when the worst thing that can happen actually happens?”
The Sky is Everywhere is a novel that explores grief. Specifically, Jandy Nelson explores the question of what comes after your worst case scenario? If the unimaginable happens, how do you move on with your life? How do you process that level of devastation? How do you deal with the guilt of having survived the un-survivable at all?
To this objective, I would say that Jandy Nelson proposes and explores this question in an incredibly lyrical manner. Her prose is melodic at times, and her understanding and exploration of grief is remarkable. Jandy Nelson knows grief.
"In photographs of us together,
she is always looking at the camera,
and I am always looking at her.”
The protagonist, Lennon 'Lennie' Walker has recently lost her best friend, and older sister, Bailey Walker under tragic and sudden circumstance. When we enter Lennie's story, she is still struggling to process what has happened. Lennie has taken to writing brief poems on snippets of whatever she can get her hands on and scattering them over town. Each chapter ends, and occasionally begins, with one of these poems, and the location of where it was found. I found this idea to be a fascinating and fresh approach and was interested in this novel primarily because of this proposed structure. A mix of prose and poetry?
Yes please. I was excited, and for the most part, this dynamic worked.
However, before we get to any chapters, there is a foreword by the author where she addresses us, the reader. In this brief letter, we are informed that the 'kookiest' elements of this story are all real, and immediately this jarred with me. I felt like this was a defensive statement to make before I had even engaged with the text. I also felt like it was unnecessary. I wanted to read a fictitious novel that explored real life issues, I did not want to read a novel that was the authors own personal wish fulfilment, and this foreword made me feel as though this was the case. It was only a minor point of contention, but it did irritate me.
“My grandmother thinks it's really funny to put all sorts of things in our - my lunch. I never know what'll be inside: e.e. cummings, flower petals, a handful of buttons. She seems to have lost sight of the original purpose of the brown bag." - Lennie
"Or maybe she thinks other forms of nourishment are more important." - Joe”
When we begin the novel we are introduced to Gram and Big - Lennie's eccentric grandmother and uncle, who are also her primary care givers. We are also introduce to her home (I can not recall if it has a name) that is slightly reminiscent of 300 Fox Way from The Raven Cycle, or The Burrow from The Harry Potter Series in that the home has almost as much personality as its occupants.
And I love me a good setting that acts as a character in and of itself.
From Grams paintings of every shade of green including the half-Mom, to her almost mystical rose garden; The sanctum and it's orange walls; Big and his tree climbing ways... I loved it.
The trouble was, it wasn't quite stitched together.
Where 300 Fox way and The Burrow come alive is that they exist because of their occupants. They come alive around their occupants. The larger than life characters that inhabit their walls fill their rooms, and I don't think that the characters in The Sky is Everywhere achieved this.
And the reason for this is Bailey Walker.
I understand that we mainly see Bailey through Lennie's perspective, and that she is not a reliable narrator, however, because of Lennie's idealisation of Bailey, her own characterisation is weakened. It is touched upon, but never fully explored that Lennie, although she feels terrible about it, has more room to be herself without her sister around.
Through Bailey's death, Lennie is reborn, and the problematic nature of this realisation to Lennie is just never fulfilled.
Lennie falls flat.
I think this is also slightly due to her character being a little too perfect, and just too many things rolled into one.
She plays a musical instrument exceptionally well, reads classic literature obsessively, is beautiful but has only ever had a few, brief, one dimensional interactions with guys, she gets along great with her Gram and Big, she never fought with her sister, she has a best friend Sarah (who we will get to later), and she hates a girl in her class for seemingly no other reason than they have things in common.
However, there is a small running joke within the novel relating to 'Fronce' which I found very funny.
Lennie's characterisation falls short to the point that she irritated me. I gave up caring about her character, which is always problematic for me, and I never found myself warming to her again. But hers was not my least favourite characterisation, this award goes to...
Joe Fontaine.
"When he plays
all the flowers swap colors
and years and decades and centuries
of rain pour back into the sky”
Joe is whimsical and musical, and joyous, and described often as being a bright beam of light, and I find nothing wrong with this. As unrealistic and idealised as he is, it's not this about his character that I disliked. In fact I was happy to see a male portrayed in YA as the whimsical, upbeat, romantic one in the partnership. My problem with Joe Fonataine is that he walks into Lennie's life, stalks her to her home when she rejects his request, enters her home every morning there after, which is totally normalised by everyone involved, and then obsesses over Lennie for the brief time it takes for them to fall in love.
Instant, over-whelming, obsessive, love that is not a true representation and is certainly not a healthy portrayal of love to be marketed at young adults.
I feel this is a recurrent issue throughout the novel. Jandy Nelson knows grief, and she knows how to write beautiful and lyrical prose, but she does not understand what it is like to be a teenager. Throughout the novel it is glaringly obvious that Nelson has forgotten what being a teenager is actually like and therefore her interpretation of the teenagers in this novel is frantic, overwhelming, and slightly off base. The impulsive nature of teenagers, and the all consuming nature of a teenagers first love does not, and never will, line up with depictions of insta-love and problematic romance that we see so often in Young Adult Novels. To me, Joe Fontaine was an unnecessary character and the novel would have been stronger if he had not made the cut.
Speaking of unnecessary characters: Sarah. Lennie and Sarah's friendship lacked any type of depth, and therefore I was not invested in the will-they-won't-they-regain-their-friendship aspect of their relationship. Sarah felt like every bad YA character trope rolled into one, and given Lennie's obsessive, consuming relationship with her sister, I felt like Sarah just had no place in the story.
And then there was Toby. Toby is the boyfriend of Bailey, and is as lost in his grief as Lennie is in hers. They connect in unexpected ways and through each other there is promise at the beginning of the novel to truly explore the nuances of their grief. Personally I loved the Toby element of this story. Again, his character was too many things rolled into one, a horse-riding skater boy who is so good looking you can barely look away, and yet his character had the most promise of adding value to the story. Unfortunately I feel as though this sub-plot was not explored correctly, and the ending was rushed through and chaotic. If this story was told without Joe Fontaine, and we were just given the story of Lennie dealing with her grief, with Toby and his grief thrown in I feel like this novel could have gone to greater places.
The writing itself was beautiful, the text contained some beautiful, tumblr worthy quotes, and there is a subplot concerning Lennie and Bailey's mother which is powerful and one of the strongest points of the novel.
“That's a misconception, Lennie. The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.”
I hear a lot of buzz about the authors latest novel, and I'll for sure check that out, because like I said, her writing is strong, I just found her characterisations and plot were too full on. Would I read this novel again? No - I'm certain I have gained all there is to gain from this novel. Would I recommend this novel to a friend? No - but I would follow the authors work as Jandy Nelson is developing an exceptional talent.
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