•Title: The Sky Above Us
•Author: Natalie Lund
•Rating: ★★★★☆
•Length: 384 pages (hardcover)
•Publisher: Philomel, Penguin Teen
•Read Date: 04/11/2021
•Publication Date: 04/13/2021
•Type Read: hardcover
•Genre(s): YA, Contemporary, Death and Grief
Purchase Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/580346/the-sky-above-us-by-natalie-lund/
Tagline and Book Description:
They woke up on the beach. Then their world came crashing down.
From the author of We Speak in Storms comes a twisty, psychological thriller about three friends searching for the truth in the aftermath of a plane crash.
The morning after their senior year beach party, Izzy, Cass, and Janie are woken by a thundering overhead. Then they and their classmates watch in shock as a plane crashes into the water. When the passengers are finally recovered, they are identified as Izzy’s twin brother, Israel, Cass’s ex-boyfriend, Shane, and Janie’s best friend, Nate. But Izzy can feel when her brother is in pain, and she knows he’s not really dead. So she, Cass, and Janie set out to discover what actually happened that day–and why the boys were on the plane.
Told in alternating timelines and points of view, this powerful and captivating novel follows the three boys in the weeks leading up to that fateful flight, and the girls they left behind as they try to piece together the truth about the boys they loved and thought they knew. A spellbinding story about the ripple effects of tragedy, the questions we leave unanswered, and the enduring power of friendship.
Giveaway (US Only):
Enter to win one of two (2) finished copies of The Sky Above Us by Natalie Lund!
Giveaway starts: Monday, April 12, 2021
Giveaway ends: Monday, April 19, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. CST
RAFFLECOPTER LINK: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/1e4a114d35/
My Book Review:
As I sat down to collect my thoughts on this book, I found myself conflicted. I didn’t know how to put into words the complex emotions I felt while reading The Sky Above Us.
I am left with the understanding that, while there were moments I was angered by certain things happening in the book, overall I truly enjoyed the experience. The Sky Above Us is a story about grief and loss in the aftermath of a plane crash that takes the lives of three teenage boys- and the individual roads each boy took to get to the place they were in their lives to collectively decide to get on that plane in the first place.
The morning after the big senior beach party, Janie, Cass and Izzy wake up in the sand as they see a small plane rise up and then plummet into the ocean, killing Janie’s best friend- Nate, Cass’s ex boyfriend- Shane, and Izzy’s twin brother- Israel. Through the days after the crash, the girls try to piece together what could have made them do something like this, while grappling with their own emotions and fears about what they could have done to prevent it from happening.
This is told from each of the six teens’ narrative, through alternating chapters, and goes back and forth between one month before the plane crash up to a little over a week afterward, dropping tidbits of information here and there.
These characters were each complex in their own ways, with intertwining relationships and stories. There was so much to this book. Some parts I was infuriated by, and some that I really loved. But in its entirety, this book was fantastic! I thought that topics that Natalie Lund wrote about were researched really well. You could definitely sense a major level of understanding that she had for not only each character, but what they were dealing with in their lives.
About the Author:
Natalie Lund is young adult author and a former middle and high school teacher. She graduated from Purdue University’s MFA program, where she taught introductory composition and creative writing and also served as the fiction editor of The Sycamore Review. Her debut novel, WE SPEAK IN STORMS, is on sale September 3, 2019. Natalie is a member of SCBWI and is represented by Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency. She lives in Chicago with her husband and a very photogenic cat. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @nmlund
Author Links:
feather bound books 