The Sky Is Everwhere by Jandy Nelson

I haven’t reviewed books on this site in quite a long time, and those of you who remember when I used to do them, they were usually more “lovefests” than reviews. And that’s what you’re going to get today.

I just finished reading THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson and I’m so blown away by it. It’s beautiful, lyrical, musical (yay!), heart-wrenching (in a good way), terribly romantic, and even hilarious. I want my husband to read it because he teases me about how those of us from way out west just have words. He says in the South they “got language.” Well, Nelson lives in San Francisco, and believe me, she’s got language. And then some.

I am not a poet. I freely admit I don’t understand poetry very well, and I’m not particularly interested in learning about it…I know, bad person, but whatever. I’m not saying I’ll be like this forever, that’s just how I am right now. So, when authors include poems in their books, I generally skim them quickly and most of the time don’t even get how they relate to the story. However, Nelson’s poems are perfect. Some of them I read twice because I liked them, not because I didn’t get them. In fact, while I was reading, it occurred to me that THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE is like a big, gorgeous, prose poem posing as a novel…except it’s very much a novel. I have been shaken by this book.

So anyway…just read it. You won’t be sorry.