Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor
Grade: B
This e-galley was provided by NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children's in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Sky and River have always lived on Island, the only world they’ve ever known. Until the day River spots a boat. Across Ocean, in a place called California, Sky is separated from River and forced to live with a grandmother she’s just met. Here the rules for survival are different. People rely on strange things like cars and cell phones. They keep secrets from one another. And without River, nothing makes sense. Sky yearns for her old life where she was strong and capable, not lost and confused. She must find River so they can return to Island, but the truth behind how they ended up there in the first place will come as the biggest shock of all.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Searching for Sky was definitely interesting. The narrative and words used were very simple, which I think fit the story very well. However, were it not for some of the subject matter touched on and the age of Sky, this would almost be a better middle grade book.
The title fits very well because this book is very much about Sky finding herself. She has to learn about her former life (although she was only in California for about 2 years prior to Island), and who her parents and Helmut were, and about everything in the United States. River was an interesting character, and I felt his story was handled well. I really enjoyed Ben, and I do think Sky's grandmother meant well, although she was a bit stereotypical in ways. I enjoyed how certain things were revealed, and it was interesting how much trouble Sky had settling into her new life in California. I almost would've liked to learn more about Helmut and what he created, and I wanted to see more of Sky's life in California once she actually seemed to settle in at the end. Open endings have been popular lately, and I'm not always a fan of them.
There's some mild language (the s-word is used maybe half a dozen times), but that's the worst of objectionable content.
The Verdict: An interesting read that's definitely worth a try.
I've never heard of this, but now I'm really interested. I've always been intrigued by stranded on an island stories, especially the post-rescue ones. Ugh. Open endings though are the WORST (okay, sometimes, not always bad). I'll definitely TBR this one though.
ReplyDeleteI agree that open endings are never fun.
DeleteI found out about Searching for Sky because it's by the author of Margot, and I was intrigued by the synopsis.
I have an ARC of this. I think the concept sounds super interesting, but now I'm a little worried. I tend to not like books that have a younger voice and I absolutely HATE open endings. I'll probably try this one eventually.
ReplyDelete