Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie's struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.
I loved a lot of things about this - the multi-layered characters (Lennie annd her family especially), the writing style, the little pages of poetry (in the Aus/UK edition there are photos of objects - a tree, a scrap of paper - with Lennie's poems written on them, such a gorgeous touch), basically everything about it. It was awfully compelling, for lack of a better word, and a book I enjoyed very much. Lennie's relationship with her sister was beautifully potrayed and there was a lot of brilliant poetic imagery in this.
I think it tended towards the melodramatic and the fantastic - I think this may turn off some readers (Lennie's romances were ridiculously intense, Twilight-level intense, and I was a little disbelieving at times of how quickly that all went down), but I think this is the sort of book that would really appeal to teenaged girls who don't really pick up many books - girls who love full-on Twilight romance. Except Joe is a musician, not a vampire. And of course girls who read more books, as well. There's just a lot of emotion in this, and there's nothing wrong with that in a book. I loved it, and I strongly recommend it.
Released March 10th 2010 by Dial
The Sky Is Everywhere on Amazon
