About the Book
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Author:
- Shannon Messenger
Cover Story: Floating
BFF Charm: Eventually
Talky Talk: He Said, She Said
Bonus Factors: Keith Mars Award for Awesome Parenting, Dan Scott Award for Awful Parenting
Relationship Status: Blind Date That Turned Out Okay
Cover Story: Floating
At least the floating bodies on the cover actually tie into the story…
The Deal:
So last year at BEA, we got to go to a Simon & Schuster party, where they unveiled some of their upcoming titles. This was one of them. I sat there, listening to them talking about a boy and his relationship with a Sylph, only I heard SILF, and I thought, “Wait, is this actually a thing? Like, where this one kid is friends with another kid, but the other kid has a sister that maybe the one kid would like to bang? And more importantly, SHOULD this be a thing? Because I wasn’t too sure. We decided then and there that I should read and review the book, and wouldn’t it be funny to review it like I thought they were talking about SILF’s, instead of Sylphs? Haha! That would be hysterical! Only I actually enjoyed this book, so I don’t want to do that to it.
Nobody has ever been able to figure out how Vane Weston survived the category five tornado that killed his parents, least of all him, because Vane has no memory of that fateful day. He wonders if he’s somehow a bad person for having blocked out those memories, but what’s more concerning to Vane is the image of the dark-haired girl he can’t get out of his head. He dreams about her at night, and sometimes imagines he sees her during the day…
Audra has been watching Vane for the last ten years, waiting for his breakthrough. She’s his guardian, a Sylph, and has trained herself ruthlessly since the day her world came crashing down — because the tornado that killed Vane’s parents, and caused her own father to sacrifice himself for the two of them was all her fault.
Now a simple mistake has forced her hand, and Audra must use every ability she’s worked for as an air elemental to help Vane reach his potential — or die trying.
BFF Charm: Eventually!
So Vane was pretty cool from the beginning. He’s a really sensitive, sweet boy, the kind I might like my niece to date. Audra took a while, though, through no fault of her own. The poor girl has been punishing herself for something she did when she was seven, and hasn’t allowed herself even the slightest break. So, of course, there’s a lot of internal battling as — while trying to help Vane develop — she begins to discover herself. However, by the very end of the book, I was so proud of her. Like, SUPER proud.
Swoonworthy Scale: 6
There’s a great star-crossed lovers vibe going on in this book, filled with tons of longing and frustration, but even though these two kind of have a history, they don’t dip into insta-love territory. They’re too busy quibbling for that, which builds the tension quite nicely.
Talky Talk: He Said, She Said
Messenger has developed two distinct voices for her characters, which is an important feat. Her plot moves, and the story was interesting. She developed her world at a nice clip, and while this wasn’t a book that I couldn’t put down, I felt myself drawn back to it, wanting to find out more, to see where the story went. One of the only things I didn’t like so much were the passages/incantations/things-that-read-like-poems to the wind. I don’t envy the author having to come up with a way for her Sylphs to communicate with the wind, and they weren’t actually a huge part of the story, but they brought me out of it every time.
Bonus Factor: Keith Mars Award for Awesome Parenting
There’s two types of parents in this book, and this one type? Well, they are totally awesome.
Bonus Factor: Dan Scott Award for Awful Parenting
But this other type? Probably wins the award for worst parent ever.
Relationship Status: Blind Date That Turned Out Okay
Obviously when I heard about this book– and agreed to go out with it — I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought that at most it would be nothing more than a good story I could joke about with my friends later. But then it turned out to be a really nice book, and actually pretty cool, even if we didn’t fall madly in love immediately. It was interesting enough, and surprised me enough by its thoughts on life and views on things like world politics that I’ll totally meet it again for coffee when the sequel comes out.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received my review copy from Simon Pulse. I received neither money nor cocktails for writing this review (dammit!). Let The Sky Fall is available now.
