The Sky Is Everywhere

"Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try.
There's be no hell below us, above us only sky." -- John Lennon, 1971

John Lennon "Lennie" and her sister Bailey are inseparable. The girls depend on each other and their maternal grandmother as their natural mother abandoned them when they were toddlers. Their "Gram" always refers to the "restless gene" that their mother had and fears the girls might have inherited.

Bailey is flamboyant, daring, an eagle in flight. John Lennon ("Lennie") is more of a blackbird, brooding and intense. She is more likely to be seen in the shadows. Her corvine behavior includes scavenging scraps, in this case scraps of memories and items linked to her late sister. Like Paul McCartney's 1968 "Blackbird," she is learning to take her broken wings and learn to fly. Like the man for whom she was named, John Lennon ("Lennie,") is a musician, a clarinetist who years to make first chair. To do so, she has to unseat the popular, pompous "Rapunzel haired" Rachel Brazile, who speaks with an affected accent, such as when she pronounces "France" as "Fronce." She also adores the story of Cathy & Heathcliff and overidentifies with the star-crossed literary characters to a certain extent.

Bailey, too follows a literary muse. She dies of a heart condition while rehearsing for a part in "Romeo & Juliet." Lennie is devastated and feels that a part of her has died as well. To insure that she has left a mark in the world, Lennie leaves poignant poetry about her sister on scraps of paper, fast food cups and walls all over town so that Bailey will not be forgotten. Bailey's boyfriend Toby tries to pick up with Lennie where he left off with Bailey as he is traumatized by her loss. He is the dark side of the moon and another boy named Joe is the sun. Joe wants Lennie to shine like the sun. "We all shine on, like the moon, the stars and the sun." -- John Lennon, 1970 from "Instant Karma." He and Toby are almost obverse sides of each other. Lennie, on the other hand is like a comet, destined to crash and burn without intervention.

"And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before." -- John Lennon from "Help!", 1965

It is hard for Lennie to accept the fact that the world continued to progress although Bailey is no longer a part of it. Joe, the musician helps her to ground herself again with her music. John Lennon's songs are the soundtrack of this stellar book.

The Sky is Everywhere was a beautiful, emotional, and life altering read. I've heard Ms. Nelson's writing compared to some of my all time favorite authors and I knew they would be a tough act to follow- but she did, and better! The Sky is Everywhere is a powerful read that will have you turning pages even as tears are running down your cheeks or laughs erupting from your mouth in public. I was somehow eerie of starting this book, as I was worried about being disappointed- but the opposite occurred. I am in love with this book!

The Sky is Everywhere has a unique plot, that was definitely not cliche. Lennie did not just lose her sister, she lost her best friend, a piece of her heart and soul. Although the novel starts after Bailey's death, the reader can feel the connection the two sisters had and it makes me wish I had siblings! You could understand Lennie's feelings and emotions, even if you haven't experienced the pain she has. I couldn't really relate to Lennie, but I felt like I wanted to comfort her and be there for her when other's were not.

There were quite a few great characters in this novel that added to it's originality. Lennie lived with Gram and Big (her grandmother and Uncle) and these were two of my favorite characters. Gram was a strong character, but also needed support from Lennie. And while Big dealt with his emotions in a different way, he was part of the glue holding the Walker Family together. Lennie's best friend Sarah didn't have a huge role, but she added a lot to the scenes she was in. Unique, witty, and kind, Sarah wasn't afraid to be herself and helped Lennie to do the same. Now I can't not mention the two main guys in this novel- Toby and Joe. I loved them both, although Joe will always be my favorite. These two characters were so developed and in depth I felt like I would recognize them even if I just bumped into them on the street. Joe was just... beyond words. The love Joe had for Lennie shone off the pages.

The writing style was phenomenal. Nelson's writing is so beautiful and emotional I would reread passages over and over just to drink in the fabulousness. Her choice of words were perfect and although I've heard some readers say the writing just seemed sugar coated I loved it, and I know I would not give The Sky is Everywhere nearly as high a review if the writing was not what it was. The poems Lennie wrote were great, too. I loved how they tied together in the end.

I cannot begin to do justice to the amazing debut known as The Sky is Everywhere, but this is one book you need to run out and buy. Along with a box of tissues and pillow to lean on as you read through the night. Be prepared to cry, rant, laugh, and smile and fall in love with the characters and writing over and over again. I am anxiously awaiting Nelson's next novel!

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

My Thoughts: I had this book recommended to me by a few different people because they know I'm a huge YA romance fan, especially of Elizabeth Scott and Susane Colasanti, and this book is similar. I really enjoyed reading The Sky Is Everywhere. Doesn't the plot sound pretty amazing? We meet Lennie who is a band geek whose sister just died. No warning, no symptoms, it just happened one day. Lennie starts to get close to her sister's boyfriend and the new guy at school, so basically she is torn between them. We also get to read Lennie's poems throughout the book which just make the story more amazing. The girl's mom took off when they were young so they've lived with their grandmother their whole life. I really enjoyed reading this book. Yes, I admit I liked both guys. I could feel her pain and understand why she was so drawn to her sister's boyfriend Toby but I couldn't help but like Joe too. I do feel a little guilty though, a part of me wanted her to end up with the other guy (the one she does not end up with) but the other part of me wanted her to end up with the one she did. I was quite torn as well. I couldn't make up my mind on which guy was better for her. They both had their reasons as to why. The details we find out throughout the book only make it more amazing. There were so many little things that just made this story what it was. I agree, fans of Elizabeth Scott will devour this book. What happens to Lennie? What is the backline with her sister's death? What happens with Toby and Joe?

Overall: Really liked it a lot. I could feel Lennie's pain throughout the book and I can understand why she did the things she did.

Cover: Its cute. Artsy and makes you think a little.

Before reading, I had heard time and time again about how freaking amazing this book is. How it changed so many lives, made so many cry, touched so many people in a way that few books have. And though I didn't agree at first, I am totally head over heels about this debut now.

The characters may have been the best thing about this book. Scratch that, they were. Every single character is real in my mind. They aren't characters, in fact, they are people. I imagine each and everyone of them as real people. Lennie narrated the story perfectly. She was written in a way where she is constantly dealing with the loss of Bailey and it was done perfectly. I could totally connect, having lost a teenage friend recently.

I have a love-hate relationship with the writing style. At first I found it confusing and hard to get into, but then I realized the beauty of it. It is pure, raw emotion. It is as if Lennie is really telling you the whole story, not checking to make sure everything is perfect. For a debut, I am proud of Jandy Nelson for being able to accomplish this.

The story was so heartbreaking and emotional. It was hard for me to get into at first, but that was because my mind wasn't ready for something this heavy yet. I had just read something very light and fun and my reading mind had a hard time adjusting to the seriousness of this story. But the story was so true and unique, and I can totally relate.

The Sky Is Everywhere definitely lives up to the hype. Even though it is hard to get into at first, the amazing characters and unique writing style will have you craving more until the last page. And wanting even more after that. Definitely pick up this truly honest debut. You will not have any regrets.

This was another one of those books that everyone told me I had to read but I just never got to. Fortunately I won it in a giveaway and someone in my book club just happened to be raving about it the day it arrived in my mailbox. I did not think it would live up to the hype but it was an unbelievably moving story. Lennie's grief was so crippling that it was painful to read about and yet I was sucked into the maelstrom of feelings swirling around inside her and could not put the book down. After suffering the loss of the sister whom she thought had no secrets from her one surprising revelation after another come to light and leaves Lennie staggering wondering what other secrets her sister had been hiding.

Enter in Joe. It's funny he is described as having one of those smiles and presence that makes everyone around him smile and I found myself smiling and laughing despite the sorrow you feel for Lennie. I could feel the joy coming off the pages whenever he was around. I absolutely adored him and his brothers. I had a harder time processing and understanding Lennie's relationship with Toby. At first I couldn't understand what was driving the two of them together until I really tried to put myself into her shoes and imagine the depth of grief and craving for comfort she must be feeling.

This entire story was just amazing and touched my heart. It is one of the few books I have read and decided to add to my keeper shelf. Thanks to everyone who suggested I read this story and if you haven't definitely go check it out!

After a lifetime of being one half of the inseparable 'Walker Girls', Lennie is left lost and reeling when her older sister Bailey suddenly dies at the age of 19. We're introduced to Lennie on her first day back at school, one month after Bailey's death. What follows is a truly heart-warming and often heart-wrenching glimpse into the grieving process of a sister and family who have truly lost what matters most.

It took me a few chapters to really get into The Sky is Everywhere, but once I got used to the flow of the unique language and flowery dialogue, I was really blown away! As Lennie progresses trough the various stages of her grief, the reader is taken on this very emotional journey right along with her. Although I've never lost anyone close to me, Lennie's reactions to life without her closest confidant - while sometimes shocking - felt very true, and left me wondering how I would ever make it through such a tragedy. Almost every chapter opens with a sample of Lennie's writing, which gives the reader an intimate look at some of Lennie's pivotal thoughts and ties the story together beautifully.

The Sky is Everywhere is filled with a great cast of quirky, flawed, yet completely lovable characters. Each is completely unique, with their own voice and distinct personality, and all fill an important role in Lennie's life. Even though Lennie's family is a little kooky, I rarely found them so over-the-top as to be unbelievable, and it was clear that their actions always originated from the heart.

It's hard to imagine a story could be so fantastical and yet so realistic at the same time, but The Sky is Everywhere accomplishes just that. With its unique prose, focus on music and poetry, and collection of quirky characters juxtaposed against the heart-wrenching tale of a family dealing with grief, The Sky is Everywhere is an emotional journey that will leave you completely satisfied and yet wanting more.

Words cannot express how utterly beautiful this book was. I would need a guitar. A whole band. And a singer with the voice of an angel. And even then that wouldn't be enough. All of the animals and trees and flowers would have to join in. The sky would have to join in. That's how beautiful this book was. How fluid and graceful and marvelous this book was.

I don't know if I really need to say anything else because what it comes down to is this: this book was good!

Lennie was charming and witty and intelligent and creative and completely and utterly screwed up. Life had sent a lot of crap her way, and while I wouldn't say that she took it in stride, what we ended up with was a beautiful mess. Life sent her a curveball, and she batted back in that quirky, unique way that only teenagers have mastered (and that they promptly forget when they reach 20). She digs herself in deeper and deeper until the only thing left to do is come out.
And the reader gets to be with her there the whole way through, digging with her. Nelson has crafted one unique human being with beautiful relationships and heartbreaking and heartwarming moments. I can't decide if I like Lenny best with her grandmother, her dead sister, her dead sister's boyfriend Toby, or Joe. Because all of the relationships are just perfect for what they are.

I will stop now. I could keep raving and glowing about this book for a long time, but I don't want to take away from the experience of actually reading it. I feel like I've probably already brought your expectations up to high. Just know this: this book was great, and you should read it.

The Sky Is Everywhere was beyond extraordinary. I was completely drawn in and blown away. I didn't want to put it down to go to sleep but I wanted to stop so it wouldn't end. I absolutely loved Jandy Nelson's debut novel.

The writing in The Sky Is Everywhere was gorgeous. I would quote some of my favorite lines but there were just too many. This review would be pages long. As I was reading the book I sometimes had to stop to savor the writing. I can't do justice to it. You will have to read it for yourself.

Lennie was a great character but she was only on of many. I loved her, Gram, Big, Joe, Toby, Sarah, pretty much everybody. They were so unique and most of them were hilarious. I really felt like I connected with Lennie the most, though. She was so confused and she felt guilty for every small bit of happiness that she got. Gram, Big, and Toby were also sad but Lennie was completely torn apart. Joe and Sarah were great friends who did all they could to help her through it.

I don't want to give away anything about the book but I will say that it was a quick story. I tore through the book and the plot never once dragged. I don't think there was a single thing about The Sky Is Everywhere that disappointed me.

Overall, The Sky Is Everywhere is a new favorite for me. Jandy Nelson's debut is spectacular and it goes straight to the top of my recommendation list. I can't wait for more from this new author.

The Sky is Everywhere is a bittersweet view of how love and loss come together to shape one girl's life and how profoundly it affects the people around her.

Nelson's prose is beyond outstanding, I truly struggle how best to describe it's strength and beauty. Having rarely read a book so poetically written it was surprising to feel the emotion dripping off the page into my consciousness. I'm even more rarely moved by a book, I mean genuinely moved but The Sky is Everywhere touched me, it made me cry and gasp and thrum with anticipation. It was, in no small way a phenomenal read.

I could tell you all about this book -- about the beautiful poems and anecdotes Lennie writes and leaves behind everywhere she goes. About how she wrapped herself up in the memory of her sister through the boy that loved her as much as Lennie did. About how she came alive again with Joe, her soulmate in the making, through their shared love of music. About how her family had dysfunction galore even before Bailey left them behind. But really, my explaining it all would not only not do the story justice but would take something away from your experiencing it; and let me tell you this book was an experience, one to be felt and endured. You feel the highest of highs and the lowest of lows with Lennie as she journeys through one of the most difficult periods of her life.

To say I recommend this book would be an understatement. It is a book that everyone must read, lover of young adult literature or not. Everyone.

I was expecting a deeper read, not a plot point for a love triangle, which I happen to hate and will usually put a book down if I smell one coming.

I wanted to give this a determined try because I was desperate for a book discussion book, but this will not be it.

On a positive note the writing was good and I was intrigued by the characters but the plot was so overwhelming obvious. Bailey'a death was such an apparent device for the love triangle it was hard to get emotionally invested.

I liked Lennie. She was average and interesting enough to be center stage in this story, but since the two love interests so immediately orbit her sphere I felt disconnected from her turmoil to because the two options for guys took precedence.

I genuinely understood the connection between her and Toby. Death can bring out the most peculiar of behaviors. I wanted to like Joe but for me, personally, he was way too one dimnensional. I found the connection between Lennie and Toby more organic and relatable even though that wasn't suppose to be the case.

The way it ended was too convenient and neat to be real. My head could not wrap around the fact that Lennie and Toby could go from barely being able to be in the same room without wanting each other to yeah you're the little sister I never had. Huh? No way, sorry. Not buying it. I didn't care Joe was hurt because nothing about his character interested me. He was always happy, talking about music, immediately jealous of Toby, and not once overly sympathetic to what Lennie was facing.

Good writing but would not read again or recommend.

I got this book because it is going to be made into a movie in 2015, I was warned beforehand that it was a tear jerker. I felt like several times the scene was building up to be an emotional blast in the face but almost always fell short. It did keep you reading to the end, even though you knew how the happy ending would end. Overall it was a touching story of a girl who is dealing with the loss of her older sister while feeling guilty about having a first love, maintaining relationships with her grandmother, best friend, and her sister's boyfriend. It was a quick and easy read. I would have liked it to be a little more in-depth and evoke more emotion.

This book has a lot of hype so I was thrilled that I was finally able to get my hands on the it from the library. I was so excited that I started reading it as soon as I got home. However the beginning of the story did not match my excitement - it was slow and I had a tough time getting into it. Eventually it picked up, and the novel ended being a fine story, not great, but fine.
All the characters were likable, but I especially felt for Joe, the boy caught in the midst of Lennie's grief. Maybe it's because I am not a romantic teen anymore, but I thought Joe made the wrong decision in the end. However his decision tied the story up perfectly for the targeted audience.
The way the author told the story was beautiful. However, there were some shortcomings to the writing, in that it was at times too wordy. I thought to myself couple times "Just get to the point, already!"
In the end, I do not think the book was worth the hype. However, if the author puts out another book, I would give her another chance since her writing was pretty incredible.

Wow. Just wow. My heart is still aching. This book was so beautifully written, in such a poetic style. Maybe the poet in me couldn't help but love it. Reading The Sky Is Everywhere was either like drinking a cup of sunshine or swallowing shards of glass, depending on the scene, because it was both lovely and painful. What can you expect about a book focused around grieving and coming to terms with a loved one's death? I simply could not stop reading, as if I had no power over my eyes, and I finished this in a few hours last night. I can't believe how crushed I was when I finished, wishing I could start all over again fresh.

This book intermixed literature and poetry so well, the author made it look easy. As a Bronte fan, I loved how Lennie was obsessed with Wuthering Heights and read it again and again. All the classic literature, the music, and the scattered poetry added something so powerful to the story. I love when characters have a passion, whether it be writing or music or anything, because it makes them more 3-dimensional. And so many characters had passions, from music to writing to gardening to arboriculture to painting. I loved the addition of Lennie's poems between each chapter, written on to-go cups, napkins, or anything she could find. They were her way of exploring her sister's death. Then there was Gram, with her beautiful paintings all in green. And Uncle Big with his pyramids and exploding cakes. Toby with his horses and animals and Joe with his instruments. It was lovely how different people had different comforts.

The Walker family was wonderfully strange. Their quirks, beliefs, and secret rituals made them endlessly entertaining. I loved how the garden kept coming up, with its flowers and their supposedly secret influences. And it was touching to see how much her family loved Lennie, trying to protect her from her mother's absence. Even Bailey, absent from the book obviously, had secrets to reveal and a significant place in Lennie's memories. She was always present in someone's thoughts. I loved all the characters, from Gram to Uncle Big to Sarah, the goth-grunge-punk-hippie-rocker-emo-core-metal-freak-fashionista-brain-geek-boycrazy-hiphop-rastagirl, who was an awesome friend to Lennie. I love seeing close, meaningful friendships in books because usually the romance is only focused on. Then there was Toby and Joe who were complex, Toby such a shattered person and Joe such a wonderful but vulnerable guy.

I will be honest and say that I didn't always love Lennie. I sympathized with her pain and her grieving, but I didn't necessarily like how she mourned her sister. Some people might take drugs or participate in reckless behavior, but Lennie mourned by exploring her sexuality with two different guys. Hard-ons came up a lot in this book. And I don't mean came up as in conversation because they literally came up. Joe and Toby had to hide their hard-ons frequently. It was amusing. But while I hated how Lennie couldn't decide between the two gorgeous guys, I tried to understand how she was stuck between two choices. One guy was sharing her grief and was a memory of the past and Bailey, while the other was a chance for true love and happiness and a way to move on from Bailey. It was painful at times to read this book, but while I didn't agree with some of Lennie's decisions, I loved how the book came together and the story was devastatingly beautiful. Plus, the romance was too sweet.

So, I finally finished gushing about this book. I requested it from the library, but I can see myself eventually buying the book because I loved it that much! A new favorite!

The Sky Is Everywhere was a poignant, one minute tear-inducing, next minute hilarious, gem of a book. I read it at the very end of the year, and I'm glad I did because it turned out to be my favorite book of 2010. There was honestly nothing I disliked about it, and countless things that I loved.

The main character, Lennie, was instantly relatable and often unintentionally funny. It was great to get into her head and the author made it easy to understand her often unpredictable mood swings from happiness to guilt and sadness about her sister. I have a sister, and I could see a lot of us in Lennie and Bailey's relationship, so it was all the more tear jerking for me, when Lennie was thinking back to all the good (and not-so-good) times that her and Bailey shared.

Lennie's poems about Bailey were another thing that made this book stand out. They were sprinkled sporadically throughout the book as photos of the places the poems were `found'. When I was reading the poems, those were the times that I could feel myself getting choked up, as Lennie recounted her last words to Bailey, or how gut-wrenchingly lonely she was without her. The poetry was a highlight of the book and served well to set it apart from other YA books dealing with grief and loss.

Another aspect I loved was the effort the author went to, to create rich and distinctive supporting characters. How could you not love Gram with her kind heart and love of green paint, or Big, Lennie's pot smoking, love guru uncle? Then there was Sarah, the feminist best friend, who may not have always agree with Lennie's decisions, but always tried to understand them. And, of course, there was Joe.

Joe Fontaine was the new kid in town, who only knew Lennie post-Bailey. He was the dreamy love interest who made the sky burst open to allow Lennie to feel again. Their relationship never felt rushed, but natural, as Joe got to know Lennie by arriving at her house every morning, as a friend, for weeks before they became a couple. I also liked how Joe wasn't just there for Lennie, but he also became a life raft for Gram and Big, who were also lifted by his infectious smile and ever-positive attitude.

The Sky Is Everywhere continuously inspired me to just live, and I truly loved every aspect of the story. It is a book I can see myself coming back to over and over, just to re-immerse myself in these unforgettable characters lives.

"This, Lennie, is the color of extraordinary," Bailey said when the sisters painted their room "you'll need shades orange" instead of the "dozy blue" they'd had on the wall before. Lennie loved the blue, but the orange typifies Bailey's high wattage personality.

Lennie's the younger sister, raised by her older sister in her mom's absence. She's a band geek, gifted though stuck in second chair. She's always been second chair to her sister until Bailey's untimely death. Now, nearly sunk with grief, she doesn't know how to act without her sister's support.

Lennie's got to learn how to deal with a life that doesn't include her other half. She learns that Bailey kept secrets: she was going to marry her very handsome boyfriend and had not gotten to tell the family.

"Everyone in school sees clear to my bones," Lennie observes. So, she hides because there's no sister to duck behind. Yet, as time goes on and a new boy in band forces her interaction, she has to come out into the light.

The book's got an amazing voice. Strong emotions are depicted in an accessible manner. Anyone who's forced to deal with grief at any time of their lives can so relate to the pain and discovery in these words. Audio quality and narration are both excellent. Well worth reading for all ages.

Rebecca Kyle, June 2010

This is a hard review to write. I can't figure out what I want to say about this book. I'll start with I didn't expect much of it--which is weird, because so many people have talked about loving it. I picked up because my book bully extraordinaire kept preaching it. But it had a shaky start for me. It wasn't the writing--because that was beautiful--or the characters--because I liked Lennie from the beginning--it was something else. Something that I hate admitting in a book review. Liking this book, reading this book, was hard for me because really, honestly, didn't want to. But we've all learned those are the books that you end up falling for. This was no exception.

See, the problem is I don't handle grief well. Grief is one of those things that doesn't fit in a box. My life tries to be a box. I separate as many things as possible, to try to make life easier and organized. Grief always spills out. It spills out and overflows and seeps into all the other boxes. So instead of boxes, I trap grief in jars...and I never open the jars. I only pray they don't break. If they break then everything falls apart. I fall apart. I know this is probably not healthy but it's the way I was taught. Un-teaching takes a long time.

That's what SKY is about. It's about the way you can't do that! Lennie can't do that. She tries to act like everything is fine and amazing but really it's not. She's broken and cracked. She's lost someone she allowed her whole world to revolve around. That loss has changed her. It's changed everyone in her life. When her big sister Bailey dies, Lennie feels alone. She has no one now, no one who understands her loss. She copes the best way she can--leaving notes scattered across her life. Notes that act as memories and emotions she can't say out loud. The other thing she does is change absolutely nothing--not the dirty laundry, not Bailey's side of their orange room, not the pieces of hair that still sit in her sister's hairbrush. Lennie lives in it, lives around it, and she struggles.

She's not alone in that. She realizes it first with Toby--Bailey's boyfriend. The two of them share this connection to Bailey, this loneliness they both feel and draws them together. It makes them both feel better in their grief together. Then, suddenly, there's Joe. Joe is the boy who moves to town and opens Lennie's eyes. She's reluctant at first, unsure, but Joe tears down her walls and storms her life. He steals her heart and mends the broken pieces. But Lennie is still in too far, uncertain if she should grieve forever or move on. Uncertain of what that means. And from the first few pages of SKY, you know that when and if she figures everything out--it's going to be explosive.

Mid-reading, I got this tweet from my bully: "I identified a lot with Lennie...so was love from the start. She could be me in many ways." My response: "I get Lennie. I think she's that part of us that we keep in hiding."

I didn't really gather the full weight of that tweet until I finished the book. Lennie is all the emotions and feelings and thoughts that we can't say or have or feel. She's the leftovers from the pain. She's the one who's allowed to feel it and to live it and to attempt to hang on to the memories of everything when we try so desperately to move on from it. Even in that trying, we all want to hold on. We want to stay in an orange room, hair in the brush, things untouched. We want to act like someone's still alive, despite the huge void that's in our lives and hearts. Everyone tells us we can't do that--so we move on. Lennie doesn't. She doesn't have to, she can't and she doesn't know how. She's the part of us that we keep in hiding, the part that still mourns even years later.

That may be only my idea...no one else may ever see that from this book--but I did. I felt it. I wanted to be Lennie, even when she was going crazy from the pain and frustration. She made it all seem so doable, I can't explain it. I've dealt with loss and this book captured every moment of that for me and packaged it up in a way that I could understand it. Grief and life is a process and Nelson really explored that.

The whole book is Lennie's process. Her world. Her thoughts. Her loneliness & realizations & frustrations. It's her life after death. My favorite line from this book is at the end. It's the moment she realizes the point of everything and that maybe, just maybe, she can move on. She says this of life and death and truth: A whole bunch of stories, all going at once, in our heads, in our hearts, all getting in the way of each other. It's all a beautiful calamitous mess.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book. I feel like I had been a mini-reading slump lately but this book brought me out of it. It had a little bit of everything--humor, grief, sympathetic characters, and great writing.

First off, I loved the writing. I usually don't tend to like books that deviate from the norm when it comes to writing styles, but this book was a change for me. Almost every chapter started or ended with something that Lennie had written somewhere in town about what she was feeling. It was like reading part of her journal. And then just the way that the rest of the story was written and flowed was beautiful.

And the characters were great. You could really feel what Lennie was feeling. You felt her grief over losing her sister and her joy (and guilt) of falling in love. And the boys were great too. While I definitely loved Joe more (who wouldn't love a happy-go-lucky boy was crazy about you), but I loved Toby too and could tell how heartbroken he was and how in love he was with Bailey. And the side charaters of Gram and Sarah were great too. (Big was just a tad too weird for me though.)

This was a beautiful story and it will make you laugh and cry!

I started this book and I really really liked it. It reminded me of Elizabeth Scott and Sarah Dessen books.However, as I continued to read something started to bother me. Like how everyone fell into the cliched description and how the characters used tree as a euphemisms for mind? But then I just kept reading and Jany's writing is just so lyrical. She has a MFA in poetry and you can tell. There where poems written by Lenny and they where just beautiful. The poems where my favorite part of the book.

Unlike most people, I wasn't in love with ( I can't even remember his name) instead I completely fell for Lennie's sisters boyfriend, which is completely wrong I know. But the pain, Oh the pain, these characters felt. It just breaks your heart.Lennie doesn't know how to deal with it. Who would? And because of that she doesn't allow herself to move on and instead suffocates herself in sadness and Toby's arms.She doesn't know who she is without her sister.

This book takes you on Lennie's journey. Journey to love, to finding herself, and to finding happiness again without her sister there.

Gold Star Award Winner!

Lennie and Bailey are sisters, best friends, everything to each other. Their mother took off when they were just babies, which Gram has always attributed to the "restless gene" that runs in the family.

When Bailey, vivacious and fiery Bailey, dies of a heart arrhythmia while rehearsing for Romeo & Juliet, Lennie is utterly lost. Without Bailey's guidance, smothering affection, and her untameable spirit, Lennie doesn't know what to do. She has always stood at the sidelines, content to catch just a few rays of Bailey's endless radiance.

Though Lennie can't help but wallow in her grief, the rest of the world carries on, and ultimately, so must she. On her first day back to school she meets the most enchanting boy on earth - fabulously multi-talented musician, Joey Fontaine. Complicating the situation is Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, who turns to Lennie for comfort. In sharing their despair, seeds of attraction manifest and Lennie must struggle to sort through a tumult of emotions roaring inside her.

Forced to come out of her shell, Lennie starts to see how absolutely beautiful yet wondrously confusing life can be. In her contemplation of life and death, Lennie must completely reconsider what it means to truly live.

For the first time in her life, Lennie is all alone - center stage. Whether she is ready or not, it is time for her solo.

Jandy Nelson's debut novel is a heart-wrenching tale of love and forgiveness that will make you laugh and cry all in the same sentence. THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE ties themes of wanderlust, betrayal, and forgiveness in a love story more complex than most young adult authors dare to concoct.

Reviewed by: Amber Gibson

There are some books that I burn through, absorbing every word, drinking every thought, eyes glazed over as I'm completely soaked in the depth of a consuming story.

After reading Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere, it's really hard to not let out one really long sigh with a smile on your face as big as Joe Fontaine's.

Yep, I said it, in that totally lovey-dovey-swoony way that implies I was almost infatuated with this inanimate object wrapped in a really weird sunflare-kissed-cover-of-a-book.

It's as if Nelson has written a song instead of words. (OMG I am laying this cheese on thick) The little pieces of discovered prose between chapters are like bridges between these important moments of self-discovery for Lennie. She's been through a lot - the loss of a sister who she revered as her soul mate, her best friend, her captain, her security blanket, her everything.

The Sky is Everywhere is the beautiful story of a girl who learns how to breathe after the one she loves takes her last breath. Nelson writes a story that is infused with lyricism, humor, family, poetry, laughter, love, pain, hurt, and sorrow, and in turn hits all the right chords and plays all the right melodies at all the right moments like a seasoned maestro.

Bravo, Jandy Nelson.

I’m not going to spend too much time telling you about the plot because I just can’t go there. This review will consist of a lot of rambling as it is, because it’s hard for me to get any words out about The Sky is Everywhere.

There are very few books that I wish I could go back in time a re-read for the first time, books that leave me speechless, with my emotions scattered to the point that I can’t grasp just one, and with my heart pounding.

The Sky is Everywhere is one of those books.

It left me speechless.

My heart raced against my chest.

My palms were sweaty.

And when my mom asked if I liked it all I could do was nod.

I loved it. I loved every word, every sentence, and every page.

It was perfection.

This is a book that is beautiful, heartbreaking, and just oh so amazing.

This book is epic. Absolutely mind-blowing. This is the book that will break your heart and put it back together again.

The writing is beyond brilliant. It’s poetic. It sucks you in and doesn’t let go, not even for a minute.

I am jealous of everyone who hasn’t read The Sky is Everywhere because you have the chance to experience it for the first time with fresh eyes.

There will never be another book as great as this one. There just won’t be. It’s not possible.

Your emotions will be all over the place while reading The Sky is Everywhere. I was crying one minute and laughing the next. It’s powerful. It is raw and the characters are relatable.

The Sky is Everywhere is not your typical love story. It’s so much more than that.

It was vivid, heart shattering, and unputdownable. This is not a story that you will forget. I read it months ago and I still can’t get it out of my head. I constantly go back and re-read my favorite scenes.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves to read. Who loves to just for a while get lost in another world through pages and words, someone who likes to feel emotions when they read. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book that will leave tears in their eyes and happiness in their hearts. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a stunning, captivating, magical, heart-breaking story that they will never forget.

Thanks to The Fictionators & Fic Fare for hosting a wonderful Readalong on Twitter. Watch out for the #tsiereadalong hashtag to join in this and any future readalongs.

Beautiful story. The whole thing read like a giant poem, the words so musical and precious they wafted right through my heart. I loved everything about it. The characters's quirks, the poems, the references to the sky and the weather, the righting on everything, the pain and suffering. It was all so real and so relatable and just so fricken beautiful!

This was heartbreaking and amazing and bittersweet. The characters deal with grief and confusion and self-discovery and love. I honestly cannot do this review justice, it was that amazing.

I recommend this for everyone.

This is an incredibly crafted book - engaging, funny, heart-rending, quirky, delightful, and realistic. I was reading it on a plane flight and about 50 pages in, I put it down, turned to my husband, and said, "I am going to be so sad when I've finished this." The poems that begin each chapter are a brilliant touch - they give us more of Lennie's depth, artistry, and grief without slowing down the narrative. They are 100 percent authentically adolescent, by which I mean they are raw and unapologetic and brave. Lennie is surrounded by a cast of characters whom, if I tried to describe them, would come across and weird and exaggerated, but in her world (told through her lens), they are colorful but grounded. And the pivotal scene with her grandmother is so necessary and brilliantly crafted that it brought me to tears. Jandy Nelson's restraint - her ability to make us see through Lennie's grief-warped eyes - makes Lennie's growth in the novel all the more poignant.

I actually lent this book to a friend and then asked for it back the next day, just so I could study the craft of it more closely. You, too, will want to devour this book and also give it away, but you won't be able to part with it -- so do yourself a favor and buy two copies at the get-go. Seriously. Go do that. Now.

Working in a MS library I am rushing to read all of my newly purchased books before the start of the school year. I am very glad this was on my list!
Lennie a second chair clarinetist,(or John Lennon) has to deal with the loss of her older sister with whom she shared her Sanctum and revolving world with. From the funeral forward she does not know how to cope or talk about what she is feeling. She alienates her best friend and Gram (who has raised the girls since her daughter Paige left them years ago). In walks a new face, Joe, who is an amazing horn player among other instruments. He is as intrigued by Lennie as she is he. Toby the boyfriend of her dead sister Bailey also is a major force for Lennie right now....they both try to help each other heal and make some crazy choices while learning about their grief. Joe doesn't understand Lennies relationship with Toby and she has to break through her grief with his help to overcome her fears of life without her sister.
I found this to be a page turner, even as an adult that I did not want to put down. This book can teach us all a few things about grief and the effect of a loss of a loved on siblings.
I will highly recommend this to my students ready for the subject!

This book is not for me. I was on board for the first few pages, but I have a hard time getting into story where the main conflict is "do I choose this boy or that boy". I just can't sympathize with any character caught up in a dilemma of riches. Maybe this a thing girls go through, maybe it's a problem they like to read about. But it makes me want to smack them all in the face. Especially in this case, when the drama isn't even that good.

It has been three months since Lennie's sister died. Lennie always lived her life gladly in the shadow of her more exuberant sister, including vicarious romance with Toby, her sister's boyfriend. Now she's insecure about her feelings for Toby and the new hippie kid who just moved in and has "hella good hair" so he wants him to come on over and shake, shake, shake.

The sister thing reminded me a little bit of "Frozen", but that's the only part that appealed to me. Like others of its genre, the plot is driven forward by misunderstandings, refusals to listen, misinterpretations, and other petty obstacles that could be solved with thirty seconds of talking.

The style is full of trite teenspeak and quotations way beyond their years (Lennie constantly reads "Wuthering Heights" -- isn't that about a mentally abusive man who marries his beau's daughter? -- but oh precious she is that she reads something so adult). At one point, it's revealed that the sister was pregnant at the time of her death, but no one raises a hand about how they, as teenagers, expected to raise it, earn money, get a house. Everyone was too entranced by the tragic baby romance.

This is for people who un-ironically enjoy the romances you see in "Hannah Montana" and "The Bachelor". There are essentially no stakes, and the characters are too hippie-dippie to be realistic.

This book actually caught my attention from page one, I read a bit of the book and had to put it down for a few days, not necessarily because I wanted to but life interfered. So when I picked the book back up to read it I was shocked to find out that I remembered the characters and what was going on in the story. So the attachment to the characters were embedded into my brain from early on in the story. I know that in my own mind and many of my favorite bloggers out there, are addicted to having music as part of our daily lives. And I believe the reason I connected with this book is, that music played a huge and relevant part in this book.

The soft and beautiful relationship that started and blossomed in this book between Lennie and Joe was wonderful to watch, so many books rush the relationship. I loved Jandy's writing style and look forward to more of her writing. I would definitely recommend this book to people.

I wish I could write an amazing review, like some of the ones I read here, the ones that made me want to give this story a try. But all I can do is tell you how lyrically beautiful this story is, how endearing the characters are and how painfully real the world portrayed feels.

There is so much pain in this novel, but through that pain shines hope, little snippet messages to let the reader know beauty, tenderness and love still shine through the darkest moments. Lennie made me want to write poetry, scrawling agony and bittersweet joy on swatches of paper, cloth, and other forgettable mediums turned into treasure. I will forever scan the sidewalks, the banks of the river, even the trash, for proof of Lennie's existence. I want to find her poetry, I want to find her strength and love.

I am not a teen but found myself very much wrapped up in this story about a girl who loses the person closest to her, her 19-year-old sister. Having lost my own 19-year-old sister 14 years ago in a car accident, I could completely relate to Lennie's feelings of grief and felt that Nelson really did a great job of portraying those range of emotions one goes through.

Particularly, this quote stuck with me: "My sister 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 Bailey because I will never stop loving her."

It was very well written, the prose was lyrical at times, which fits since there is such a focus on music. I loved the relationships between Lennie and her grandma, Lennie and Joe, and Lennie and Bailey in her memory. The scattered notes around town was a neat inclusion that surprisingly enhanced the plot at the end of the book. I read this book in one day and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I don't mind grief books. I loved with a fiery passion, The Fault in Our Stars. This one rubbed me the wrong way, though. A month after Lennie's sister, Bailey, collapses and dies of a heart arrhythmia (this kind of hit close to home as my friend collapsed and died while we were at her birthday party at 15). I had sympathy for Lennie. I could empathize with the grief that was threatening to consume her. What I didn't understand was that she somehow came into her sexuality in the middle of this.

There are some really beautiful passages, poems, and moments in this book. I did enjoy some little snippets here and there and a few times I really felt with Lennie. I enjoyed the prose and how it came together in the end. That was probably my favorite part.

Lennie is torn between Toby, her sister's grieving boyfriend, and Joe, joyful new boy at school. I guess I can see that two grieving people might be drawn to each other, I do. I think I can understand Joe's draw to her like a lifeline beyond and outside of her sadness. I don't know that I agreed that she could be a hormonally charged teen after being so devastated. I think I get why she fell into Toby's arms with all their shared longing for Bailey and reaching out to each other because they were probably the two closest to Bailey. Their attraction, however is what annoyed me the most. I don't know that I think a teen suffering so great a loss would so quickly fall into real, deep LOVE with such a joyful person. Many who grieve are frustrated by those who can keep living in such a state of joy.

I didn't love the writing in this book. There were so many random elements that were never really developed. It was just so full of details or...things? that by the end I felt like the stuff that should have been special got overshadowed by the could-have-been-special-too things. It was just too much. I actually got to the middle of the book and thought it should have been over by then. It just drew out more than it should and frustrated me. I can only handle so much wishy washy in a book.
[...]

The Sky is Everywhere is realistic, humorous, touching, and heartbreaking.

When Lennie's sister Bailey dies, Lennie hardly knows what to do with herself. She can't seem to get a grasp of who she is without her sister. It's bad enough that her own mother has been off traipsing across the world since Lennie was a baby, but now she's only got Gram and Uncle Big. But then Lennie meets new-boy Joe, and reacquaints herself with Toby (Bailey's boyfriend), and things get complicated. Each guy does something different for her internally, mentally and physically. The emotions of this story are so realistic, and so intense. Lennie doesn't know how to deal with herself, and these guys aren't making it any easier on her. Both are gorgeous, both seem to adore her, but it's really only one that makes sense in the end.

The Sky is Everywhere is truly one of those novels that make me say "Wow". With a cast of characters that are very authentic, likable, and interesting, this is one story that can't be missed. It's a story that's easy to lose yourself in, and it's so easy to get caught up in the emotions between the characters. The Sky Is Everywhere has humor, grief, love, loss...and Nelson makes it all work.

Highlights: The emotions were very intense, and obvious to the reader. It's one of those stories that takes you on a ride. Nelson's writing flows very nicely, making this one an enjoyable novel. I also really enjoyed Lennie's thoughts and poems written on random objects and spread across town. It added just a bit something more to the story, and I found myself looking forward to reading each of them.

Lowlights: At times, I felt like Lennie's best friend really pulled the realism down a bit. She seemed to over-the-top, ridiculous...I don't know. I liked the girl, but I didn't really believe in her. Lennie also was, at first, a bit difficult for me to figure out and I wasn't quite sure if she was my type of narrator (and by that, I mean likable, easy to relate to). Plus, I really just wanted Lennie to pick one of the guys, already!

RATING: 4.5

I'm a sucker for teen books and I often don't know why. Sure I read all the Twilight books, but I know they suck. They're completely engrossing, but they are BAD. This book is AWESOME (just read the other reviews for the actual story). The characters, story line, and situations are realistic and you actually care what happens to all the characters. It's really sad though, which is fine for me because I love sad art (paintings, music, books, etc.), but it ends on a generally upbeat note (bittersweet, really). The characters aren't super immature even though they're young and when they are, it's not too annoying, like it can be in a lot of other teen books. I think I can count the number of books I would give 5 stars on one hand and this one definitely makes the list. Very good read.

This book wraps you in another kind of air, like music, like dance, like the first touch from a boy you've had a crush on forever.

It's a different kind of storytelling, of communication, so much more complete in transmission than you normally see in a novel. It's what poems strive for but usually fail at.

It is the capturing of the whole wild spirit of living, of the limitless nature of joy and pain and love and loss.

Somehow in just words, perfectly chosen, obliquely rendered words, Jandy Nelson shows you Life as it is in all its possibilities and its realities; its atrocious, irresistible beauty.

Book: The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Alright, so, the start of this book was very boring for me. I don't know. I just was not drawn in by the opening chapters of this book. I thought that this was going to be kind of depressing book, but all the main character does for the first forty or so pages is whine. I know that her sister is dead, but she is just such a weak character. I like characters who work through their struggles, not spend the first forty pages whining.
After the first forty pages or so, we move into our love triangle. What? How do we go from being depressed to having a love triangle. No clue! Granted, the main character still struggles with her sister's death, but, now, we have added a love triangle to the mix. Both guys are not very appealing to me, just saying. Usually in a book, there is at least one guy that I am drawn to, but not in this one.

This story just does not seem real to me. It seems like Lennie is living in some sort of dream that she just never seems to wake up from. There is just so much focus on so much unnecessary details and just little things that were not needed. This took away from the story and make it really weak when it could have been strong.

I do not feel Lennie's pain at all. Normally, stories like this I at least feel something for the main character and how they are suffering, but with her, I just get nothing. She is just too weak for my liking. I'm just not getting any emotion from the words. It seems like Jandy Nelson just woke up one day and decided that I'm going to try to write a depressing story. It seems like Nelson has never experienced any loss.

The characters were not written like they were seventeen. They only have a few passions and do not venture away from those passions. This in turn makes them very dry and very untouchable. To me, it seemed like they were not even real people. I do not like characters like that. I like characters who seem like normal people. It seems liked the author does not remember what is like to be a teenager and attempts to write the characters as if they are her age. This does not work because it is just simply not as rich as some of the adult fictions that I have read. I guess that the characters are just not the well rounded characters that I enjoy reading about. That's just my opinion.

What saved this book from getting a lower rating was the writing. (Plus, I really did enjoy the last seventy-five pages or so.) Jandy Nelson has a way with words, despite a lacking plot. Her writing is very haunting and very beautiful. It's not as good as John Green or Laurie Halse Anderson, but it's still good. Again, my problem is not such with the writing, but the characters and the plot. I think that with a few cleanups, this could be a good book.

The main character, Lennie, leaps off the pages. I found myself feeling emotions right along with her, which is a sign that this writer, Jandy Nelson, knew what she was doing. My heart broke over and over as I read this novel and I felt the shear happiness too. The love triangle in this novel is unlike any I've read before. Toby broke my heart, and the secret he and Bailey shared made it even worse. I could totally see why Lennie got involved with him. Joe on the other hand is absolutely swoon worthy. He says all the right things at the right times. When he gets angry once he discovers Lennie and Toby's kiss, he feels so real. He has the perfect (and realistic) reaction to catching your girlfriend with another guy.

So if you like contemporary romance novels, read this one ASAP!

Lennon "Lennie" Walker's world is shattered when Bailey, her older sister, best friend, and heart, dies at the young age of 19. Lost in a maelstrom of grief, she, her Gram, and her Uncle Big stumble through the ensuing weeks in a fog. Always the lesser star of the two sisters, Lennie doesn't know what to do with herself without her sister, by whom she was always defined. All she can do is write down bits of poetry on whatever scraps of paper or writing surface she can find, and fall into a tumultuous and grief-fueled relationship with Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, to her own horror and confusion.

And then Joe Fontaine comes into her life. Exuberant, joyful, positive Joe, half French and gorgeous, musical virtuoso. All of a sudden Lennie glimpses what it might feel like to be happy again. But will her reckless actions with Toby and her overwhelming sadness destroy the incredible love she and Joe could have?

This book has been bouncing around the blogosphere for some time now, so I decided to find out what all the fuss is about. And yes, it is excellently written, beautiful poetic prose with heartrending description and simile. I especially loved the poems Lennie writes and leaves wherever she thinks of the words she needs to release. That said, I found it slightly unbelievable that all of her thoughts are that graceful and elegant.

I think my biggest problem was that EVERYONE kept talking about this book's amazingness. I think I prepared myself to dislike it from the start because of all this hype (see Jamie's post on The Perpetual Page-Turner about the Hype Monster). It just didn't hit me like it did everyone else, though I was struck much more often toward the end by Lennie's pain than in the beginning. If this book does anything, it will most likely make you at least feel.

I was most struck by Lennie's observation that she will never stop mourning for her dead sister. She might lose a little bit of Bailey, but she will always love her and will therefore always grieve.

It is an exquisitely written book and I'm glad I read it. I just think I was prepared to not like it as much as everyone else.

Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker.

Since her older sister Bailey died at nineteen due to a problem with her heart, Lennie Walker has been at a complete loss. She's always had Bailey there with her, acting as the companion pony to her sister's racehorse. Still drowning in her grief, she is forced to stand on her own and live day-by-day when all she wants is her sister back. This is all happening at the same time as her sexual awakening and the trouble she has with two boys: new student and fellow musical talent Joe Fontaine and Toby Shaw, Bailey's boyfriend and the boy she seeks comfort in.

I have not seen characterization this strong and this wonderful for a while. For once, I felt like I could tell someone what the heroine's personality was if asked! Not only was Lennie a good heroine, she was a realistic one--she's not without her flaws, such as her insecurity and her selfishness in the wake of Bailey's death. Even Bailey, dead for the entirety of the story, had such great characterization and presence that she was alive in a way. This was the same for many of the characters, including Gram, Joe, and Uncle Big. The notes left in books, on branches, and on bathroom walls offer even more insight into the mind of this grief-addled girl.

Of all the times for Lennie to wake up and realize that boys are there and she likes them, it was horrible that it happened right after her sister's death. The overwhelming grief and new sexual desires tangle up inside of her, leading to more than a few problems (can we say Toby?). My word isn't because I have only lost two relatives (one died when I was too young to remember and the other... well, I had a hard time finding it in me to miss and mourn her because of what she did to my family), but The Sky is Everywhere is a stunning portrait of grief. No, not just of grief. Of the the internal struggle that happens when you're trying to move on with your life after someone's death and yet refuse to let them go because you're afraid they'll think badly of you from wherever they are. Everyone hurts, not just Lennie.

I admit, there isn't much of a solid plot to this book. That's why it took me a week to read it when I probably could have done it in three days: I didn't feel like there was anything to keep me reading. Sometime around page 180, something kicked in. Maybe it was that Lennie was forced to stand on her own after all the people she had been leaning on refused to hold her up anymore. Maybe it was that the hints of something more to everything finally got through my thick skull to my brain. Whatever it was, I sat in my chair for two hours and finished reading The Sky is Everywhere. You want plot? Go elsewhere. You want a character-driven novel? Here's your stop.

Despite its wonders, The Sky is Everywhere is not without flaw. My mortal nemesis good friend, the "love rival is a bitch" trope, made an appearance with the help of Rachel, the girl who holds first chair clarinet in Lennie's class. Did Rachel have any use in the story other than to make Lennie feel insecure and make her angst about whether or not Joe's involved with Rachel? Parts of this story, especially the beginning, were very telltelltell instead of showshowshow and constant telling is irritating, to say the least. There were also a few... interesting and unneeded references in there. We don't need to know that Gram doesn't drive, and that moment of "now I know why that king abdicated his throne for love, love is awesome" was a little overdramatic. Not so much bad as it was strange and out-of-nowhere.

Unless the reader lacks a heart, this book will most likely make someone cry at least once. Stories like this are not my typical fare (I prefer romance to remain a subplot, if it has to be there at all, and action), but The Sky is Everywhere was worth the time spent reading it. The novel is never about just grief or just love: it's always about both of them and how they affect everyone in the Walker family, not just Lennie. For once, there is good reason for all the praise this novel has garnered.

Wow, obviously I had heard great things about this book but even with all that, it was above my expectations. Lennie is dealing with the aftermath of losing her only sister. Her emotions are running wild as she thinks back at their times together and soon realizes she may not have known as much about her sister as she once thought. The only comfort is Bailey's boyfriend Toby. Lennie knows that Toby loved her sister so they soon start clinging to each other for support but soon the lines of comfort and affection get blurred.

Soon Lennie meets the new guy, Joe. Joe is gorgeous, talented, and smitten with Lennie from the start. He makes it his goal to help Lennie find one of her passions, music, again. They spend time together and soon Lennie starts to enjoy life a little at a time. Toby is still there, relying on Lennie and her affections and it puts her in an awkward situation.

The writing in this book is a perfect 10. With such a heavy topic I'll admit that I thought it would be depressing. Lennie was such a multi-dimensional character. Yes, she was sad over her sister but she was also so funny and smart. I was cracking up all throughout the book. Lennie definitely had a way with words. Plus her friend Sarah was the perfect side-kick. She was hilarious!

Then, of course, there's Joe. Joe is right up there with a great "dream guy". He's romantic, talented, and handsome. What more could a girl want? His personality was shining off the page and he helped Lennie see beyond her grief. I will admit that I really felt bad for Toby though. He seemed sincere in his feelings of loss and he was going through more than what Lennie originally realized.

Jandy's writing in this book was spot-on! She had the perfect level of descriptions, memories, characters, and dramatic moments to form this story. She gives us a glimpse of Lennie's own words in each chapter and it was a fascinating aspect of the story to follow. She leaves these bits of poetry scattered throughout her room, her school, and her town. Pieces of her left in random places, each attempting to explain her thoughts.

Her grandmother "Gram" and her uncle "Big" are very endearing in their own ways. Gram has been grieving in private, not only for Bailey, but for her daughter who left Lennie and Bailey all those years ago. I think everyone wants a grandmother like Gram.

The Sky is Everywhere is a book I will never forget. The blending of grief and adoration had my heart racing and my mind wondering if Lennie could dig through her pain in order to find happiness again. This book is a powerful read that I highly recommend.

I'm pretty sure I originally became aware of Jandy Nelson's debut novel THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE when my trusty fellow Team Gale-er Adele of Persnickety Snark reviewed it last month. As she frequently does, Adele made me want to read the book right away by stating,

"The Sky is Everywhere is an all encompassing study of grief, the strength of a sisterly bond, the power of attraction and love and ultimately the importance of being true to one's self."

I got a good vibe and immediately noted down the release date and put it on my TBR list. Then I was fortunate enough to win an ARC from the publisher in one of those awesome blink-and-you'll-miss-it Twitter giveaways. Thanks so much, Penguin tweeps! I blew through it in two short sessions and have been thinking about it on and off ever since.

Lennie Walker's life is a little unorthodox. Raised, along with her big sister Bailey, by her highly eccentric grandmother and uncle after her mother hit the road and didn't look back, Lennie's life has been pretty good all things considered. If a bit outside the box. Her grandmother tends a garden like unto the one in Eden, paints willowy green ladies on every available surface of their house, and believes one of her house plants is mystically linked to Lennie. When it sickens, Lennie sickens. When it thrives, she thrives. Her Uncle Big is the town lothario. Five failed marriages down and counting, he has a voice like God's, a marijuana habit, and a strange obsession with raising the dead. The insect dead, to be exact. But when Baily suddenly dies, Lennie's life is thrown off the tracks and she finds herself unable to cope without her larger-than-life sister's lead to follow. Bailey's boyfriend Toby is in a similar situation and the two of them find themselves drawn to each other for that new and unhappy bond they share. Even though they didn't really have much use for each other before. Bailey was the one thing they had in common and now they cling to each other as a means of not losing her completely. When she returns to school and band practice and her best friend Sarah, Lennie still fails to deal with life as it is now. And then Joe Fontaine comes into her life. Gorgeous, dorky, perpetually smiling Joe with his questions and his wanting to know. Why she climbs trees at lunchtime, why she plays the clarinet like a virtuoso yet determinedly sits second chair, and most of all why she's so sad.

Starting out I wasn't so sure. It's hard to get a grip on Lennie and her past right off the bat. And when things start escalating between her and Toby you do begin to wonder about this girl and whether or not she's going to fall all over herself throughout the novel and whether or not you'll be able to watch the train wreck. But then Jandy Nelson's lovely writing steps in and gracefully does away with your fears. And how could I not sympathize with a fellow clarinet player? I was the cliché band geek myself. And even though I got out before hitting high school (and marching band), I have always had a soft spot for my band geek clarinet girl counterparts in literature. That's part of why I enjoyed Lauren in Bloom so much. But Lennie's up against a whole mess of challenges I never faced. Like suddenly having the hots for my dead sister's boyfriend. And having him reciprocate in a seriously unhealthy way. But Nelson's almost rhythmic writing carries the reader through on a swirl of high notes and low and I sympathized with Lennie on so many levels by the time the song wound to a close. The zany characters and surprising humor sprinkled throughout the story played just the right counterpoint to the dirge of grief and regret that threaten to drown Lennie. With every fragment of memory she scrawled down on scraps of paper and the sides of coffee cups, my heart hurt for her. And with every encounter with the book's great lifesaver--Joe Fontaine--and her extremely likable grandmother and uncle, I wanted her to make it more. A favorite passage (one of many):

--

I find Gram, who is twirling around the living room with her sage wand like an overgrown fairy. I tell her that I'm sorry, but I don't feel well and need to go upstairs.
She stops mid-whirl. I know she senses trouble, but she says, "Okay, sweet pea." I apologize to everyone and say good night as nonchalantly as possible.
Joe follows me out of the room, and I decide it might be time to join a convent, just cloister up with the Sisters for awhile.
He touches my shoulder and I turn around to face him. "I hope what I said in the woods didn't freak you out or something . . . hope that's not why you're crashing . . ."
"No, no." His eyes are wide with worry. I add, "It made me pretty happy, actually." Which of course is true except for the slight problem that immediately after hearing his declaration, I made a date with my dead sister's boyfriend to do God knows what!
"Good." He brushes his thumb on my cheek, and again his tenderness startles me. "Because I'm going crazy, Lennie." Bat. Bat. Bat. And just like that, I'm going crazy too because I'm thinking Joe Fontaine is about to kiss me. Finally.
Forget the convent.
Let's get this out of the way: My previously nonexistent floozy-factor is blowing right off the charts.
"I didn't know you knew my name," I say.
"So much you don't know about me, Lennie." He smiles and takes his index finger and presses it to my lips, leaves it there until my heart lands on Jupiter: three seconds, then removes it, turns around, and heads back into the living room. Whoa--well, that was either the dorkiest or sexiest moment of my life, and I'm voting for sexy on account of my standing here dumbstruck and giddy, wondering if he did kiss me after all.
I am totally out of control.
I do not think this is how normal people mourn.

--

Geez, I love that last line. It's so pregnant with everything that's going on in that girl. A moving and delightful read and recommended for fans of Julia Hoban, Sonya Sones, and Lisa Ann Sandell.

A Note: THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE is been compared to Sarah Dessen's novels, but I've noticed several early reviews seem to indicate Dessen fans are not that enthused with the comparison. Whereas those of us who don't seem to connect with Dessen's work find Nelson's book both fresh and compelling. There are, of course, exceptions but I'm interested to see if this trend continues or if it's merely conjecture on my part.

Lennie's sister Bailey dies unexpectedly of arrhythmia. Lennie has always felt like she's been in Bailey's shadow. Now she's on her own, feeling plain and awkward. She vacillates between highs and lows, feeling guilty, conflicted and happy as she obsesses about sex, falls for Bailey's boyfriend Toby, and moons over handsome Joe Fontaine. Lennie's mother left her and Bailey years ago, and she's been raised by her grandmother and uncle. Her mother's absence and the search for her are turbulent issues she also has to consider in the face of her sister's death. The emotions in this novel are believable and the writing is gorgeous.

This is probably my favorite book. I've read it a number of times, and it just doesn't get old for me. I've honestly never been terribly fond of reading: I just have a hard time finding books that I thoroughly enjoy. For whatever reason, I'm completely enamored with The Sky is Everywhere.

Lennie is such a wonderful character. She has flaws, but they make her more realistic in my opinion. She struggles with her feelings after her sister's death the way any person would after the death of a loved one. Her life ISN'T black and white, and neither is her personality. In fact, none of the characters are perfect (not even Joe Fontaine, bat bat bat) - but they're all quirky and interesting. Through her words, the reader can imagine every single character Jandy Nelson has created - even the characters like Lennie's mother and Bailey who we never get to meet.

This book is seriously beautiful. You'll laugh and cry while reading it. It's a relaxing read, sure, but you still won't be able to put it down and will fall in love with Jandy Nelson's writing.

The first time I read this book was during the summer about 3 or 4 years ago when the book had first come out. I was totally mesmerized by the the title, because you know I was looking for a really good book to read, something that would mesmerize me, capture my heart, capture my soul, and man oh man this book did more than that. I've not only read it once, but twice, going into my third time sometime soon and I can't begin to explain how easy it is to repeatedly fall in love with the story and every single one of the characters. From the deceased sister Bailey, to the Lennie who I am crazily obsessed with, I feel like the characters were depicted by Nelson so wonderfully and beautifully. I felt every emotion, every single curve ball, EVERYTHING, along with every single character. I found myself laughing, getting butterflies, feeling anxious and even crying at some points. The words were woven and sown so carefully together. Jandy Nelson couldn't have done a better job. It's such a beautiful heart wrenching, heartfelt story. So beautiful.

The kisses in this book are incredible. Beautiful. Passionate. Emotional. And so are the characters. They are all unique and alive and struggling to communicate. The love story is dizzying and magnificent and a punch to the guts. ALL of the love stories - romantic and familial. I do not choke so often while reading, but there I was at the “backpack”, raw from swallowing all the feelings taking over my very existence.

I originally heard about this book on TH Mafi's blog, and it's through her that I even got to read it. She gushed about this book, and it made me want to read it. When she offered a chance to win it on twitter, I jumped for it. I had no clue I'd actually win it. When I did, I was beyond excited.

Guys...this is possibly the most beautiful, heartbreaking, joyous, poetic book I have ever read.

From the moment I started reading about Lennie, I was caught in this glistening web of emotions. This story explored grief and love, lies and siblinghood in ways that broke my heart even when it made me smile.

I honestly cannot recommend this book enough. The poetry that begins and ends each chapter is gloriously heartbreaking, and even though Lennie's sister is dead even before the book begins, she is threaded through every word of the story and you can't help but fall a little in love with her without even realizing it.

I fell for Big and his pyramids, Gram and her roses--her mermaid ladies and her guilt. I was, at first, a little weirded out by Joe's constant smile and his batting lashes, and then fell for how he saw Lennie. How he went looking for her in everything, his forgiveness and his understanding.

I fell for Toby's grief, and his love for Bailey. I admit to hating him a little for constantly showing up when things seemed to be going good for Lennie, but she would never have flown if he hadn't set things in motion.

I loved Sarah and her animal-cussing, goth-cowgirl ways. I loved that Lennie finally let her be a friend and realized that Sarah lost Bailey too. I loved how Lennie and Bailey would talk about their mom during the night.

I loved Lennie's heart. The light just pours out of this book like rain from the sky and drenches you in emotion.

It's gorgeous, and heartbreaking. The poems are little stories within the larger, and each one grips your heart--with velvet or iron, it matters not which. You'll love both equally.

Chapter Six begins with this and it gave me shivers:

There were once two sisters who shared the same room,
the same clothes,
the same thoughts at the same moment.
These two sisters did not have a mother
but they had each other.
The older sister walked ahead of the younger
so the younger one always knew where to go.
The older one took the younger to the river
where they floated on their backs
like dead men.
The older girl would say:
Dunk your head under a few inches
then open your eyes and look up at the sun
The younger girl:
I'll get water up my nose
The older:
C'mon, do it
and so the younger girl did it
and her whole world filled with light.
(c)Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

Buy this book. You will never regret it.

I have no money (my wallet has, like, two quarters inside.) and suddenly all these fantastically written books start popping up everywhere! And this is certainly no exception. The writing flowed like music off the pages, and the characters were so real, so good. I loved the dialogue, the confusion and guilt Lennie dealt with, loved how Lennie is a nickname for Lennon (as in John Lennon), the fact that they used music to mend their broken hearts. Oh and the guys... I wish everyone had a Joe Fontaine in their life. Or a Toby.
Yeah, they were really great.
I know the concept of this book is rather cliche, but it was still great nevertheless. Another thing I just loved were the little snippets of Lennie's life pervious to Bailey 's death. It was the first time I ever fell in love with a girl while reading. No sexual innuendo, or any hidden message laced in that. I mean I love her as you would love a sibling. As Lennie loved Bailey.
Overall I give this read five stars. Purchase the hardcover copy, rent it from your local library, break the law and steal it, I don't care! Just go read it sometime. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

P.s. I was kidding. Don't really steal a copy. In case that wasn't obvious, that is.

17-year old Lennie Walker is devastated when her older sister Bailey suddenly dies. Bailey had practically been Lennie's life and she had been content in her sister's shadow. Now in addition to the overwhelming grief she feels, Lennie's life becomes more complicated. She must find out who she really is and what and WHO she really likes.

I LOVED this book. I have not liked a teen novel this much since Sara Zarr's Story of a Girl and Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. Like them, this author gets the confusion around relationships and sex that many teens have trouble navigating. I highly recommend this book to older teens and adults.

Jandy Nelson is such an amazing author. Her writing is absolutely beautiful and so unique. This book is about grief from losing a sister. It was sad but also funny at times. It was beautiful and heart-breaking. I loved the characters and really fell in love with Lennie Walker. She has been through a lot and is dealing with the loss of her sister, she’s confused and ends up learning more about herself throughout the book. This book was an unexpected delight.

I had a hard time getting into this book and liking it. Overall it is a really well written story of Lennie working through her sorrow and heartbreak of losing her sister. It was interesting to see that Lennie would write random things about her sister on whatever she could find from scrap paper, wrappers to walls. Through the story Lennie had to learn things about Bailey that even though they had been close she didn't know before her death. Lennie also had to deal with the fact that she started to kind of feel something for her sister's boyfriend (which I didn't like or get) and she also had feelings for the new boy in town.
Through the story there were just some strange scenes. It actually started with one where you learn that her Grandmother compares her to a plant. If the plant is okay then Lennie is okay, if the plant is sick then something must be wrong with Lennie. What? Sometimes the scenes would make me scratch my head or roll my eyes. Another one Lennie and Joe (the new guy in town) are talking at this outside bedroom (one of those head scratchers) and they are talking about sex. She is still a virgin and he tells her that he wants to be the first for her. I don't know...I mean it is the tone he uses and the fact that they haven't known each other for very long and that she is still dealing with her feelings over her sister and not to mention her sister's boyfriend. Whatever. I just don't get it.
I can say that by the end I did kind of start to pull for Lennie and Joe after they had a little falling out. Also, I was kind of just ready for it to be over and for her to just deal with her feelings. It is an okay book that if I hadn't won from the publisher on twitter I would probably just go check out of the library first.

Lennie has always been the companion pony to her older sister Bailey's thoroughbred. So when Bailey dies suddenly, Lennie feels lost, shut up in a house of grief that she can't leave, and plagued by memories and thoughts of "What if..." that she can't escape. There are two guys who make her life a little bearable: Toby, her sister's boyfriend and one of the only ones who understands what she's going through, and Joe Fountaine, a musical genius new to town that is able to distract her from her intense grief. But both make her feel guilty about moving on with her life, and will force her to somehow reconcile with her grief and learn to live without Bailey.

Stunning, gorgeous, exquisite...those are only a few words that can be used to describe Jandy Nelson's debut YA novel. The Sky is Everywhere starts out in a quirky, poetic way that will delight and entertain. The themes of loss and grief are deep and explored thoroughly, as well as forgiveness, betrayal, wanderlust, and of course, love. The many eccentric and authentic characters cause this novel to stand out, along with the dreamy and almost magical setting of California in the summertime. Add the poems and conversations that Lennie writes and leaves all over town and the many references to such classics as Wuthering Heights, and you have a deep novel that illustrates just how wonderful and confusing and painful life can be. Though it seems as though The Sky is Everywhere should have a dramatic climax in which some surprising twist is revealed, it never happens, keeping the plot realistic and the further illustrating the slow change that Lennie has experienced since the death of her sister. The Sky is Everywhere is a quiet, moving novel full of searing grief, simmering romance, and the more subtle nuances of life and love.

Cover Comments: This cover is beautiful! It caught my eye the moment I saw it six months ago, hanging on a wall in an office--my first thought was, "Whoa!" and my second thought was, "I MUST read that!" I love the colors and how nothing is quite perfectly symmetrical. The refractions of the light are a nice little touch, and the font of the title is fantastic. This is one stand-out book!

This book is fantastic. It documents the heartbreaking grief that is so hard to articulate but Jandy Nelson shows the rawness and realness of loss. It's both poetic and fascinating and it's refreshing to find a YA novel that doesn't have romance as the main plot. The characters are goofy and wonderful and the story is heartfelt.

This is a book that I'd heard so many good things about. It seemed like everyone raved about it's awesomeness, but for some reason I wasn't able to fit it in until now. And WOW! I don't think any book has sent me on such highs and such lows. Such extremes of each. I would be crying one minute because it was so sad but before the tears dried I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face again!
This is a book that inspires note taking. I wasn't too far in and I was realizing I couldn't read the book without a pen and paper. And it's the first book EVER that I very nearly took notes IN the book. And I don't do that- write in books. But this book made me very tempted. Then I realized I was spending so much time taking notes and soaking in passages that it was taking me more then double time to read it. It was a book to be savored. To be read slowly and enjoy every. single. word. It took me three days to read. It's a book that would normally take me a day, but I really didn't rush it and just enjoyed it and wow, I really did savor every page.
Lennie is grieving the death of her sister. She's learning to cope without her and it's not easy. But how she feels, what she goes through every day and the things that go through her head (some are very weird) were real to me. I haven't lost a sibling, or even anyone that close to me. But I've lost friends, and I've gone through breakups and I have an idea of what grieving feels like. I think we all handle it differently, but I really really got Lennie. Even her weirdness (or what she thought was weird). And Lennie was funny. Very very funny. The things she thought, the things she said, so much of it was completely hilarious.
I loved Joe, loved, loved loved loved loved Joe. He was quirky, accepting, understanding... he was so much. Then there's Toby. I can't say I loved him, I didn't feel like we really got to know him. He was so deep into his grieving and he's naturally a quiet person, so I didn't connect with him as much as others. But I understood the feelings that Lennie and Toby both felt. I think that two people who lost someone they both loved more then anything else in the world are going to lean on eachother and sometimes it may not be in a conventional way.
Now the triangle in this book worked okay for me. I'm not a fan of triangles, but this love triangle had a reason, and I got it. At least I did in the first half. Then something went horribly wrong. And I was so so so FURIOUS at Lennie. I couldn't even read the book anymore. I would have thrown it but I restrained myself. I took a breather and then I went back. I was still furious. But I had to continue the story. And I'm so glad I did. Although that part made me angrier then I've probably ever been at a book it didn't ruin the story. I think that that was the only thing in the whole book I didn't quite get (at least at that point in the story) but I moved past it and since it's such an amazing story that I think is above and beyond 5 stars I'll still be giving it 5 stars, even with that bit that angered me. Anger in a book is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean any book that makes you feel that much can't possibly be bad.
Now Lennie, Joe and Toby aren't the only amazing characters in the book. Lennie's grandmother and her uncle Big are also amazing. They were so there, so larger then life and so full of life that they just took the book even a step higher. I don't know if I've ever seen such a crazy bunch of people. But crazy in a good way. I could devote a whole review just to them, they were utterly fascinating.
In the book Lennie writes on everything. She finds a cup thrown on the ground and she writes on it. She writes on the tree she decides to eat her lunch in, she writes on the bottom of her shoe, a receipt, a piece of paper on the ground... she even finger writes on her pants when she doesn't know what to say. It was poetry, it was pain, it was hurt, it was anger... it was beautiful.
I could write this review forever, I could add pages and pages of passages. But I won't because you just have to read it for yourself. So if you haven't, please do yourself a favor and get it now. And then, come and tell me about it because I hope everyone loves the beauty of this book as much as I did.

In The Sky Is Everywhere, Lennie is grieving the lost of a sister -- a sister who was also her best friend, and fifty percent of her identity. When Lennie develops feelings for her dead sister's fiance, it's shocking, yet utterly believable.

Everything about The Sky Is Everywhere is stunning. The prose; the quirky, vibrant characters; the scraps of poetry Lennie leaves in serendipitous places; the sheer, raw emotion. Says Lennie, "It's as if someone vacuumed up the horizon while we were looking the other way." That's the last line of the first chapter, and after I read it, I had to hold the book in my lap for a bit. Sometimes all it takes is a sentence to know you've got something special in front of you, and the rest of Jandy Nelson's book held up to that promise.

~review by YA Highway, yahighway (dot) com

I'm only 16 and I've read hundreds of books. Out of those hundreds of books, this is one that I would actually re-read. (And that's saying something because I've NEVER re-read a book. And there are only 3 that I've considered re-reading, this being one of them.) This book has so many twists, and I remember my jaw dropping and my heart breaking a couple of times. It's that good.

If you were skeptical about buying this book, don't be. JUST BUY IT. IT'S BRILLIANT.

I was immersed in Jandy Nelson's novel, The Sky is Everywhere through the moving plot and emotional word choice. The seventeen year old teenager, Lennie Walker, has lived her whole life in her older sister's shadow. She is a band geek who prefers to blend in with the crowd rather than to stand out. This changes when her sister unexpectedly dies and Lennie's life dramatically changes as she becomes the center of attention. As Lennie learns how to cope and struggle with her loss, she becomes the middle of a love triangle. Through each relationship and encounter, she finds her identity through music. This book mixes misery with humor along with the average American teenager's clichés that are more entertaining than distracting. Throughout the book, there are little poems and stories that Lennie has written with every event that has come her way. They specifically help explain her thoughts and feelings which help the reader relate and see from her eyes and heart. At first, the poems were a bit much because I wanted to read the story rather than more about her emotions but by the end, I had gone back and read the poems again. In the end, they all tied together and that is what made this book stand out. This is a good book for a young teenage girl or older because there are various themes and components any female can relate to from love, loss, or friendships.

This book deals with a very serious subject but in a rather light hearted way. Grief is the main topic. How you deal with grief. How others deal differently and how it can take over your life.
Like I said, it does deal with these topics in a light hearted way. I was surprised that Jandy Nelson could pull this off so well. Not many authors could.

The book is filled with quirky characters that you can't help but like. They keep the story from getting bogged down by grief and sadness.The characters were very well done. I felt for all of them. I grieved with them, laughed with them and healed with them.

All in all this was a fun quick read.

Dear Jandy,

If you're out there, I hope you can hear me.
If you're out there, I hope you get this.
If you're out there, I need you to know I think you're brilliant.

I read your book three days ago and I haven't stopped thinking about it. I can't get your words out of my head, I can't stop thinking about Gram, I can't wash the scent of lilacs from my skin and to be honest I don't really want to. What I want to do is run through the rain and meet Lennie for only a moment. I want to tell her she's imperfectly incredible. I want to tell her I wish we were friends, that I wish I knew her, that we can be sisters because I don't have a sister either. I want to tell her that everything is going to be okay, that Bailey is gone but death doesn't mean eternal unhappiness. I want to sit in her tree and listen to her play the clarinet and I want to punch Rachel in the nose. I want to eat ash with Big, I want to see Joe bat those lovely eyelashes and I want to hear him play guitar with John Lennon.

I want to smell Gram's roses for real.

I'm aching to sit in The Sanctum and lock myself in a closet with Lennie. I want to be the friend Sarah couldn't really be for her, I want to help Toby heal, I want to find my way to the bedroom in the middle of the forest and I want to paint my house orange.

I want to drink-in the stars you poured down from the sky.

I think your words are incredible. I thought your story was painfully beautiful. I laughed out loud and held back tears and swallowed the tangible emotions tumbling through your prose. I wanted to catch the words as they fell from your book. I wondered forever what it'd be like to vacuum up the horizon.

But after I finished the story I held it in my hands and wondered why I was so emotional and I realized then, I realized in that moment that I'd never again experience the thrill of meeting Lennie and Gram and Joe Fontaine and Big with his squirrel mustache for the first time and it broke my heart. I wanted to hide in Gram's pocket, I wanted to camp-out in the attic, I wanted to be the kind of human-being made entirely of letters, the kind of human-being crafted from words that would fit in the margins of your book.

Mostly, I wanted to say thank you.

Thank you for reminding me that one sentence can be just as beautiful as Joe's smile. Thank you for taking my breath away with the kind of love I haven't seen in so long, with the kind of ache I still feel in the pit of my stomach, with the kind of family so real I could reach out and touch them, each of them, hug them right around the middle.

Thank you for reminding me why writers are so important.

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE broke my heart and stitched it back together with guitar strings.

You are incredible in so many ways.

xoxo
Tahereh

I had heard good things about Jandy Nelson's THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE long before I read it, and it lived up to the good reviews and then some. I loved this story about a girl thrown into a firestorm of emotions and torn between two boys after the death of her sister. The audiobook held my attention through a long car ride (and I'm not usually a recorded book kind of person - my mind drifts). The combination of the narrator's voice and the amazing prose made it work. Highly recommended for high school students.

I adored the format of this book, particularly the additions to the story from the pictures at the start of chapters. It felt raw and honest throughout, although I'll admit that it left me with a few unanswered questions come the end...

Yep, I laughed and I cried, just like everyone said I would! I even found myself smiling while I read it at the gym!

This is a story about grief, love, and growing up. Lennie's character is simply adorable; she feels like an old, quirky friend. Nelson did a really good job of making the characters come alive. Everyone: Lennie, Gram, Big, Toby, Sarah, and Joe all were alive. Once I put the book down, I missed them. It's just.. a good book! Go read it! (I wanted to write a review earlier before I even finished the book, but my internet was super slow.)

For me this book was too much and too little at the same time, too much high and epic drama, too little love for the main character (or really anyone in the book except for the grieving boyfriend, Toby). It reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen but didn't make me smile the same way. I wanted to like it much more than I did, but I am glad I spent the time with this crazy family.

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson is an absolutely mesmerizing, remarkable story, beautifully written. Though a Young Adult novel, this book appeals to readers of all ages, because it dwells on the timeless themes of grief and love, and how the two interconnect. Through the voice of 17 year-old Lennie, Nelson dives deep into grief. She shows us how falling apart in grief mirrors falling apart in love: both the grief-stricken and the love-stricken have a madness about them, and can't resist surrendering to emotion. There is something so fresh and original and quirky about Lennie's character and the family that raised her, and it's impossible not to fall under their spell when reading The Sky is Elsewhere. Like the main character Lennie, book author Jandy Nelson is clearly a poet, in addition to being a young adult novelist. Nelson brings a poetic sensibility to every line on every page, leaving the reader with the feeling that there is a beauty in the world that even sorrow cannot dislodge.

I have to be honest. When I saw this book in the bookshop, I picked it up because I liked the cover. And I'm so glad I did. This book has been my favorite book for the last 5 years. I have cried, laughed and been so happy with this book in my hands. I love everything about this novel. Please give it a try. You won't be sorry.

I really can't express how much I loved this book. The language is poetic, just beautiful. There's a dreamy quality to the novel, not just the language, but the characters, too - Uncle Big reminds me of a muggle version of Hagrid, Gram tends to her garden that some say has magical powers. Lennie's poetry that starts every chapter helps the reader understand how she's truly feeling when there's no one she can talk to. She finds herself acting so differenly than the person she thought she was after her sister dies, which sets in motion the book's central tension: Lennie discovering the person she was meant to be. Nelson does a fantastic job creating unique and interesting characters, of creating Lennie's hippie forrest world of Northern California, of making the events and choices in this book believable. Can't wait to read her next work. This is a cut above much of the other YA books out there right now.

As a school librarian I had heard the buzz about Jandy Nelson's debut young adult novel, The Sky is Everywhere, and knew it would be a perfect companion for my road trip from Florida to New York. It did not disappoint me. I was so engaged that I completed the book by the time I reached North Carolina, our first stop. I loved Lennie and her emotional journey from younger sister to adulthood. The themes of loss of a loved one, sexual experimentation, and young love are dealt with delicately and need to be addressed in young adult literature. The beautiful writing is echoed in the poetry written by Lennie throughout the novel. In its heartfelt way we are lead to an understanding of this character and intensely feel her pain and confusion. This book is a must for the teen literature shelves. Share it with someone you love!

Oh yeah, I loved this book! It's not too often that I go back and reread sections of a novel, but I did with this one! So vivid, heartbreaking, lovely, romantic! And wow the creative storytelling through poems written on scraps of paper, trees, benches, napkins, paper cups . . . loved it! This is a novel that takes you in, holds you close, and takes you along page by page on an emotional roller coaster! Hop on, you'll love the ride!

My review title pretty much states it all. I wasn't very into the book about halfway through, until things between Lenny and Joe heated up...it's one of the best, cutest romances I've ever read. From then on, I couldn't stop reading!

The character growth in this book was splendid. And the writing! WOW. So poetic and just all-round beeeautiful. Jandy Nelson is a tremendously talented writer and I can't wait to read more from her...

All in all, heartbreaking yet inspiring read. Recommended to everyone :)

Since the death of her older sister Bailey, Lennie hasn't known what to do about her life. Everything just seems to blah now. Lennie barely enjoys the things she used to, like reading and playing her clarinet. She just feels like no one understands what she's going through. But when she reconnects with Toby and meets Joe. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend and is the only person Lennie feels she can completely relate to. Joe, a gorgeous and musically talented boy, has just moved into town, and his warm and infectious smile, when beaming on Lennie, always makes her feel better. But one thing leads to the next and Lennie finds herself struggling to balance the two boys in her life. Sooner or later, she'll have to choose between the one who comforts her in her grief or the other who makes her see all the goodness in the world.

There are a handful of words that could describe The Sky Is Everywhere, such as sweet, quirky, and uplifting, but unique is definitely not one of them. I don't think I could count how many times I've seen the storyline of sibling and/or best friend dies and the one left behind is stuck juggling a world full of grief and boys or any variation of that. It takes spectacular writing to make and overused storyline appealing at all, and I'm sorry to say debut author Nelson just doesn't have it. It seemed that Nelson was trying too hard at times to add flowery and unnecessary metaphors and language to make the lackluster story perhaps deeper, but it was never really tied in all that well. The only thing that really shone for me in this novel were the unusual characters, particularly the more minor ones like Big and Gram. Their funny strangeness almost made up for the unoriginal and sometimes just awkward plot in the rest of the book. Overall, I think The Sky Is Everywhere is a mildly instersting tale to read, but it's not one that really stands out in any significant way.

This novel may be enjoyed by fans of Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël, A Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell, Wish by Alexandra Bullen, and Lipstick Apology by Jennifer Jabaley.

This is a pretty short read however, it took me 5 days to get through because it just didn’t catch me. It was heartbreaking though because Lennie was dealing with a life that was new to her, a life without her sister who she was extremely close to. It was filled with raw emotion and the poems inside of the new chapters were the highlight of the book to me.

The tug of war that Lennie felt for Toby, Bailey’s boyfriend, seemed a bit odd to me. I know people deal with grief differently and all that but, you would think that since her sister was with him for so long it wouldn’t have even been a second thought not to make out with him. I understand though because they were trying to fill the void that they both felt for Bailey being gone.
The love with Joe was quick as well it seemed like and while it was a sweet love, they seemed really intense about it. I mean, they really didn’t know all that much about each other to have a love that strong, did they? It felt a bit forced. The whole book seemed really flat to me and like I said, the poems in the front of the chapters seemed to be what shined and brought most emotion out of me than the rest of the book.

I had high hopes for this book since tons of people raved about it but, I just couldn’t find the fabulous story that would make for an amazing book in it. I had a hard time getting through the book and kind of wished there was more history between Joe and her before they confessed their undying love to each other.

I was going to give this one a 3 but, by the last 10% of it I just couldn’t deal with it. It took me a whole day to get through 10% of the book! Sorry. Just not one for me!

I read this awesome book when it first came out and, after a recent re-read, decided it was about time I raved about it! This. Book. Rocks. Not going to give plot deets here, but know that the MC Lennie broke my heart with her authentic and beautifully conveyed grief over the loss of her sister, and that I was riveted to the love triangle in which Lennie finds herself in the months after the death. Brilliant!

This book is so beautiful, it hurts. It gripped my heart from the first page, and I willingly gripped back, embracing every heartache, every grief, every real and painful moment and every wonderful one. I loved that the author was not afraid to show how awful we can be, but neither was she afraid to show how silly and ridiculous we can be in our hopes, our dreams, and our desire to love. It's simply a flawless look at grief, forgiveness, love, family, and this messy, messy life.

Just fantastic! I read her second book first and had to get this one immediately. Don't let the reviews that try to break it all down and analyze her style lead you off course. Her "voice" is just amazing. Love it!

Although it wasn't as crazy, phenomenally awesome as I'll Give You the Sun, tSiE was still a great read and one I'd definitely recommend. Nelson has a real way with words and creates worlds and characters that are hard to leave behind.

The Sky Is Everywhere is undoubtedly a beautifully written book. Its emotional prose and the story itself will resonate with many (female) readers. You have grief here, the main character's journey to live with it, her inability to sort out her feeling for two guys - her dead sister's fiancee, who understands and shares her feelings perfectly, and a new boy in town, whose sheer presence makes her forget her pain. A generous amount of passion will entice many too. But for me it never quite worked.

It's not anything major, just small irritants here and there. The characters are a little too sophisticated for their age - too articulate, too obsessed with reading "Withering Heights," playing "La Vie En Rose" and being hip, emo and literate; the romance is a little too intense with proclamations of undying love and plans of "deflowering" 3 days into the relationship; the feelings that border on hysterical with the main character throwing herself into grief and lust with an unprecedented gusto; and finally, the story itself is just so excessively sensual, too wrapped up in lust and obsession for my taste.

I don't know, I guess it simply didn't feel completely real to me in the end. It's one of those YA books that make you think that the writer doesn't quite remember what being a teenager is like, how teens talk and think, and resorts to entering the genre because the story is not deep enough to be marketed as adult fiction.

I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this novel however, it is written well, but at the same time I can't recommend it either.

This book is unlike any other. It will rip your heart out and make you feel hopeful at the same time. As a reader I don't typically relate with characters but this book is different. If you have ever lost somebody close to you, you will be able to relate to this novel. It's a story full of sorrow and learning that it's okay to be happy again. I recommend this book not only as an avid reader but as a teacher.

I thought this would've been some random casual read, but it was kind of better than anticipated. It's about a girl trying to deal with the grief of losing her sister - and she makes some mistakes, but everything falls together in the end. You see, just because something falls apart doesn't mean nothing will ever fall together again. It's very sweet, the love that's in here. Great light read.

I have read this book so many times. It's beautifully written and illustrates the unrelenting grief that comes with the loss of a loved one. But it also shows hope that within the chaos you can still find love. This book is filled with so many heartbreaking descriptions that will make you reach out to Lennie. I recommend this to anyone who likes dramatic and sad books.

It took a while for me to get used to Jandy Nelson's poetic writing style, but after I just gave into the lusciousness of the prose and the story, I loved the ride. In the Sky is Everywhere, we follow Lenny Walker on her journey through grief over her sister Bailey's death and the mother who never stayed to her grow up. As Lenny slowly transitions from obsessing about the past to feel close to her sister, she gets in touch with her own beauty and passion and embraces love and the full force of her musical talents. This is a wonderful book and I am happy to recommend it to anyone. It really is magical.

I loved this book. I thought it was both beautiful and sad, charming and funny. A poignant and bittersweet look at grief and love. As a young adult myself I found the main character, Lennie, very relatable; all of a sudden, her sister is gone and Lennie can no longer live in her shadow. Like Lennie, I have experienced grief; the author perfectly describes the utter hopelessness and confusion that a mourner endures: "I want my sister. I want to hurl a building at God." The author also illustrates the confusion of falling in love and the sudden awareness of the opposite sex, as Lennie feels herself caught between Toby, her sister's boyfriend, and Joe, the new boy and brilliant musician. Quiet Toby comforts her in her grief, understanding in their shared loss while happy Joe distracts and delights her out of this constant and overwhelming sadness. Each character seemed unique, without any flatness to them at all. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I have immediately added it to my favorites list!

The Sky is Everywhere is marvelous. Great authentic voice, unique but believable characters and extremely well-written. Because the voice of Lennie, the main character is so good, it translates particularly well to the audio format. While it is the quality of the writing not the quality of the audio narration that makes this so special, it it definitely worth your time.

I can easily say this book is one of my top ten favorite YA books OF ALL TIME! Yes, it's that good. (Or maybe it reflects my own personal taste). Either way, this delicious romantic drama made me salivate one second and cry the next. Its a book that I'm ready to read again, and I only finished it a few weeks ago.

When seventeen-year-old Lennie's older sister dies unexpectedly, she finds herself unraveling. Caught in a love triangle between the sexy new guy and her dead sister's boyfriend (yikes!) Lennie is wrought with guilt, sexual tension, and doesn't know what to do with the big hole in her heart. Filled with poetry and gorgeous prose, this book will take you on a journey of redemption that will cause you to open up and understand why the sky is everywhere.

I really enjoyed this book! I wanted to read it before I let my 13 YO daughter read it, and I'm glad it did. While it was too mature for a 13 year old, it wasn't too juvenile for her mother. I really enjoyed the book, and was hooked from page 1. I sat down and read it all in an afternoon. It was funny enough to make me laugh out loud, and sad enough to make me shed a tear or two. Highly recommend, looking forward to the next book from this author.

I love love loved this book. There are not enough stars that I could give it. You're rooting for Joey, relating to Toby, and both crying and laughing with Lennie. The short poems scattered throughout the book that Lennie leaves for Bailey around town are beautiful and touching. You'll want to mark those pages so you can go back are re-read them multiple times. The ending is so good I was smiling like a fool in the middle of the park. If you read any book this year, read this one. You won't be disappointed.

PS- Cannot wait for Jandy Nelson's next book. I'm sure it'll be just as good!

This book was great. The author has a way of making you feel what the characters are feeling. I loved the way the main character expressed her feelings with her writing and the way she wrote to her sister. Heartwrenching but realistic in the grieving process.

I read this book quite a while ago and it still remains one of my favorite books. The poetic elements make you really connect with what Lennie was feeling and how close she was with her sister. This book tackles a hard subject (grief) in a tasteful way, without overdoing it. The plot line is unique and throughout the story I felt myself really connecting with Lennie. It's a great book that really touches your heart and will reveals so many emotions. Read it and see for yourself! Well done Jandy Nelson, props to you for such a well written and touching story.

SO, SO, SO GOOD!!! Straight to a spot on my favorites shelf. What a beautifully written book. I loved every page of this story. I also now have a huge crush on Joe...
(I read this book from the library)

Usually I don't read books that are less than 300 pages, just because I read them too fast. But I was in a reading drought and this book description I was interested. And I'm elated that I made an exception for this book. I loved it. The characters were easy to relate to and even though there was a lot of grieving involved there were happier moments. **slight spoiler** I especially loved how she creeped herself out by making out with a spoon. I would definitely recommend this book to a friend, or anyone who loves to read really.

I don't give 5 stars unless it is really good and I would definitely read it again. Great story even if it was rather predictable. Love a happy ending. The writing style got me hooked on the very first page.

this book is WHY I read. To feel things with such intensity that it hard to believe they are fiction. This novel is beautiful, haunting and heartbreaking. I loved every single sentence of it. Amazing!

This is a sexy, funny, poignant novel that was impossible to put down. It's a rollicking story of mad first love and profound grief cast with vibrant jump off the page characters that become very important to you. The language is just beautiful. The poems throughout the story are lovely and deeply moving. I laughed and cried and was totally engrossed from beginning to end. I just loved this book! I hope Jandy Nelson writes a new novel very soon!

This was such a great book. I absolutely loved it! It's a very real look into the daily life of dealing with grief. Yes, Gram and Big are some interesting characters but the feelings are real. I can't stop Crying!

Anything I write here will not do this book justice. It's such a beautiful, honest portrayal of love and loss. I can't stop thinking about this book, crying over the pages or reading the little notes at the beginning of the chapters.

The writing came alive, like a beating heart made of words. I was there, I felt every wretched, wonderful feeling all the characters felt. I can't recommend this book enough.

If I could give it ten stars, I would.

Sometimes, you have to admit that you just didn't like a book and just didn't quite understand the hype surrounding it. Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere -- her debut novel that will hit shelves in March -- fell flat for me and forced me to do a lot of thinking about whether or not the publisher is missing the target audience on this one. Dial is pouring a ton of money into developing a huge buzz over this one through blogs, early and wide ARC distribution, a print and radio campaign, and banner displays galore.

The Sky is Everywhere tells Lennie's story: Lennie's sister Bailey died suddenly. She and Bailey were very close, in part due to the fact their mother disappeared from their lives at a young age, and they were sent to live with their grandmother and uncle.

Sharing in Lennie's family loss is Toby, Bailey's former boyfriend. As the story progresses, we come to learn that Toby and Bailey were not only engaged, but they were expecting a baby. At the same time, Joe steps into Lennie's life; he's a cute boy that Lennie's best friend thinks that Lennie definitely needs to go for. But as Lennie and Toby spend more time together, their relationship seems to evolve from companions in grief to something more romantic.

The crux of the story is when Lennie makes mistakes between the boys in choosing which one she wants to be with while she simultaneously makes sense of her position in loss. It is slow and deliberate. Part of the story unwinds in poetry lines Lennie has written and placed in different places.

Nelson's prose is poetic -- every word is carefully chosen, and each line is constructed with great intention. For me, this book is absolutely about the writing and not at all about the story. Quite frankly, the story is way too slow and never coalesces. The entire reading experience left me wondering when something would actually happen, but unfortunately, nothing does. Although the language use in this story is incredible, that in itself further shields the story. Instead of writing the story, the story was written around. I never once felt myself caring about Bailey (she dies when the story opens, and I never learned anything about her) and I found everyone around Lennie was flat. At times, they were simply stereotypes -- the girl who loves all things philosophy and the insistence on making the characters allusions to other literary works really grated on me. Lennie herself left me wanting more, too, as she seemed to be everyone else and not herself; that is, we know she likes two boys, that she misses her sister, that her best friend is Sarah, but we know almost nothing about her.

The Sky is Everywhere has been drawing comparisons to Sarah Dessen or Elizabeth Scott, but I must disagree wholeheartedly. Dessen and Scott are character-driven writers: we know so much about the main characters and secondary characters. They both have strong writing skills, but they are less on the literary side. We know their stories intimately and feel we are there. Nelson left me knowing some good writing and sparks of a story, but I never felt like I got close enough to the story or the characters. I felt very distanced. The romance between Lennie and the boys is much weaker and less developed than in either a Dessen or Scott title. I think handing this book off to a fan of Sarah Dessen or Elizabeth Scott might not be the best bet.

In the course of reading, though, I felt like fans of Justine Chen Headley's North of Beautiful would really enjoy this book. The slow pacing, the slow unraveling of story, and the literary styles are similar, and I believe that the relationships that the main character in each develops with the boys in her respective story are similar. The difficult family situations will also resonate.

My biggest disappointment in reading this book was the target audience. I don't believe this is a book meant for teens. I believe this is an adult book -- the story feels much more mature than teen books, and the use of allusions to deep philosophical ideas and to "great literature" were far above the appreciation level of most teens. The language, while beautiful and can be appreciated at that level, left even me needing to look up words. The teen slang was stilted and wince-inducing at times. The story is very mature, and not in the appropriateness sense of the word. It's a mature story about understanding who you are and what makes you survive. These concepts can be broken down for teens, but this was not an attempt at that. And of course, if you have a background in literature or writing, you know that books like this are also often a treatise on writing itself. I'd suspect Nelson's education and training in the art of writing made this a total work of love to language.

Marketing decisions aren't always in the hands of the author, and part of me wonders if that's the case with The Sky is Everywhere. I can't hazard any guesses, of course, but the book struck me as one that's being published in a market where it won't do as strongly as it could in another one. That's not to say this isn't a book worth reading because it should be, if for the writing and appreciation of language alone, but this is a book that young adults and adults will enjoy far more than a typical teenager.

This book rocks. I loved the writing style and beautiful language, so decided to read it slowly... and then I stayed up all night reading it.

It's funny, moving, and fun!

I'm just waiting for Audible to make the audio version available so I can "read" it again!

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson follows 17 year old Lennie after the death of her older sister, Bailey. Lennie struggles to continue a normal life, with her friends and classmates acting awkward around her. Lennie has always been the quiet side of the duo, a band geek that enjoys reading and writing, and is unable to handle when the spotlight is shoved on her. Her grandmother and uncle, whom have raised the sisters after their mother pulled a disappearing act, try to help Lennie through the pain, but nothing can fill the hole of losing a sister. On top of all that, Lennie is trying to get a handle on her new obsession with the opposite sex- including the new boy at school and her sisters ex boyfriend.
I do not usually review YA novels, and I am wondering if that is why The Sky is Everywhere didn't do it for me. I couldn't quite grasp the characters, and I felt at times the plot twists were too over the top fictionalized. I definitely felt the tone of the characters were out of sync, and by the time I got to the end, I was just ready for it to be over. There were times when I did feel real emotion for the characters involved, but not enough to recommend the book to the others that are not usually YA readers.

This book came highly recommended from my online book club. I probably, subconciously, already planned on not liking it as I tend to not "follow the crowd". Perhaps it's the Young Adult genre or perhaps it's because I couldn't relate to the characters but I just didn't get what the hype was all about.